Powell's first book was a collection,
The Last Reef and Other Stories. It compiles much of his short fiction from before 2008, including the
Interzone reader's choice poll winner "Ack-Ack Macaque".
Silversands was Powell's
debut novel. It was initially produced in a run of three hundred hardcover copies and an ebook edition, featuring the additional short story "Memory Dust", was made available by Anarchy Books. The reception was mostly favourable, including reviews from
Interzone and
Eric Brown in
The Guardian. Brown regarded the novel as a "fine hi-tech romp" but was critical of what he called "a rushed and melodramatic dénouement."
The Recollection is the second novel by Powell. The novel received mostly favourable reviews, including reviews from
Locus and Powell's second review from
Eric Brown in his column in
The Guardian. Brown said that the novel's set-pieces were "brilliantly realised" and that the book balanced its high concepts with the human story. He ended his review with "If you read only one space opera this year, it's got to be
The Recollection". In 2012, Powell released his third novel via
Solaris Books,
Ack-Ack Macaque, based on the short story of the same name. A sequel,
Hive Monkey, followed in 2014. The third volume of the trilogy,
Macaque Attack, was released in January 2015.
Titan Books published his sixth novel
Embers of War in 2018. A sequel,
Fleet of Knives, followed in 2019; the trilogy was concluded with
Light of Impossible Stars in 2020. A news series, Also from Titan Books, began in 2022 with
Stars and Bones and continued in 2023 with
Descendant Machine. All five of these novels were finalists for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best novel, and
Embers of War and
Fleet of Knives were both finalists for the Locus Award. ==Personal life==