Gridlinked - Neal Asher

This is sci-fi at its dumbest. It starts off with a big explosion, and then we follow the efforts of a top secret agent of an interstellar civilisation as he battles some malignant alien. I don't think I'm spoiling much to say that he manages to trick the alien with a twist at the end that is so obvious that, well, it's no twist. The background is uninteresting, with AIs running the worlds, so there's no real political interest, and while there's faster-than-light travel and brain augmentation, it doesn't actually feel like there's pervasive technology in any way, or that the technology has any real impact on life.

Having said that, it's not bad. It's dumb. It's not real sci-fi - just a thriller in a futuristic-looking world. For all that, it's pretty good fun. Just don't expect any form of mental challange.

Posted 2007-11-24.