Having been directly 'gridlinked' to the Polity A.I. Cormac drops an investigation into Polity separatists on Cheyne III, and takes the starship Hubris to the ruined world of Samarkand to directly oversee the investigation there. The novel follows the exploits of Earth Central Security agent Ian Cormac, as he attempts to discover who or what is behind the destruction of the Runcible on a remote colony. It contains elements of the technological inventiveness of hard science-fiction with a more contemporary political plotline. His first novel, it was published by the Macmillan Publishers imprint Pan Books in 2001. Asher why? Whyyyyyy?! Thanks for writing some of my favorite science fiction though ).Gridlinked is a science fiction novel by British writer Neal Asher. This man truly does not belong in this line of work. Does he not understand that he is not the writer? Use voices to serve the story ffs, don't give them so much of your own influence that they can not possibly fit in anymore. He lays on the voices in such an exaggerated way that characters just seem rediculous. Is that horrible narration or what?! Besides that his voices are unbearable. The result is that I keep reconstructing half the sentences in my head the way Asher must have meant them so I can understand what is actually meant.

Like this: 'I want them WATCHED at ALL times.' this narrator, of whom I refuse to look up the name, just invents random pauses and emphasizes words in a way that rips their meaning completely out of context. Quote: 'I want THEM watched al all times.' thatvis rediculous! Every thrid grader can sense that the ephasis should be on the word 'watched' and in my perference also on 'all'.

He reads sentences in completely alien ways. Not only does he not know how to use proper intonation and accents. The true horror of this audio incarnation of a cyberpunk classic is the narrator. Still,at chapter 7 or so the story picks up momentum and I got sucked in anyway.

Not much of the compact, action packed, to the point writing his later work is full of. A lot of boring inbetween stuff and filler material that feels like it could just as well have been left out of the book. I can tell this is one of Asher's earlier attempts at writing a novel. Slower early work, horrible narrator, good grit

Gridlinked by Neal Asher