Chasm City

In Chasm City, Alastair Reynolds revisits the noir universe of his debut SF blockbuster Revelation Space with a suspenseful, convoluted pursuit story. Its dizzying reversals and games of disguise are reminiscent of Iain M Banks at his trickiest.

The main narrative stars trained killer Tanner Mirabel, a man hell-bent on revenge, who stalks his enemy Reivich from the world Sky's Edge across a 15-year interstellar gap to the gaudy, poisoned melting pot of Chasm City. Flashbacks reveal the violent events and worse repercussions that so badly twisted Mirabel and others. Virus-induced dreams provide a third story line from inside the head of legendary traitor-messiah Sky Haussmann, who long ago shaped the original colonisation of Sky's Edge and whose real story never got into the history books.

Chasm City's complications include spectacular space-elevator sabotage, faulty antimatter drives, hidden aliens, mystery drugs, exotic bio-modification, tailored disease, high-tech weaponry, a new and deadlier form of bungee-jumping, and that traditional SF symptom of decadence: organised hunts with human prey. Violent death is never far off, but our protagonist has deeper worries in that his own motives and memories, even his identity, don't seem to add up quite as they should ...

After many chases, captures and escapes, these tangled plot strands are satisfyingly resolved. Masks are stripped away, and webs of lies exposed. Revelations range from the origin of the dread Melding Plague (which once nightmarishly merged Chasm City's people, machines and buildings) to the reason for an irrational fear of alcoves. An enjoyably tense, tortuous SF thriller. --David Langford

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Intertwining, dualistic storylines which keep you intruiged - Rated
***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD IN STARS***

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The premise of the story is simple: An assassin from a planet, of which he has recurrent dreams that reveal its origins, hunts down a man who killed his boss, only to discover he *is* his boss with his memories implanted, and his boss is *actually* the founder of his home planet who he dreams about, thanks to a virus which induces religious experiences about himself , himself being the body a religious cult figure among his homeworld people with a false identity.
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Sounds maniacal, and it is a joy to read. Every page invokes more suspense and mystery with enough hints to suggest the next twist without making it seem obvious. On the downside some key characters seem rather shallow and atavistic however the amount of story twists and flashbacks make the story well worth your money. Buy it now!!

Also ties in with A.R's Revelation Space series; this can be easily accessed whether you are new to the series or have read the other books in the series or not. Personally I read it before the others and found it perfectly easy to comprehend, and even better when you see the links with the chronological sequel, Revelation Space.

I cannot recommend this more highly!

Really Good - Rated
-In answer to other reviwers-
The seemingly cut out roles make perfect sense when considered as a whole they all have links to one man(in the main plotline) And eventually Tanner

As to their motivation well it may be obvious but it is there. And in most cases is all it needs to be. To have added story to all but the main
protaganist would have added 100 pages at least, (would seem out of pace, and seriously mess up the pacing)

-Spoilers (this is in anawer to other reviewers)-
As for the change in his character, well major brain damage for a start, also the fact that neither Tanner nor Cahuella were devoid of concience, and Tanner does gradually do more good from one end of the book to the other

As for Haussmens change that too is explained by not one but many events. There are parallels to the dolphins hes so interested in at the start. (finally its most probably the fact that as mentioned his parents did dump him with clown rarther a lot)

Finally the plot twist in the middle isnt a twist reynolds is deliberately hinting it as to not do so would totally destroy coherance and force an unatural lump of Sky plotline in the second half of the book)

Chasm City is a brilliant read - Rated
I picked up this book for [...] whilst on holiday for the sole purpose of keeping me occupied by the pool that afternoon - who wants to spend more than that on something they're not going to finish reading, and will probably leave in the hotel?

Well... over the rest of the holiday I found myself making trips to the pool just so I had time to read, (absolutely unheard of for me!) I even ended up bringing the book back home to add to my overcrowded book case. And now here I am a few weeks later browsing Amazon as I'm going to buy all the other books he's written, just on the strength of this one.

Chasm City is a brilliant read, and easy to get caught up in the characters and the plot line. It's only a few pounds so just go ahead and buy it - it's worth every cent!

A Chasm filled with imagination! - Rated
It seems like ages since I ventured into Revelation space...if you have not yet visited Alastairs amazing series, start off with Revelation Space, move onto Chasm City (the best of the three) and finish with Redemption Ark then buy the next book when it comes out, Galactic North promises more of the same...Great writing, great characters and great fun!

Could have been so much better - Rated
This is the first Reynolds book I've read and I enjoyed it. It moves at a good pace, it has some inventive and interesting ideas and parts of it are clever and thought-provoking. The trouble is, those strengths are balanced by some signficant weaknesses.

First off, the big plot twist is obvious from halfway in. I won't spoil it but there's too much coincidence involved that allows the twist to develop and remain hidden instead of coming out straight away, but even then the Hausmann sections make it obvious. Then there's the motivations: revenge just doesn't ring true, nor does the whole redemption piece. For example, at what point did Cahuelle become such a good guy and why? Lastly there's the Canopy vs. Mulch and human hunt stuff. That just feels tired and overworked. Surely somebody can do better than cliches?

Finally, if you do buy this book do not read the epilogue. It is pure dross!

And just as an aside to many of the other reviewers, the point about Haussmann wanting to get to Journey's End first is not illogical - the guy was crazy, remember! He was paranoid and unstable, so we should expct some of his decisions to be a little odd. What makes no sense is that the other crews would try and catch up. They should have just sighed and let him get on with it, knowing that they would vastly outnumber him when they got there.