Gridlinked

Neal Asher's debut novel introduces Ian Cormac, a legendary agent of Earth Central Security in a far future where instantaneous "runcible" portals link the human-settled worlds of the Polity. Cormac is dispatched to the remote colony of Samarkand after its runcible explodes, killing thousands and destroying a terraforming project — an act Earth Central suspects is deliberate sabotage.

Cormac himself is barely holding together: he has been "gridlinked," plugged into the AI network for so long that his own humanity has begun to erode, and the investigation forces him through a brutal cold-turkey withdrawal from the connection he's relied on for years. His inquiry draws the murderous attention of Arian Pelter, a psychopath who pursues Cormac across the stars with a terrifying, near-unstoppable android assassin — while deeper mysteries wait buried beneath Samarkand's surface.

The first book in the Ian Cormac / Polity series, Gridlinked blends hard-science invention with fast-paced, violent political intrigue.