Why did a transporter station explode and kill 10,000 humans? That’s the mystery behind Neal Asher’s third Polity novel, Gridlinked. Gridlinked is actually Asher’s first novel, published in 2001. It features Polity agent Ian Cormac, a futuristic James Bond. There are plenty of subplots: an enigmatic alien who calls itself “Dragon,” a Separatist plot to kill Cormac, and the personal struggle Cormac has in withdrawing from the grid after having been linked with the Artificial Intelligences for 30 years. Like most first novels, Gridlinked has plenty of excesses: too many characters, too many plots, too much violence. But there are lots of action and suspense to make up for the flaws in Gridlinked. Again, if you like space opera as much as I do, you’ll enjoy Gridlinked. GRADE: B.
Now I’m getting confused. I thought PRADOR MOON was the first Polity book. Now you say this is the first one. Apparently there is both a Polity series and a Agent Cormac series, but both are about the Polity. As far as I can tell that’s 8 books, not the 3 I thought from your previous reviews. I was planning to read PRADOR MOON to try these, but I always like to begin a series at the beginning. So where would I start? Do these Agent Carmac books flow into the Series (Prador, Hilldigger, Scorpion)?
I don’t blame you for being confused, Rick. It took a little sorting out to finally make sense of Neal Asher’s SF writings. Asher confused the issue by writing some “prequels” to the Polity series where the Ian Cormac books are a subset. At this time, PRADOR MOON is the first book in the Polity series. Next comes SHADOW OF THE SCORPION. GRIDLINKED was Asher’s first novel and the first novel in the Ian Cormac saga–until SHADOW OF THE SCORPION superseded GRIDLINKED making GRIDLINKED the third book in the Polity series. Got that?
Where does Hilldigger fit in?
Unless Asher writes some “intermediate” books to fill out the Polity series, HILLDIGGERS is the 11th book in the series, Rick.
Okay, thanks. I think I’ll just start with PRADOR MOON and see how I like it, then if I do I’ll return here and read your instructions for continuing the series.
PRADOR MOON pretty much captures Neal Asher’s strengths and weaknesses, Rick. I’ll be interested in your reaction to it.