Gridlinked

By Neal Asher

The hunter becomes the hunted in Gridlinked, the first sci-fi thriller in Neal Asher's compelling Agent Cormac series.

When a portal to other planets explodes on Samarkand, thousands are killed and a terraforming project is obliterated. Earth Central Security suspects sabotage – and assigns a legendary investigator. But Agent Ian Cormac has his own problems. Years spent mentally linked to the Polity’s AI network have eroded his humanity, and this gridlink has to be severed or he’ll die. Without it, he has only his wits (and Shuriken, a throwing star with a mind of its own) to rely on.

Cormac’s disastrous last mission also haunts him – as a psychopath and a murderous android track him across the galaxy, seeking revenge. Meanwhile, the ice-bound planet of Samarkand hides deadly secrets beneath its surface . . . secrets Cormac is about to disturb.

Gridlinked is followed by The Line of Polity, the second title in the Agent Cormac series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Aug 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9780330465236

Neal Asher

Neal Asher divides his time between Essex and Crete, mostly at a keyboard and mentally light years away. His full-length novels are as follows. First is the Agent Cormac series: Gridlinked, The Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent and Line War. Next comes the Spatterjay series: The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Orbus. Also set in the same world of the Polity are these standalone novels: Hilldiggers, Prador Moon, Shadow of the Scorpion, The Technician, Jack Four and Weaponized. The Transformation trilogy is also based in the Polity: Dark Intelligence, War Factory and Infinity Engine. Set in a dystopian future are The Departure, Zero Point and Jupiter War, while Cowl takes us across time. The Rise of the Jain trilogy is comprised of The Soldier, The Warship and The Human, and is also set in the Polity universe.

Reviews for Gridlinked

[m8a8harding · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

at the time I thought: bit derivative, all action driven. But it sticks in my memory and doesn't go away. I need to read more in the series I think.

[libgirl69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

excellent!

[ivan0frade · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It starts badly, with some annoying put downs like the main character dropping a huge advantage just because, or not killing his antagonist for the rest of the book for some unknown reason, but then it picks up and becomes non-stop action. It is a growing spiral where each side gets some great advantage just be overtaken from the other side few pages later.Futuristic action pulp, hard and violent.

[ricaustria · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

About 85% done according to Kindle: a brawny, masculine book about an insensitive super agent. The story is more about action than sense or motivations. Characters are introduced and killed without compassion. A cold book that reminds me of action movies such as Mission Impossible or Captain America, where the entertainment is in the blasting, furious activity, tantalizing the eyes but light on the humanity and eminently forgettable.

I realize that Asher wrote many books in the same universe and maybe they would have more heart than this. But am somewhat disappointed since I started this having the notion that the book would be comparable to Haldeman's Forever War, but instead its a chase story filled with sf gadgetry. Perhaps others would find this mind-blowing and fun, but sorry to say, I am not so thrilled.

Addendum: Just finished the book. On hindsight, Asher has style and this helped move the book along. Maybe I'll try another of his books later.

[anniemod · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had been planning to read the Polity novels for years and somehow never got around to it. So now it seemed like the time - and I wonder why I waited for so long. Meet Ian Cormac - an agent of the Polity, the organization that rules the universe (or that contains most of the planets in the living worlds anyway). It is a human-based - there are no real aliens (well, that is not exactly true but for the most part) although humanity had both evolved and changed itself - mostly to ensure their survival but sometimes just because they could. At the start of the novel, Cormac is deep undercover with a terrorist anti-Polity group - figuring out how they find weapons and connections. And he decides not to kill their leader which will end up causing issues down the road. All agents are gridlinked - a way to directly connect into what amounts to interplanetary internet. And Ian had been like that for 30 years, longer than anyone should have been. So when he is sent to investigate an accident that killed everyone on a colony, he is pulled of the grid. And things get interesting. Because he meets an old friend - an alien he had seen before; one with weird reasons for his actions. On top of that, the terrorist Ian spared (and is now half-mad) had found his own half-mad robot and really want to kill our agent. Add to this an immortal man that had survived a nuclear explosion (on our Earth? On a parallel one?) and things get weird. Weirder really.I actually enjoyed this novel a lot - characters may not be fully developed and it may never get its technology fully explained but as a first novel in a series and a debut of an author it is great. And it is entertaining and absolutely worth reading. On to the next Polity novel - based on the order they were written and published in and not the usually used chronological one.

[reading_fox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kind of fun, a bit like Altered Carbon, the basic premise is that of an enhanced secret service agent helping to keep humanity safe (ish) against various threats. Here our agent Ian Cormac, has been 'gridlinked; to an AI for over 30 years and has started to lose his own humanity, preferring the instantaneous information of 'online' over any real human interaction. When he almost fails a mission because of this the service head (immortal really?) "asks" him to remove the connection prior to going on his next mission. Why this is relevant is never explained. Ian investigates why one of the planetary ftl exchanges exploded. ,Meanwhile we gets lots of cutaways to the gang he just about managed to foil in the opening, who's surviving members are all sworn on revenge. These include a corrupted AI golem, who proves to be a fairly ferocious opponent. I don't like cutaways to the evil geniuses revealing their plans to the reader, but not the hero. The technology was fine, and info-dumping kept to a minimum, but I was never thoroughly engrossed in the story or bonded with Ian that much. The alien is at least truly alien, in motives and action. I'm not sure how this helped the plot that much, as it all got a bit odd at the end - hopefully a sequel will clarify matters. As a concept it worked quite well, but the execution remains a bit scratchy here and there. If there's any wider parallel to society in the sequels remains to be seen, I might try one, but because the universe is mostly interesting.

[timothyl33 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting debut book that I borrowed on a whim at the library.

[billycongo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While I enjoyed the multiple point of view narrative, I wasn't quite sure about the transformation of Cormac into someone seemingly omniscient. The narrative seemed to hint at other worldly powers for him and Blegg. I liked Stanton and the rest of the characters much better.

[inasrullah64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Grid linked was a great book. Reminded me a lot of the Stainless Steel Rat novels from the 1980s. Book is very fast paced. Great technology, violent, and galactic in scale. Great villains. And in the end a nice argument for the power of human potential and the need to eschew dependency technology for all your answers.

[kenzen-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining, fast-paced. A bit predictable, but ultimately fun.

[readafew · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought that this book was excellent. It was a great exciting read and a reasonable look into our far future. The story is about a Ian Cormac, an agent who has spent the last 30 years 'gridlinked' or constantly connected to a network of AI's. He has access to all available information almost before he evens asks for it. However, most humans are disconnected from the grid after 20 years because of the chance of permanent psychological problems. Now it's time for Cormac to be unplugged. He's also being sent on one of his most important missions of his 70 year career. Unfortunately, during is last mission he made an enemy of a rich psycho who wants nothing more than to kill Ian for revenge and is willing to do what ever it takes to accomplish this. It makes his difficult mission that much more so.Excellent book, I plan to continue reading the series. What I find interesting is that it kind of resembles a sci-fi version of David Eddings work.

[shrike58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes you just need a thriller, as I knocked off this novel in basically one day. I'm well aware of the critiques regarding the limitations of Asher's work, but there are the things that he does really well. His settings always have a tactile quality to them, even if you might wish for a little more emotional depth in his characters. His villains and aliens are creative; the former reminding you as to how alien how people can be from each other. And Asher does keep the action moving along; a particular joy after the last Jane Austen wannabe disguised as fantasy I slogged through. I also like Asher's concept that in a society of relative plenty the violent protestors would be those frustrated at not being able to exploit their fellow man.

[jercox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good start / second book in the ian cormac series (a prequel about his early life was written later / read first).

[iftyzaidi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Highly mediocre is probably the term that best sums up this book. For the most part its a bog-standard 'super-agent in space' type of story, with rather derivative ideas and plot elements and thoroughly uninteresting characters [one of the few things that does stand out is the psychotic android Mr. Crane, and I notice that the author has devoted an entire book to this character down the line which has my curiosity piqued].The plot and worldbuilding is also mediocre - in the sense that things are not well thought out, there are logical inconsistencies, and can't help getting the feeling that the good guys are actually not very good at all. The whole idea of the Polity, [all-seeing state run by AIs for the good of mankind], its raison d'etre [bringing order to the universe], its gestapo-like secret police which goes about ruthlessly crushing separatist movements across the galaxies reeks of fascism.But obviously that is over-thinking what is essentially a bloody sci-fi/james bond blend of popcorn. For what it is, its a reasonably fun read.

[vitaly1-930762 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pretty average Sci-fi and the dialogue was a bit clunky, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.