If there's any wider parallel to society in the sequels remains to be seen, I might try one, but because the universe is mostly interesting.

As a concept it worked quite well, but the execution remains a bit scratchy here and there. 1 2 References edit Grimwood, Jon Courtenay (5 June 2008). It is the fifth and final novel in the Gridlinked sequence, although other novels exist in the same universe outside this sequence. I'm not sure how this helped the plot that much, as it all got a bit odd at the end - hopefully a sequel will clarify matters. Line War is a 2008 science fiction novel by Neal Asher. The alien is at least truly alien, in motives and action. The technology was fine, and info-dumping kept to a minimum, but I was never thoroughly engrossed in the story or bonded with Ian that much. I don't like cutaways to the evil geniuses revealing their plans to the reader, but not the hero. He divides his time between Essex and a home in Crete. He has published more than fifteen books, many set within his Polity universe, including Gridlinked, The Skinner, and Dark Intelligence. Dick and the British Fantasy Society awards. These include a corrupted AI golem, who proves to be a fairly ferocious opponent. Neal Asher is a science-fiction writer whose work has been nominated for both the Philip K. ,Meanwhile we gets lots of cutaways to the gang he just about managed to foil in the opening, who's surviving members are all sworn on revenge. Ian investigates why one of the planetary ftl exchanges exploded. 'Asher has lit up the sky of Science Fiction like a new sun.' Tanith Lee In outer space you can never feel sure that your adversary is altogether human. When he almost fails a mission because of this the service head (immortal really?) 'asks' him to remove the connection prior to going on his next mission. Gridlinked is the first sci-fi thriller in Neal Ashers compelling Agent Cormac series.

Here our agent Ian Cormac, has been 'gridlinked to an AI for over 30 years and has started to lose his own humanity, preferring the instantaneous information of 'online' over any real human interaction. Kind of fun, a bit like Altered Carbon, the basic premise is that of an enhanced secret service agent helping to keep humanity safe (ish) against various threats.

Gridlinked by neal asher