Gridlinked (Agent Cormac #1, Polity Universe #3) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Aug 29, 2008 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: galactic-civilizations, favorite-ideas, science-fiction, mystery, cyber-punk-prep-and-post, 2000-2005

5.0 stars. Excellent debut novel and a terrific read. Never boring, great characters and even better world-building. Will definitely read more from this author. Recommended!!

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Oct 05, 2012 Harold Ogle rated it really liked it

Shelves: dragons, sf, science-fantasy, giant-monsters

Before this, I'd only read Asher's The Skinner, a tale of pirates, superheroes, undead, revenge, and science fantasy that impressed me greatly, so I had high hopes for Asher's first novel. I was not disappointed; Gridlinked is outstanding. Like Ian M. Banks and Alistair Reynolds, Asher writes gritty, space-operatic science fantasy about events that occur on the fringes of highly civilized, tremendously indulgent galactic human societies. They differ primarily in two regards: how they treat AI, a Before this, I'd only read Asher's The Skinner, a tale of pirates, superheroes, undead, revenge, and science fantasy that impressed me greatly, so I had high hopes for Asher's first novel. I was not disappointed; Gridlinked is outstanding. Like Ian M. Banks and Alistair Reynolds, Asher writes gritty, space-operatic science fantasy about events that occur on the fringes of highly civilized, tremendously indulgent galactic human societies. They differ primarily in two regards: how they treat AI, and how much they focus on plot. His story is extremely plot-driven, with action on almost every page. But Gridlinked is also a detective story of obsession, deceit and betrayal, and the plot is pretty dense, reading a lot like Dashiell Hammett. For all that I enjoyed it, this book took a surprisingly long time for me to finish: most of a busy weekend.

For Banks, AI are like gods and deservedly so, while for Reynolds, AIs are menacing, risky, and need to be carefully controlled. For Asher it's somewhere in between: AIs are naturally the caretakers of humanity, but he's at the same time very aware of the threat of these superior intelligences. In fact, he's very aware of the hazards of a life lived integrated with technology in general. One of the best aspects of the book is its dwelling on how the main protagonist, a legendary human spy for Earth Central named Ian Cormac, has been wirelessly linked to the network of AIs for so long that he's lost his ability to relate to humans. He's so far gone that the AIs are worried about him and his mental state. So he is disconnected from the network and has to re-learn how to be a normal person again (albeit still a legendary super spy), all while solving a case that threatens to disrupt human society. This theme of "How desirable is it to be networked with technology?" is addressed again and again throughout the book through various characters, including the many villains and supporting protagonists. It's very interesting, and a theme that I don't believe I've ever seen attempted in anything approaching cyberpunk (such as this novel) before now. It's refreshing to see a far future setting which doesn't present cyberpunk technology linking our brains to computers as wholly a positive thing. Hopefully this ambivalent approach will be continued in later books, unlike Ian Banks, who, after Consider Phlebas has never presented the Culture as anything but a glorious paradise, Candide's "best of all possible worlds," which gets more and more old with each subsequent Culture novel.

As I suggested at the start, it's really hard for me not to compare Banks to Reynolds to Asher, but I did enjoy this immensely on its own as well. I look forward to reading more Asher in the near future. ...more

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May 28, 2014 Hali rated it really liked it

The very first book in the "agent cormac" series is a bit of a thriller and a bit of a ride through a future where AI's run everything (after all "what human would trust another human to run a world?"). We are introduced to Runcibles and Spoons - the way things go from place to place (think of a big transporter)

Cormac is some sort of a super agent that has been Gridlinked to the AI's for 30 years which is an unusually long time and when we meet him he seems no better than an automaton. His job i ...more

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Feb 28, 2008 Jday rated it it was amazing

Shelves: k-books-read

I can't believe this is Asher's first novel! The story is tight, there aren't any parts that are slow or boring and the characters are memorable. Very fast paced with a great plot. I was able to figure out the ending before I got there, but I was probably within the last 20 pages.

I will definetly be reading the rest of the series. ...more

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