Gridlinked

In outer space you can never feel sure that your adversary is altogether human. The runcible buffers on Samarkand have been mysteriously sabotaged killing many thousands and destroying a terraforming project. Agent Cormac must reach it by ship to begin an investigation. But Cormac has incurred the wrath of a vicious psychopath called Pelter who is prepared to follow him across the galaxy with a terrifying android in tow. Despite the subzero temperature of Samarkand Cormac discovers signs of life they are two dracomen alien beasts contrived by an extragalactic entity calling itself Dragon which is a huge creature consisting of four conjoined spheres of flesh each a kilometre in diameter. Caught between the byzantine wiles of the Dragon and the lethal fury of Pelter Cormac needs to skip very nimbly indeed to rescue the Samarkand project and protect his own life. Gridlinked is the first scifi thriller in Neal Ashers compelling Agent Cormac series.