Product Description

In outer space you can never feel sure that your adversary is altogether human. The runcible buffers on Samarkand have been mysteriously sabotaged, killing many thousands and destroying a terraforming project. Agent Cormac must reach it by ship to begin an investigation. But Cormac has incurred the wrath of a vicious psychopath called Pelter, who is prepared to follow him across the galaxy with a terrifying android in tow. Despite the sub-zero temperature of Samarkand, Cormac discovers signs of life: they are two 'dracomen', alien beasts contrived by an extra-galactic entity calling itself 'Dragon', which is a huge creature consisting of four conjoined spheres of flesh each a kilometre in diameter. Caught between the byzantine wiles of the Dragon and the lethal fury of Pelter, Cormac needs to skip very nimbly indeed to rescue the Samarkand project and protect his own life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137168 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gridlinked is the talented Neal Asher's first full-length SF novel, an accomplished rapid-action thriller crammed with high technology, obsessed characters, and the glittering boys' toys of advanced weaponry.

Cormac is a legendary Earth Central Security agent, the James Bond of a wealthy future where "runcible" transmitters allow interstellar travel in an eye blink. Unfortunately Cormac is nearly burnt out, "gridlinked" to the AI net so long that his humanity has drained away. He has to take the cold turkey cure and shake his addiction to instant online access, even while investigating the unique runcible disaster that's wiped out the entire human colony on planet Samarkand in a 30 megaton explosion ...

Hot on Cormac's heels is vengeful terrorist Pelter, backed up by his unstoppable, psychotic android killer "Mr Crane" and a goon squad of mercenaries. Other trouble has been brewing since 27 years earlier, when Cormac was humanity's ambassador to a vast, incomprehensible alien that called itself Dragon. Deep beneath Samarkand's surface there are buried mysteries, fiercely guarded. And is it true that Cormac's enigmatic boss is an immortal who's lived half a millennium and was born in the 20th century?

Asher's galaxy is full of colour and sleaze, and his story rattles along at speed. There are surprises, double-crosses, elaborate lies to be seen through, astonishing escapes from certain death, and last-minute reversals. Though the ultimate fates of the lesser villains seem mildly anticlimactic, the true bad guy is dealt with in spectacular style. Sequels are hinted. Fast-moving, edge-of-the-seat entertainment. --David Langford

About the Author
Born in Billericay and still living in Essex, Neal L. Asher started writing SF and fantasy at the age of sixteen. Since then he has had numerous stories published in magazines and book form, including Runcible Tales, Mindgames: Fool's Mate, The Parasite and The Engineer.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book - shame about the ending.
My first Neal Asher novel (and his too, I subsequently found). It was a good read - full of nice ideas, good tech, good settings and nice plot twists (though I did guess some bits in advance of reading them). It got me involved in the characters to the extent that I cared if they lived or died, even causing a stir of emotion when one or the other occured. It even made my me laugh out loud a couple of times (at genuine humour, rather than in ridicule)
I liked the settings of the novel, and the future that Asher describes; I like the hero, Cormac, and his companions the Sparkind soldiers, the golem androids, and his shuriken; I liked the lead villain Pelter and HIS companions, Mr Crane, Stanton and the mercenaries; Hell, I even liked the runcible AI's.
But did I like Dragon or The Maker? No way - I found them a bit "unbelieveable", even in this future context, and a bit too "comic book". And did I like the ending of the book? Even more "no way". In fact, did I even understand the ending of the book?
I read the last few pages again and again to try to figure it out. When I started reading the sequel "The Line Of Polity" I had to read the end of "Gridlinked" yet again, because I still didn't get what happened with the Dracomen! And I'm happy (I guess) to read other reviewers here who were equally confused.
Well, I think it's with some dismay that I find Dragon and a Dracoman in "The Line Of Polity", but hey, onwards and upwards and lets see how the plot develops.

Great story (but how does it end?)
This book I just grabbed at a bookstore, while I was in Copenhagen. Didn't know what to expect. The result however was quite convincing. Great scope, thrilling storyline and a nice crop of characters. And it all flows through at a breathtaking pace. I allmost thought of Banks ... So why not 5 stars: Well, would someone please explain to me, how it all ads up. Asher either ran out of battery on his laptop or just decided, that two and a half page would be quite enough to explain 400 pages of complicated and intruiging storytelling. I read the ending again - and again. And I still don't quite get it (very annoying). But other than that I'll have to say: what a ride!

Fast paced page turner
I really enjoyed this book from the start even though I thought the ending was a little too obvious. I'm looking forward to the next in the series (on order) and will "make do" with another of his books - "The Skinner" which I have only just started.
Some of the other reviewers have said that Asher's writing falls short of the mark, but I found the book fine and it stands on my shelf next to Iain M Banks and Peter F Hamilton, and just one shelf up from Elizabeth Moon.