Book Log #79: Gridlinked, by Neal Asher
Sep. 27th, 2007 06:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperI got this book as a freebie hardback at a Norwescon a few years ago, and have finally gotten around to reading it in a burst of wanting to get all the larger books on my To Read shelf off the queue. Having finished it up last night, I'm now not entirely sure whether I chose wisely. Asher writes well, I'll give him that; the story's certainly action-packed, and the pacing is excellent. I was compelled to read the whole thing all the way through last night rather than waiting for this morning's bus commute to finish it off, and this wasn't even entirely motivated by just not wanting to carry a hardback around two days in a row.
Ultimately, though, I came out of the book a little disappointed. One issue I've got with it is that it tries too hard to set up the protagonist, Ian Cormac, up as James-Bond-esque. There are excerpts from in-character works quoted at the beginning of every chapter, and a couple of these talk about Cormac on the assumption that this legendary figure must surely be fictional--and draw a parallel between him and Bond, too. While there are definitely a lot of similarities between Cormac and Bond, I'd already seen the connection made in review blurbs. Having the book do it too made me pretty much gave me a reaction of "I GET IT ALREADY!"
Next, as things are getting underway, a big deal is made to Cormac about how he needs to be booted off his connection to "the grid" on the grounds that it's begun to dehumanize him and deaden his ability to think on his own. My first issue with this is mostly just wry amusement: "why, we're not trying to make a statement here about THE INTERNET or anything, are we?" My second issue with it, though, is larger: I didn't quite feel like there was a payoff on this plot device. Cormac has very little trouble dealing with not being on the grid. His only difficulties, really, are occasionally twitching when he can't look something up immediately rather than just having to ask somebody about it, and one or two instances where another character loftily points out to him that he has forgotten how to ask questions on his own.
And it doesn't work for me. I kept looking for something to happen to really drive home for Cormac that "this is what I've been missing"--not only improvements in his ability to think for himself, but something that really drove home for him what it means to be human. He reaches no such epiphany. And while I saw the potential for seeing a cool parallel drawn between him and the primary bad guy--who was in fact gridlinked in a way, and growing progressively more inhuman through the story--there wasn't a payoff there, either. So for me as a reader, I didn't quite see the point of making that a significant enough plot point that it was worthy of being in the title.
All this said, I did enjoy reading the book. There's a lot of action, and although the ending is a little shaky (there's a twist I didn't expect and I'm not entirely sure whether I missed some sort of discovery on Cormac's part that explained what was up with that), there are intriguing questions about what exactly happened with the alien characters and how that'll be built on as the series progresses. I'll have to think about whether to read the next one. For this one, two and a half stars.
Ultimately, though, I came out of the book a little disappointed. One issue I've got with it is that it tries too hard to set up the protagonist, Ian Cormac, up as James-Bond-esque. There are excerpts from in-character works quoted at the beginning of every chapter, and a couple of these talk about Cormac on the assumption that this legendary figure must surely be fictional--and draw a parallel between him and Bond, too. While there are definitely a lot of similarities between Cormac and Bond, I'd already seen the connection made in review blurbs. Having the book do it too made me pretty much gave me a reaction of "I GET IT ALREADY!"
Next, as things are getting underway, a big deal is made to Cormac about how he needs to be booted off his connection to "the grid" on the grounds that it's begun to dehumanize him and deaden his ability to think on his own. My first issue with this is mostly just wry amusement: "why, we're not trying to make a statement here about THE INTERNET or anything, are we?" My second issue with it, though, is larger: I didn't quite feel like there was a payoff on this plot device. Cormac has very little trouble dealing with not being on the grid. His only difficulties, really, are occasionally twitching when he can't look something up immediately rather than just having to ask somebody about it, and one or two instances where another character loftily points out to him that he has forgotten how to ask questions on his own.
And it doesn't work for me. I kept looking for something to happen to really drive home for Cormac that "this is what I've been missing"--not only improvements in his ability to think for himself, but something that really drove home for him what it means to be human. He reaches no such epiphany. And while I saw the potential for seeing a cool parallel drawn between him and the primary bad guy--who was in fact gridlinked in a way, and growing progressively more inhuman through the story--there wasn't a payoff there, either. So for me as a reader, I didn't quite see the point of making that a significant enough plot point that it was worthy of being in the title.
All this said, I did enjoy reading the book. There's a lot of action, and although the ending is a little shaky (there's a twist I didn't expect and I'm not entirely sure whether I missed some sort of discovery on Cormac's part that explained what was up with that), there are intriguing questions about what exactly happened with the alien characters and how that'll be built on as the series progresses. I'll have to think about whether to read the next one. For this one, two and a half stars.