Gridlinked
Neal Asher
Tor, Apr 2003, $26.95, 426 pp.
ISBN: 0765307359

The technician enters the runcible gate to star transport to the planet Samerkand, but something goes astray and his arrival ignites a nuclear explosion that kills at least ten thousand people. Earth Central Security legend Horace Blegg assigns his top gun veteran agent Ian Cormac to investigate the GRIDLINKED Samerkand disaster. Blegg also warns Cormac that his GRIDLINKED cybernetic implants that tie him into the AI network are destroying his brain. To save his mind he must delink, but can he survive without the technology he has relied on like a drug for three decades?

While Cormac struggles to adjust to an unplugged existence, he makes inquiries into the explosion. However, Arian Pelter and thugs working for him want Ian dead because Cormac killed his sister while working a separatist's case. As Cormac acts and reacts clumsily, Arian becomes self-assured that he will assassinate his enemy soon.

The technology is cleverly designed so that the reader can sense this futuristic galaxy has some unique gadgetry yet all the gizmos are interwoven into the terrific action-packed plot. The investigation subplot into whether an accident or sabotage occurred is exciting and hooks the reader even while the death count dramatically rises. However, the key to Neal Asher's fabulously complex science fiction is Cormac and Pelter whose cat and mouse contest makes for an engrossing and entertaining futuristic science fiction novel that runs at hyperspeed.

Harriet Klausner