Gridlinked by Neal Asher

Gridlinked is a fast-paced science fiction adventure mixed with a dash of cyberpunk and a splash of espionage. Earth Central Security agent Ian Cormac is a legend, a protector of the Polity, hundreds of worlds connected together by instantaneous transport via "runcibles." Unfortunately, he's burnt out, "gridlinked" to the net so long his humanity has nearly drained away.

Now he must go cold turkey as he's sent to investigate a thirty-megaton runcible disaster on the planet Samarkand. With the runcible out, Cormac must get there by ship to investigate the disaster. But he has incurred the wrath of psychopath Arian Pelter, who trails him across the galaxy with the decidedly homicidal android Mr. Crane at his side.

And deep beneath Samarkand's surface are mysteries better buried.

It's not only humans who know the meaning of hate.

Gridlinked (2001)
Tor trade paperback
423 pages
my rating : 8/10

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

In 1878, two young magicians clash in the dark during the course of a fraudulent séance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and revelation. They continually vie to outwit and expose each other.

This rivalry will take them to the peaks of their careers -- with terrible consequences. In the course of pursuing each other's ruin, they will deploy all the deception the magician's craft can command -- the highest misdirection and darkest science.

Blood will be spilled, but even this will not be enough. In the end, their legacy will pass on for generations...to descendants who must, for sanity's sake, untangle the puzzle left to them.

The Prestige (1995)
World Fantasy Award Winner
Tor trade paperback
cover engraving by Giovanni Battista Bracceli
360 pages
my rating : 9/10

Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

Two centuries after the Boston Tea Party, harbor dumping is still a favorite local sport, only this time time it's major corporations piping toxic wastes into the water. Environmentalist and professional pain in the ass Sangamon Taylor is Boston's modern-day Paul Revere, spreading the word from a 40-horsepower Zodiac raft. Embarrassing powerful corporations in highly telegenic ways is the perfect method of making enemies, and Taylor has a collection that would do any rabble-rouser proud.

After his latest exploit, he's wanted by the FBI, possibly the Mafia, and definitely by a group of Satanist angel-dust heads who think he's looking for a PCP factory, not PCB contamination. Pretty soon dodging bullets is the least of Taylor's problems---because somewhere out there are an unhinged genetic engineer and a lab-concocted bacterium that could destroy all ocean life...and that's just for appetizers.

Zodiac; the eco-thriller (1988)
Bantam Spectra Books
cover art by Bruce Jensen
308 pages
my rating : 8/10

To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer

All those who ever lived on Earth have found themselves resurrected -- healthy, young, and naked as newborns -- on the grassy banks of a mighty river, in a world unknown. Miraculously provided with food, but with no clues to the meaning of their strange new afterlife, billions of people from every period of Earth's history -- and prehistory -- must start again.

Sir Richard Francis Burton would be the first to glimpse the incredible way-station, a link between worlds. This forbidden sight would spur the renowned nineteenth century explorer to uncover the truth. Along with a remarkable group of compatriots, including Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the Victorian girl who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland), an English-speaking Neanderthal, a WWII Holocaust survivor, and a wise extraterrestrial, Burton sets sail on the magnificent river. His mission: to confront humankind's mysterious benefactors, and learn the true purpose -- innocent or evil -- of the Riverworld...

To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971)
Book One of the Riverworld Series
Ballantine Books
cover art by John Stevens
216 pages
my rating : 8/10

Boneshaker by Cheri Priest

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Boneshaker (2009)
Tor books trade paperback
cover art by Jon Foster
416 pages
my rating : 8/10

A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton

My name is Meredith Gentry, but of course it's not my real name. I dare not even whisper my true name after dark for fear that one hushed word will travel over the night winds to the soft ear of my aunt, the Queen of the Air and Darkness. She wants me dead. I don't even know why.

I fled the high court of Faerie three years ago, and have been hiding ever since. I ran as far as the land would take me, stopped only by the shore of the Pacific Ocean and the fact that if I'd used my passport the Bureau of Human and Fey Affairs would have been notified, and they would have told my relatives. And my relatives would have killed me. As Merry Gentry, I am a private investigator for the Grey Detective Agency: Supernatural Problems, Magical Solutions. My magical skills, which are scorned at the courts of Faerie, are valued in the human world. Even by human standards, my magic isn't flashy. Fine by me: Flashy attracts too much attention, and I can't afford that. Sightings of the Princess Meredith are now more popular than Elvis sightings.

Rumor has it that I'm dead. Not quite. I am Princess Meredith NicEssus, and if you read that name after dark, you will call down a knock upon your door from a hand that can kill you with a touch. I have been so careful, but not careful enough. The shadows have found me, and they are going to take me back home, one way or another.

The running is over. The fighting has just begun...

A Kiss of Shadows (2000)
Meredith (Merry) Gentry book 1
Ballantine Books hardcover
435 pages
my rating : 5/10

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just when it was on the verge of discovering space flight. For the human colonists now settling the Amarantin homeworld, what caused the species' destruction is of little more than academic interest. Even after colonists discover an almost perfect preserved city on the planet, only the archaeological community seems interested. But one scientist, Dan Sylveste, is convinced that solving the Amarantin riddle is vital to the survival of humanity.

Desperate to get at the truth -- but with few resources -- Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. Walking weapons, the ship's cyborg crew could easily become a very real danger to Sylveste's life - but they could also be his only hope to find the answer he so zealously seeks.

As Sylveste closes in on the secret, he learns that one of the cyborgs was sent to kill him. Because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason - and if that reason is uncovered, the universe - and reality itself - could be irrevocably altered.

Revelation Space (2000)
Ace books hardcover
cover art by Chris Moore
476 pages
my rating : 8/10

Sword-Dancer by Jennifer Roberson

Southron Blade Skill, Northern Sword Magic....

He was Tiger, born of the desert winds, raised as a slave and winning his freedom by weaving a special kind of magic with a warrior's skill. Now he was an almost legendary sword-dancer, ready to take on any challenge --- if the price was right...or the woman pretty enough.

She was Del, born of ice and storm, trained by the greatest of Northern sword masters. Now, her ritual training completed, and steeped in the special magic of her own runesword, she had come South in search of the young brother stolen five years before.

But even Del could not master all the dangers of the deadly Punja alone. And meeting Del, Tiger could not turn back from the most intriguing challenge he'd ever faced --- the challenge of a magical, mysterious sword-dancer of the North....

Sword-Dancer (1986)
Book one of the Sword series
DAW paperback
cover art by Kathy Wyatt
286 pages
my rating: 8/10