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judd's review against another edition
I got a hundred pages in and the only character I cared at all about was Mr. Crane, the psychopathic android, but he was not enough to keep me in it. I won't give it any rating because I didn't finish it.
I have noticed that when I read a book that I don't particularly like, I will drag my feet and finish it in a month. However, when I read a book I like, I finish one or two a week.
I read one hundred pages of Gridlinked in a week and it often felt like homework. I picked up 2001: A Space Odyssey and burned through a hundred pages in a day.
GONG!
I am going to be more ruthless in putting books on the GONG shelf and moving on to words that demand I read them and don't let go of my eyes.
I have noticed that when I read a book that I don't particularly like, I will drag my feet and finish it in a month. However, when I read a book I like, I finish one or two a week.
I read one hundred pages of Gridlinked in a week and it often felt like homework. I picked up 2001: A Space Odyssey and burned through a hundred pages in a day.
GONG!
I am going to be more ruthless in putting books on the GONG shelf and moving on to words that demand I read them and don't let go of my eyes.
murfman's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
thekarpuk's review against another edition
4.0
I can admit when I'm not sure I'm following a book properly. I checked the Wikipedia plot summaries for more than one book after completion, just to make sure I understood what the hell I just read. "Neuromancer" and "The Sound and the Fury" both required this. Generally I found out I was in fact interpreting events correctly, but it still helps to have that validation. That's why I found the following line on Wikipedia for Gridlinked super helpful:
"There is no explanation as to the Maker, its origins or motivations. There is no explanation as to why the Maker followed Cormac and crew through the Runcible or why Cormac damaged the new runcible on Samarkand."
They also link to an alternate ending from the author that he felt was an over-explainy Scooby Doo type ending. I felt a middle ground probably existed between the two approaches.
The main thing that kept me going through this book was the pacing. Asher keeps it brisk and exciting. His world also has about a billion fun little details that turn the adventure into a sort of amusement park of space oddities.
Asher's protagonist is a more acceptable variation of the middle-aged man avatar, as seen in most books by Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, Lee Child, and many others. This man is bad ass, people sometimes talk to each other about how bad ass he is, he's always one step ahead of the enemy, and even if he's not, it's just a minor inconvenience. Ian Cormic, the avatar in this case, at least seems to be that way partially out of his 30 year connection to the Gridlink, the super internet of the future.
In a way it points out that to be such a bad ass would make someoene bad at being a good human being. There's a great moment where after having sex with a coworker, he has an awkward encounter with her the next day and she realizes he doesn't really want any sort of relationship. He comes off looking like an ass in a way these characters normally don't. I wanted more of that. James Bond never has to say, "You knew what this was," when a girl asks him why he's not sticking around. Most of these kinds of heroes are jerks on an interpersonal level.
I'm not running out to buy the next installment, but I was impressed how many new ideas Asher found in a fairly well-worn area of fiction.
"There is no explanation as to the Maker, its origins or motivations. There is no explanation as to why the Maker followed Cormac and crew through the Runcible or why Cormac damaged the new runcible on Samarkand."
They also link to an alternate ending from the author that he felt was an over-explainy Scooby Doo type ending. I felt a middle ground probably existed between the two approaches.
The main thing that kept me going through this book was the pacing. Asher keeps it brisk and exciting. His world also has about a billion fun little details that turn the adventure into a sort of amusement park of space oddities.
Asher's protagonist is a more acceptable variation of the middle-aged man avatar, as seen in most books by Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, Lee Child, and many others. This man is bad ass, people sometimes talk to each other about how bad ass he is, he's always one step ahead of the enemy, and even if he's not, it's just a minor inconvenience. Ian Cormic, the avatar in this case, at least seems to be that way partially out of his 30 year connection to the Gridlink, the super internet of the future.
In a way it points out that to be such a bad ass would make someoene bad at being a good human being. There's a great moment where after having sex with a coworker, he has an awkward encounter with her the next day and she realizes he doesn't really want any sort of relationship. He comes off looking like an ass in a way these characters normally don't. I wanted more of that. James Bond never has to say, "You knew what this was," when a girl asks him why he's not sticking around. Most of these kinds of heroes are jerks on an interpersonal level.
I'm not running out to buy the next installment, but I was impressed how many new ideas Asher found in a fairly well-worn area of fiction.
kueltzo's review against another edition
4.0
There's nothing like spies in space. No, really....it's a genre I never tire of, especially if it's well done. In Gridlocked, we get the flawed, tired super spy, thrown into a new mystery but intentionally handicapped (yes, its tropey, but still fun). Asher follows the traditional spy formula of keeping the readers in the dark; the hero has figured it out, but have you? In my case I had about 66% of the twists predicted, so had one nice cathartic surprise at the end. I wouldn't call this book exceptionally new in concept, but that may be because I am an avid fan of a lot of the AI elements in this society; it may be more novel to other readers. However, this book is an excellent entry in one of my favorite genres, and I look forward to catching up on the rest of the series.
mike_no1's review against another edition
3.0
James Bond in space. the Sci-fi Horror that Neil Asher incorporates later in the Polity series has minor presence here although there is an element of post-human terror in Cormac losing his mind to the gridlink. Although i find the bioconstruct Dragon cheesy, the series gets better.
eisn's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable mystery in a post-singularity complex world where humanity is ruled by benevolent AI dictators. Ian Cormac is the James Bond of the future, even though there's not much spying; but plenty of action.
I disliked about half the book mainly in the narrative surrounding Pelter. To me it didn't feel like they added much in the book. Pelter didn't provide much of a distraction to Cormac either. At least Stanton was the POV for his chapters which made them a bit more bearable.
From a literary point of view (especially in the first half of the book) it feels like the author fell down in an adjective book or something and then went and tried to find obscure synonyms for each of them.
Last, but not least, while the mystery is solved adequately you're bereft of the actual resolution because the information they find is not presented at all. I've started the next book in the series and there are some hints as to what they found out but to me it feels like a very cheap cop-out at the end of this book.
I disliked about half the book mainly in the narrative surrounding Pelter. To me it didn't feel like they added much in the book. Pelter didn't provide much of a distraction to Cormac either. At least Stanton was the POV for his chapters which made them a bit more bearable.
From a literary point of view (especially in the first half of the book) it feels like the author fell down in an adjective book or something and then went and tried to find obscure synonyms for each of them.
Last, but not least, while the mystery is solved adequately you're bereft of the actual resolution because the information they find is not presented at all. I've started the next book in the series and there are some hints as to what they found out but to me it feels like a very cheap cop-out at the end of this book.
vitaly's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty average Sci-fi and the dialogue was a bit clunky, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.
bozimus's review against another edition
3.0
Oh how I wish I could give half stars! This one deserves 3.5 stars...
henryarmitage's review against another edition
3.0
Kind of a cop story set in the distant future, decent.