Ratings20
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings20
Average rating3.9
Neal Asher has been publishing short fiction and books in the small press in Britain for several years, and made a successful move to paperback in 2001 with Gridlinked. He got a sheaf of favorable notices. "This is a brilliant and audacious work, chock-full of cutting-edge ideas. . . . I look forward to [his next books] enormously and to seeing Asher receive the success he is clearly destined for. Highly recommended," said SFRevu.com. Now Asher crosses the Atlantic and breaks into hardcover with Gridlinked, a science fiction adventure in the classic, fast-paced, action-packed tradition of Harry Harrison and Poul Anderson, with a dash of cyberpunk and a splash of Ian Fleming added to spice the mix. Cormac is a legendary Earth Central Security agent, the James Bond of a wealthy future where "runcibles" (matter transmitters controlled by AIs) allow interstellar travel in an eye blink throughout the settled worlds of the Polity. Unfortunately Cormac is nearly burnt out, "gridlinked" to the AI net so long that his humanity has begun to drain away. He has to take the cold-turkey cure and shake his addiction to having his brain on the net. Now he must do without just as he's sent to investigate the unique runcible disaster that's wiped out the entire human colony on planet Samarkand in a thirty-megaton explosion. With the runcible out, Cormac must get there by ship, but he has incurred the wrath of a vicious psychopath called Arian Pelter, who now follows him across the galaxy with a terrifying psychotic killer android in tow. And deep beneath Samarkand's surface there are buried mysteries, fiercely guarded. This is fast-moving, edge-of-the-seat entertainment -- an American debut that's sure to make a splash and launch Neal Asher in a big way. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Series
15 primary books17 released booksPolity Universe (chronological order) is a 17-book series with 15 primary works first released in 2001 with contributions by Neal Asher.
Series
5 primary books6 released booksAgent Cormac is a 6-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2001 with contributions by Neal Asher.
Reviews with the most likes.
Good modern science fiction in a rather militaristic mould. It's essentially two interwoven tales, one of a special agent investigating a nuclear explosion, and the other about a terrorist trying to get revenge on him - the two stories remain almost entirely separate save at the beginning and end of the book. The former is probably the better of the two, with Arian Pelter being overshadowed as a villain both by Dragon and by his own robotic henchman, Mr Crane. Still, both are good, and Asher successfully racks up the tension, along with the body count.
Asher weaves together an interesting and believable universe, with a lot of detail behind the action scenes. It's well-written, fast paced stuff, with plenty of room for expansion in future books (and, indeed, there are a number). I'm normally not so keen on militaristic SF, but this one works.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. It's in the Bond mode with some similarities to [author:Richard Morgan]'s Takeshi Kovac books.
The plot raced along and contained many twists some were easy to predict, others came out of nowhere. Making Ian Cormac someone who struggled to relate to the world was very helpful in drawing in the reader.
