Gridlinked is Neal Asher's first novel. Although the technology described in the work is inventive in the best tradition of hard sci-fi, character development is incomplete and the politics of the era described are far too contemporary to reflect much imagination. Much is text is devoted to violence or the preparation for violence.

Technology

• AI, machine intelligence responsible for planetary management
• runcible , interstellar teleporter, comparable to the Ramsbotham Jump in Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky
• contra-terrene device or CTD, an anti-matter bomb
• AGC, antigravity carrier anti-gravity vehicle
• Proton Gun
• Pulse-gun
• Chainglass armour and cutting blades
• Golem Thirties sophisticated androids
• Sparkind

Planets

• Earth
• Cheyne III, home world of the Separtist movement
• Minostra (p. 44)
• Samarkand II, waystation between more important worlds (p. 44), 173 light years from Veridian (p. 332)
• Veridian, 173 light years from Samarkand II, in the Mendax planetary system of the Chirat star cluster (p. 332)

Spaceships

• The Hubris
• The Lyric

Characters

• Horace Blegg, immortal Japanese mastermind said to have survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima
• Ian Cormac, the protagonist, a state terrorist working for the Earth Central AI or Prime Cause
• Angelina Pelter, a Separatist, sister of the protagonist and the victim of a state sanctioned exta-judicial killing by Cormac
• Arian Pelter, the chief villain, a Separatist/Terrorist
• John Stanton, a criminal underling of Pelter with a heart of gold
• Jarvellis, Stanton's pregnant love interest and spaceship pilot/smuggler
• The Maker
• The Dragon
• Mr. Crane, a tallish psychotic android controlled Pelter
• Aiden, Teutonic Golem Thirty android
• Cento, Mediterranean Golem Thirty android
• Corlackis, Pelter underling
• Dusache, Pelter underling
• Mennecken, Pelter underling
• Svent, Pelter underling
• Sylac
• Tull
• Veltz
• Geneve
• Carn, small monkeylike man (p. 221)
• Chaline
• Gant, android
• Thorn, android