Tanner Mirabel was a security specialist who never made a mistake - until the day a woman in his care was blown away by Argent Reivich, a vengeful young postmortal. Tanner's pursuit of Reivich takes him across light-years of space to Chasm City, the domed human settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet of Yellowstone. But Chasm City is not what it was. The one-time high-tech utopia has become a Gothic nightmare: a nanotechnological virus has corrupted the city's inhabitants as thoroughly as it has the buildings and machines. Before the chase is done, Tanner will have to confront truths which reach back centuries, towards deep space and an atrocity history barely remembers.
Chasm City
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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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Come to Chasm City and embark on a mind-bending ride through the universe of Revelation Space
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book suffers from verbosity, not so much the descriptive prose but from the mouths of characters who all seem to have an unlimited intelligence and massive vocabulary. It acts like a barrier to any empathy a reader may have with say Tanner Mirabel. Despite everything that happens to him he seems to change very little, and after reading the ending I didn't get the point of the revelation of who he really is/was. Interestingly enough the passages from Sky Hausmann's story and Tanner's past are much more interesting and seductive than what happens to Tanner in Chasm City and I wonder if that is what ultimately stops the book from being a classic. It has to end in the present and that just hasn't been anything more than a rudimetary adventure compared to the tales from the past. The 'fight' at the end is deeply, deeply unsatisfying, how many times have we seen this, and why when everything else is spectacular is this so brief and unimaginative? The 'bite' at the end is ridiculous.
This is almost a Dan Simmons novel and it borrows a fair few ideas from him, but it doesn't quite do it. Not for me anyway.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Alastair Reynolds has written another fantastic novel in "Chasm City" - it's just like "Revelation Space," except better, its hard-edged science fiction with great characters, we get the vastness of space, inner and outer. Alastair Reynolds is indeed a brilliant writer. I found it gripping, very clever, with wonderful descriptions that create a strong visual dimension as you read the story. Alastair's imagination really stretches you.
Every time I thought the story had crested, some new twist and turn kept occurring. Throughout this 524-page novel, the various story lines kept coming together, there was obviously so much more of the plot to unravel. Two-thirds into the story and I just couldn't put the book down. I just stayed up till 2 a.m. to finish "Chasm City," eagerly turning each page, drawn to each word like a caterpillar crossing a blade of grass, to see what new part of the story would be revealed.
I can't sleep as I'm still reeling from this magnificent book. Wow, what a feeling! Even after having read Alastair's first debut novel "Revelation Space," I was completely unprepared for the many wonders within "Chasm City." Parts of this novel reminded me of "The Fountains of Paradise" by Arthur C. Clarke, "Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville and "Metal Fatigue" by Sean Williams.
Tanner Mirabel was a security specialist who never made a mistake......until the day a women in his care was blown away during an attack by a vengeful young postmortal named Argent Reivich.
Tanner's pursuit of Reivich takes him away from his homeworld, across light-years of space, to Chasm City, the domed human settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet Yellowstone. But Chasm City isn't what it used to be: the one-time high-tech utopia has become a dark, Gothic nightmare, victim of a nanotechnological virus, which has corrupted the city's inhabitants as thoroughly as it has, has the buildings. Now the city is a place of steam-driven machines, shadowy factions and deadly new games.
With only his wits to help him - not to mention the odd piece of heavy firepower - Tanner narrows the distance between himself and Reivich.
But before the chase is done, Tanner will have to confront disturbing truths, which reach back centuries, towards deep space, and an atrocity history barely remembers.
I rate this book highly, and recommend it to all science fiction fans. I cannot remember how long it has been since I discovered a new voice such as Alastair, a new writer whose vision is not only new but also exciting. Alastair Reynolds is one such writer. Beg, borrow or steal it; but read Chasm City!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Steve
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
.
This book is set over a much shorter timescale than his first book (Revelation Space) and the story is much tighter and more pleasurable to read for it.
There are three interesting storylines that converge toward the end, but I must say that I thought the 'twist' was obvious from the middle of the book.
The universe this book is set in is the same as Revelation Space, although in a slightly different period and there are plenty of references to the first book to help place this story. However, this is an entirely independent story from Revelation Space.
Chasm city is a horror - it's buildings, machines and society ruined by the melding plague. There is an almost Dickensian feel about the poor, Mulch dwellers and the upper class Canopy society. Chasm City is quite well described and has many interesting features.
However, the characters are too shallow. We never really know what motivates most of them. Tanner Mirabel is supposed to be a professional soldier/mercenary but his professional detachment goes out the window as he vows to avenge his boss's assassination, travelling across space for 15 years in suspended animation to track down the killer, Reivich. The motley crew he links up with variously want to mislead him, kidnap him or/and kill him, but all end up going off together to confront the big baddy near the end on Tanners side. For the most part, it is not clear why they each have a change of heart.
There are other oddities as well - mutant pigs who pop up now and again to save Tanner, then are never mentioned again. The Mixmasters scan his body for physiological changes and injuries and spot his retinal modifications but miss his poisonous fangs and his missing arm. Still, no one's perfect. I also lost count of how many times Tanner Mirabel was captured by someone, or lost consciousness.
The other storylines suffer similarly. One is the earlier story of Tanner and the other is the complex tale of Sky Haussman. Not sure what turned Sky into a psycho - was it the lights failing as a boy, his father dying of his injuries or was he just predisposed to instant psychosis? We don't know.
I'm afraid this all sounds a bit negative, BUT actually I was thoroughly gripped by this book. Try to glide over the plot holes and lapses in logic and it's basically a good yarn.
This book is set over a much shorter timescale than his first book (Revelation Space) and the story is much tighter and more pleasurable to read for it.
There are three interesting storylines that converge toward the end, but I must say that I thought the 'twist' was obvious from the middle of the book.
The universe this book is set in is the same as Revelation Space, although in a slightly different period and there are plenty of references to the first book to help place this story. However, this is an entirely independent story from Revelation Space.
Chasm city is a horror - it's buildings, machines and society ruined by the melding plague. There is an almost Dickensian feel about the poor, Mulch dwellers and the upper class Canopy society. Chasm City is quite well described and has many interesting features.
However, the characters are too shallow. We never really know what motivates most of them. Tanner Mirabel is supposed to be a professional soldier/mercenary but his professional detachment goes out the window as he vows to avenge his boss's assassination, travelling across space for 15 years in suspended animation to track down the killer, Reivich. The motley crew he links up with variously want to mislead him, kidnap him or/and kill him, but all end up going off together to confront the big baddy near the end on Tanners side. For the most part, it is not clear why they each have a change of heart.
There are other oddities as well - mutant pigs who pop up now and again to save Tanner, then are never mentioned again. The Mixmasters scan his body for physiological changes and injuries and spot his retinal modifications but miss his poisonous fangs and his missing arm. Still, no one's perfect. I also lost count of how many times Tanner Mirabel was captured by someone, or lost consciousness.
The other storylines suffer similarly. One is the earlier story of Tanner and the other is the complex tale of Sky Haussman. Not sure what turned Sky into a psycho - was it the lights failing as a boy, his father dying of his injuries or was he just predisposed to instant psychosis? We don't know.
I'm afraid this all sounds a bit negative, BUT actually I was thoroughly gripped by this book. Try to glide over the plot holes and lapses in logic and it's basically a good yarn.
If you liked Revelation Space, you'll like this. If you didn't like revelation Space, it's still worth giving this one a go.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book
If you are a fan of Iain M Banks, then you will love this book.
The plot maintains interest as the protagonist explores a strange new world where a combined... Read more
The plot maintains interest as the protagonist explores a strange new world where a combined... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kindle_Fan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Space opera at its best!
Okay, so I'm late for this party. . . Again. . . I know. . .
I've had this book sitting on my shelf for years. Read more
I've had this book sitting on my shelf for years. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Patrick St-Denis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible book!
Alastair Reynolds does it again - such an exciting, well-written book, with an unexpected twist at the end. Always makes you want to read more.
Published 9 months ago by Squeaky5565
2.0 out of 5 stars
Talking pigs? Is this honestly what's considered good sci-fi these...
If a neo-noir detective story set in a well-past-its-prime futuristic but crumbling city, concerning a central protagonist with memory issues, seems familiar, like so many Philip K... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. Tristan Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Heir to Philip K
This is the second of Reynold's books that I have read, and is set in the same universe as his debut effort, Revelation Space. Read more
Published 10 months ago by David Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chasm City
I was casting my mind back trying to remember why I bought this book. Several years ago I read a book called Revelation Space by the same author, and remember finding it quite... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Steve D
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get ready, Strap in, Hold tight!
A deep well of masterful genius!
Imagination is stretched to the limit and beyond in this novel - to places I thought it impossible for a mind to conceiveably go and... Read more
Imagination is stretched to the limit and beyond in this novel - to places I thought it impossible for a mind to conceiveably go and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by R. P. Griffiths
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Abyss gazes also. . .
God I love this book... Hey I'm biased from the start, I love Reynold's style. Sure he sacrifices character development for grand vistas we can't possibly imagine but for me that's... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Rob Elouard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Reynolds - intelligent, complex and gripping science fiction.
This splendid book adds further depth to the Revelation Space universe focusing on an apparently simple personal revenge crusade featuring Yellowstone's Chasm City and the Rust... Read more
Published on 9 May 2011 by Willy Eckerslike
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting atmosphere but not much more than that
This one has an elaborate recipe; half steampunk, half cyberpunk and a pinch of dark, perhaps gothic, to add more flavor. Read more
Published on 8 April 2011 by Jorge Teixeira
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