Gridlinked
by Neal Asher
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Book Summary Information
Author: Neal AsherEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2003-08-16
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 336
Book Reviews of Gridlinked
Book Review: By the numbers space opera / james bond fanfic.
Summary: 2 Stars
I have to admit that I bought this book mostly on the blurb on the back, and the snazzy cover and title. More fool I.
So. The book starts off fairly well by describing how disconnected Ian Cormac is (his cover is blown when his contact sleeps with him and thinks he's a cyborg because his 'lovemaking' is too robotic, and he subsequently tries to keep his cover up by smiling at a woman while forgetting that he's covered in blood), but promptly loses it thereafter. As in, the Powers That Be identify the problem, tell him to go cold turkey, and involve him in a massively important mission. Meanwhile, a man he left alive behind him looks for revenge.
There are many things I don't buy about this; he's just come out of a botched op, he's been identified as compromised, he's not even especially bright, and despite supposedly being undercover in his first mission, he's so well known he's referred to as either notorious or infamous by one party, and shows up as a 'mythical hero' in a tour guide brochure. Ian Cormac isn't just flat, he's a cardboard cutout. He's not only a spy, an investigator, an elite commando, but at one point he's the designated ambassador representing all of humanity to an extremely dubious alien intelligence. He has direct access to the central core AIs running the civilization, access to almost unlimited resources (weapons, money, armies)... and yet we're supposed to believe that a badly organized bunch of mercenaries gives him a workout. What makes it worse is that for part of those scenes, we're watching it from the point of view of someone who clearly knows how outclassed his client is.
Other characters are just silly. It's not enough to have Harold, a senior agent, brief Cormac. Instead, Harold has to be semi-mythical, described as a Japanese immortal, a demigod risen from the ashes of Hiroshima, changing the course of human history, a man who vanishes as soon as Cormac takes his eyes off him. This is done entirely done through exposition and adds nothing to the plot. You never get to figure out why this guy is described as a demigod. You never even get to see how or why this guy's so well respected by the Polity. He's just, well, there.
There are some things to like about Gridlocked. It's more believable in some ways than the Culture and John C. Wright's Golden Oecumene, because even though there are AIs essentially running the economy and political system, it's still not without its discontents, and AIs are very expensive to create and produce.
The alien intelligence, Dragon, is also interesting and plays against type in some interesting ways. Despite being massively intelligent and incredibly powerful, it's disturbingly human in some ways -- it likes to cheat, and it even swears a blue streak when it doesn't get what it wants. I found this a little unrealistic in some ways (for a supposedly superhuman intelligence, Dragon can't lie for beans) but I really enjoyed the contrast between Dragon's physical appearance and its understanding of human emotions.
I also liked the unclosed nature of the plot resolution, even as I was frustrated by the lack of information. I do think this was partly deliberate to set things up for a sequel, but in some ways it did help to have things dealt with at the appropriate speed.
I wouldn't recommend this book to someone to read. Honestly, it's just not original -- the science is nothing you won't see in Richard Morgan or Iain M. Banks, the language, culture and mindset is standard 20th century, the characters are too clearly set up for plot purposes, the story is predictable with twists being laid out chapters in advance, and ultimately it's just too formulaic. It might have been more interesting if it had dealt more with its original premise of the perils of using net access as a crutch, but that aspect gets swamped under everything else. Maybe next time.
Summary of Gridlinked
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.General Books
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