Chasm City (Revelation Space) Mass Market Paperback – May 27, 2003

Chasm City - Novel, Science Fiction - [0736 - 2017-02-20] Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds is a science fiction novel and is also known as book 2 in the 5 book (so far) "Revelation Space" series published during 2000-2007. Curious readers may ask can this novel be read without reading the prior book "Revelation Space". In truth yes it can but your enjoyment and the comprehension of story events would be greatly enhanced if you had read "Revelation Space". Fortunately there is an authors introduction to this book that may or may not help new readers. In this long novel, my paperback was 694 pages with a small font, one Tanner Mirabel - a solider-of-fortune - persists against overwhelming odds to hunts down an individual, Argent Reivich, that killed his friends. In my opinion the plot is almost immaterial to the author's elaborate descriptions of Chasm City, it residences and the circumstances of it's creation and de-evolution. Another sub-plot that I found most interesting is the story of Sky Haussmann founder of his Tanner Mirabel's home world, Sky's Edge. Tanner experiences Haussmann story through virus-induced flashbacks. This is an elaborate and detailed science-fiction story that kept me up many evenings. Alastair Reynolds crams an encyclopedia of background in this novel that induced this reader to read book 3 "Redemption Ark". I am not exaggerating when I use the term encyclopedia. The Wikipedia has numerous pages on the characters, factors and locations of Revelation Space. Readers are strongly encouraged to check out the information - I was impressed, indeed. Mr. Reynolds, with his Ph.D. in astronomy is a master at technological extrapolation. Therefore this story exhibits many "hard" aspects of hardware type science-fiction that will cause long time fans weep with joy and others to whimper with annoyance.

There was a lot of classic gumshoe-style detective work in this that detracted from Reynolds' excellent sci fi world building, and it felt over-long by about 200 pages. Great twists-and-turns, just took a bit too long to get where it was going. It would also have been nice to have some female characters with actual development. Overall another great effort, but not one of my favorites due to the long interludes of filler.

Author is very easy to read and engaging. I read the other two books in the series first and was more engaged by the light huggers and rust belt. Chasm City seems separate from the first two books in several ways so it is difficult to resolve how it fits into the universe introduced and developed in the other two books in the series. You might want to skip this one if you were hoping it would build characters from the other two books.

I was recommended to read this stand alone title as a "sample" of the larger, more expansive series. I can safely say that I am glad that I did before buying the rest. This author's prose is flat. Boring. Bland. Blah. And the dialogue! The dialogue is so atrociously bad.To summarize this novel; a try hard nerdy noir thriller with characters about as inspiring as a piece of lint.

In "Revelation Space", Alastair Reynolds introduced a nanotechnology-dependent culture that had been damaged profoundly, if not beyond repair, by the Melding Plague, a disease that destroyed the implants and shortened the near-immortal lives of the citizens of Yellowstone. In "Chasm City", we get a first-hand view of Yellowstone just after the Plague hit through the eyes of Tanner Mirabel, a mercenary pursuing his last adversary from the frontier world of Sky's Edge.When Tanner wakes up on Yellowstone, he's lost most of his memory, a result of years of refrigerated sleep in transit. But as he follows his target through chaotic post-Plague Yellowstone, being hunted himself in a local "game", he not only causes problems for the local power structure but becomes less and less sure he actually is who his records say he is. Not only, thanks to an implanted virus, is he experiencing memories as if he were Sky Haussman, original commander of the settlement on Sky's Edge, but he has memories that Tanner Mirabel can't actually have had. When it all comes together - or falls apart - it's in a climactic confrontation with the man he thinks he came to kill in the first place, and the man who might or might not be himself.Displacement and isolation- both Tanner's and Sky Haussman's- is a theme Reynolds explored in "Revelation Space," but he adds to it here the question of identity- to what extent are we the people we present to others as opposed to what we actually think and do, and how capable are we of becoming someone else by an act of will? These are not new questions, especially with respect to the soldier looking to escape his past- there is a throwaway quip about "making furniture out of their bones" that will get a chuckle of recognition out of Iain M. Banks fans - but they're well-done and multi-layered here.So why only four stars and not five? In large part because there's a lot, but not a lot new, happening here. Space opera; identity theft; lone gunman; manhunt as game; revenge mission; anti-technology virus. Perhaps it's the fact that all of these show up in one not-particularly-long book that gives 'Chasm City' the sense of being slightly wandering and unfocused. By the end of the book, we're not so much surprised as relieved that any given plot point has been resolved, and in the end that weakens what could have been a much stronger story.

Having read Revelation Space I was tempted to stump up the most I have ever spent on a Kindle Book. I can tell that it will keep you occupied for some time, perhaps then it's not bad value. It is also not a bad book, lots going on, flash backs, duel story lines, some action, a few twists and turn. All set in Mr Reynolds very intricate and capable universe. So there you have it, if that's what you are looking for no need to read on. However....... here's my problem with it, just went things were getting interesting, at various points in the story, it somehow fails to deliver. There's just something lacking, [spoiler] I was particularly disappointed in the 'Ghost Ship' , I know it all ties in with the complex tale but Maggots!!! No, no, I can't do it, how on earth did they build anything! Pigs!? No sorry, not having that either. It's still a good book and on a certain level I enjoyed it but I can't spend anymore money or time in this particular universe.

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 Belt in the immediate aftermath of the onset of the Melding Plague. Reynolds has not yet written a simple book, and this is no exception; the seemingly unrelated storylines converge, fooling the reader into thinking that they know what is going on, only to diverge again with an unexpected twist. The clever dual personality of the main character was both inspired and original, not unlike the shatterling concept in House of Suns, but I did find that, early on, the Haussmann flashbacks were a bit obtrusive and seemed to interrupt the narrative flow (which, I suppose was the point). Thankfully, this book has a proper ending (Reynolds must have had a really bad day when he penned the ending of Absolution Gap) and, at last, we have an explanation of the source of the Melding Plague as well as an insight into an alien life form only briefly mentioned in Revelation Space.In my continuing mission to explore modern science fiction writing, I am happily marooned on planet Reynolds, enraptured by the ever evolving siren song of the Revelation Space universe. A little overly florid, perhaps, but there are now two kings of modern, proper science fiction; Reynolds and Banks - always two there are and the formerly unchallenged master, now seemingly resting on his laurels, had better keep an eye on the apprentice.

Only the second book I've read by Alastair Reynolds (after Revelation Space) and I look forward to reading more. Although much has been made of his scientific background with the ESA don't think that this is a book bogged down with purely science. His imagination is boundless and he weaves a fantastic story of discovery and revenge from two different people. It's different to Revelation Space in that most of the story is centred on a single planet rather than deep space (but you do get a historical story linked in about how a flotilla of giant ships travelled across the galaxy to populate said planet.) As with Revelation Space seemingly random and unconnected events come together as the story progresses.Chasm City was a much different reading experience to Revelation Space as the story is mainly told from a first person perspective. But as the main character was the focus it works really well.

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. This offering is a very different beast to the previous book, however, both in terms of focus and writing style.Through first-person narrative we follow soldier-turned-mercenary-turned-bodyguard Tanner Mirabel, as he resolutely stalks a man named Reivich across the galaxy. We only get hints as to why at first, with the background of this unstoppable vendetta slowly being revealed. Mirabel's mission is complicated by his being infected with a religious virus that makes him experience memories from the life of despised martyr Sky Hauptmann, a mysterious figure that died many years before.If that sounds complicated, I haven't even scratched the surface of the story. Mirabel's quest eventually takes him to the metropolis of the title, a location that will be familiar to readers of the first book. Surrounded by an array of exotic characters, all of them seemingly determined to kill him or aid him (or both), and caught up against his will in a story centuries in the making, Mirabel has to fight, bluff, and threaten his way through the murk his life has become.It is to Reynolds' credit that Tanner remains a somewhat sympathetic protagonist even as we find out more about the darker portions of his life. If you're a longterm reader of science fiction, particularly the works of Philip K. Dick, you have a good chance of working out one of the majot twists before it is revealed. However, there are SO many more unexpected developments in this convoluted tale of revenge and redemption, you will be entertained to the end.

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 return intact.I read this book after reading others in the series: Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, Revelation Space (I know, start at the beginning and finish at the end - but I like to do things the hard way!), and I wanted to find out where it all started.Although it was the first book in the series (I think), it loses none of its impact reading it out of order. The novel hits the ground running and continues at blistering pace, taking the reader across time and space, pushing the boundaries of ingenuity and illusion.From the outset the hero struggles with his moralistic status, swinging constantly into anti-hero mode, and we never really know if we should love or hate him. Who is he really? He loses and gains friends constantly, and they in turn are discredited or killed as he thunders forward on a seemingly suicidal quest.The novel on its way describes strange and wonderful machines and concepts which make some kind of sense, and one day may even be practical as our own world fills to bursting point. Like all good Science Fiction, it keeps its deepest roots subtly in the present and has lessons for us all.A thoroughly rivetting read.R.P.GriffithsAuthor of The W.D.P.S. The W.D.P.S - Book OneThe W.D.P.S - Book One