Gridlinked
by Neal Asher
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.62 You Save: $16.33 (63%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.26 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Gridlinked
Book Review: I Finally Got Around to Reading Asher's First Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Neal Asher's book "Gridlinked" certainly would not fit well into much of my reading. It is certainly violent and has a number of characters with which one finds it hard to sympathizes. I generally don't care much for spy thriller types of science fiction (i.e. with James Bond licence to kill characters), but Asher has written one of the few I find interesting. It is his particular dark style that I like- one that I think tacks very unlikely events into a riveting fantasy-sci fi classic.
Ian Cormack is almost unidimentional- but then he is supposed to be! He has been linked to a computer grid for 30 years and now has to leave it to accomplish his current task. He is required to investigate an apparent failure of an interstellar runcible (instantaneous space travel system) that resulted in the nearly complete destruction of the planet Samarkand. He is being stalked while he attends to this task. The stalker, his major bete noir Arian Pelter, is a monomaniacal psychopath and thus does not think beyond getting revenge for the killing of his sister Angelina, despite the fact that she was killed in self defense. He is essentially a space mobster posing as a separatist. As a weapon he has a nearly indestructible Golem (android)named Crane that can cut almost anything or anyone to ribbons. The complications caused by various unexpected aliens, including a huge dragon, associated Golems and humans with their own agendas add further interest to this hard core sci fi adventure.
It is my fervent hope that society never reaches the amoral state described by Asher in this book, but then I will be dead before that time and thus will not see it if it does. I doubt that the technology will ever exist, but then that is the fun of sci fi - you don't have to ever live it! In the reverse of the fun of dinosaurs which are huge, ferocious and conveniently extinct, the sci future is not yet here and may never happen- we hope! It is that slim possibility that it could that adds to the experience.
Book Review: Gridlinked
Summary: 4 Stars
Neal Asher is one of those authors who manages to deliver something that is fast-paced and engaging without feeling like something you wish you'd borrowed from the library instead of buying. To be honest he borders on pulp at time, but in this case it's not a bad thing - "Gridlinked" is a great example of how he counterbalances the pulp factor with comprehensible science and surprising clarity at times, forgoing the fancy narrative and pseudo-poetry that a lot of science-fiction authors go for.
He is concise and compelling for the most part - the downside is that the characters feel like film characters rather than real people, but when you're after this kind of action sci-fi, that is weird and wonderful stories filled with awesome gadgets and creatures, it doesn't matter too much. "Gridlinked" is one of the Agent Cormac novels to feature the brilliant Mr Crane, a bronze android with fearsome strength and almost tangibly intimidating personality. One of the most original characters I've read in sci-fi, he's the character who causes you to tut when his scene ends and grin when his next one begins. Cormac is almost as engaging, a man dehumanised by his integration with technology and his intellectual proximity to the many AIs that govern Earth and other colonised worlds.
It's a fine novel and well worth a read, especially if you haven't read Asher before and want to branch out into new authors.
Book Review: Good First Novel from Asher's Polity Universe
Summary: 4 Stars
GRIDLINKED(2001) is Asher's first Novel, and the 1st book from the POLITY UNIVERSE series. It is 2nd book I've read from the Polity Universe (400 years in the future, mankind has spread out among 100's of worlds, and an Earth-based AI leads the "civilized world's" governments, with less civilized worlds at the edges of the human-colonized worlds in the galaxy).
The story reminds me of stories produced by Peter F. Hamilton... there is an almost military bend to them, and there is a lot of action, intrigue, and killing, plus some sex and a few different alien worlds. Asher's aliens are somewhat better, and Hamilton's tech and characters are usually more believable and/or interesting than Asher's.
I found the ending to GRIDLINKED to be haphazard, and that fact combined with the fairly common editing and grammatical errors led me to down grade my rating - otherwise this was an enjoyable story that I recommend to aficionados of semi-far future action-adventure SciFi.
Book Review: Unfulfilled Promise
Summary: 3 Stars
Mr. Asher misses with this one. The main character "Ian Cormac" is almost a skeletal parody of the super agent. I found almost everything about this character underdeveloped and full of gimmickry. What kept me reading, however, was a well drawn universe of seemingly consistent and amazing technology peppered with unusual and plausible characters. Mr. Asher took the time to create an understandable history for this universe and skillfully shares it with his readers. Unfortunately he spends too little time on the main character and falls into an ending that is contrived, unsupported, and unsatisfying.Book Review: Very interesting story...
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading Engineer and Cowl, I just got through this. I thought it was pretty good. The story was engaging and I feel came under good space opera. There was some detail left out, but I look further to more Ian Corman. I just wish I could get a Shruiken for myself!