In outer space you can never feel sure that your adversary is altogether human.

The runcible buffers on Samarkand have already been mysteriously sabotaged, eliminating many thousands and destroying a terraforming project. Agent Cormac must reach it by dispatch to begin an investigation. But Cormac offers incurred the wrath of a vicious psychopath known as Pelter, who’s prepared to stick to him over the galaxy using a terrifying android in tow.

Despite the sub-zero heat range of Samarkand, Cormac discovers indications of life: they are two ‘dracomen’, alien beasts contrived by an extra-galactic entity contacting itself ‘Dragon’, which really is a huge creature comprising four conjoined spheres of flesh each a kilometre in diameter. Caught between your byzantine wiles from the Dragon and the lethal fury of Pelter, Cormac needs to neglect very nimbly indeed to save the Samarkand project and safeguard his own lifestyle.

Gridlinked may be the first sci-fi thriller in Neal Asher’s engaging Agent Cormac series.