Gridlinked (again)

This is evidence that Blogcritics "works" - i bought this book on the strength of a review of it here at Blogcritics. Unfortunately I didn't note the reviewer but, if you're still with us and reading this review, I thank you.

It was time for me to try something kind of new again - see, my mainstay is the Discworld series, of which I own either all or all-but-one of the main books, both maps, the tourist's guide to lancre, the Discworld companion (1994 version) and the Discworld saga The Last Hero. I have other books - some Aliens ones, all but one of the Blade Runner series (carried on admirably by Jeter after P K Dick's death), and more sci-fi and a few sci-fantasy and even some Tom Clancy books. But I wanted to try another author - I didn't want to get stuck into a pattern of only really reading books by a few authors.

I'd already read Jennifer Government and Syrup by the genius Max Barry, but I needed some real sci-fi again. The review for Gridlinked on Blogcritics caught my eye and so it was ordered. It's taken me awhile to read (a little over a month) and I must admit early on I went through a phase where I wasn't reading much at all. But the journey has been worth it. Gridlinked is an intelligent, slightly twisting tale set quite deep in the future. Long distance travel is a pretty trivial matter as far as planets under the rule of Earth's government are concerned, the various important bits of the technology involved taking their names from some famous poem I should probably know (but my excuse is that the only poetry I like is songs).

The tale follows, mostly, an agent for Earth's government on his latest mission. It's not standard spy-or-detective stuff though - he has been "gridlinked" for many years - that is, attached to a galaxy-spanning computer network (an updated internet) - directly via his brain. He's had the link shutdown at the beginning of the new mission, because Earth's central Artificial Intelligence believes he has been gridlinked for an unhealthy amount of time. Oh yeah, that little thing - humans are now governed by AIs. Unlike The Terminator, these AIs gained self-awareness and, miraculously, decided that all humans needed was a little shepherding and good policing, rather than a damn good nuking. Of course, there are dissidents, and like all of the best sci-fi stories (I mean the real classics here) they have seemingly as many tricks up their sleeves as the "good guys".

Article Author: Jon Downs

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