Synopsis: Pursuing vengeance, security specialist Tanner Mirabel follows his target from one solar system to another, tracking him through the disaster ridden Chasm City, uncovering truths he might have wished he hadn't.

 

Review: I've been working for awhile on reading my way through Reynold's books. Chasm City is a re-read, but was maybe...sixteen years ago at least? So most of it feels new again.

 

Reynold's does what he does best here, dark space opera, but ultimately the book is more cyberpunk than anything. Low-lifes, killers, a gritty, fundamentally broke city, and hightech everywhere? Yeah this is cyberpunk. It reminded me a lot of Altered Carbon (the book, of course).

 

There are of course problems. There are some things which just do not add up.

If Cahuella is really Sky Haussman, why does Reynold's go out of his way to make Cahuella seem like a relatively nice guy (someone who would intervene on an unfornate's behalf to rescue her from a stalker/harasser) and Haussman an utter psycho (someone who would murder hundreds or thousands of people, start a war, murder the father who raised him, etc)?

(spoiler show)

We're given a pretty good view of both and the moral disparity between the two personalities is pretty stark.

 

I also found the twist ending a tad confusing after a little bit.

 

I didn't hate it, it was alright, but for hardboiled cyberpunk Altered Carbon kicks this book's ass.

 

Up next is something a little different for me. Kurt Vonneguts 'A Man Without A Country'.

Fantastic ideas and worldbuilding, but unfortunately a huge let-down after Revelation Space, which was one of the best scifi novels I've read. As this was in the same series, I hoped for more. However, I ended up calling it quits around two-thirds of the way through because the characters, dialogue, and arcs just got so bad. after the first third or so, it reads like a wandering first or second draft manuscript, which makes me wonder if it was just poorly edited or rushed to market.

This would be a two star review, except that I was genuinely interested in one of the secondary side plots. The novel should have just focused on Sky Hausmann's journey to the Yellowstone system, and the dark Cold War between the ships of the flotilla. The main storyline of Tanner Mirabel falls pretty flat by comparison. Reynolds is trying to do a character novel, and that's hardly his strong suit.

I'm going to give the RS universe a couple more chances though... hopefully i find more like the original of the series.

“I had chased a man across more than fifteen light-years, into a city which had become a sick perversion of itself.” Genetically engineered anthro-pigs and snakes the size of trains. A flotilla of five interstellar colony ships…tailed by a sixth “ghost ship”. If such material doesn’t get your juices flowing then you’re in the wrong place. If it does then get thee to Waterstones because there’s “Chasm City” and a whole shelf of Reynolds’ Dream Fuel waiting to be devoured.

Freelance mercenary Tom Hiddleston…er, Tanner Mirabel…is on a mission to bump off one Argent Reivich, a rich kid who murdered his beloved (while, um, giant snake hunting) and his furious rampage of revenge allows Reynolds to sketch and colour in more areas of his moreish “Revelation Space” universe. There are lots of universes out there in SF-land but there’s something about this one that has really got under my skin. Maybe it’s the whiff of verisimilitude or Reynolds habit of casually unleashing scenes like the opening space lift episode which beg to be rendered on an IMAX screen. Following Mirabel as he homes in on his quarry would be fine – it’s the sort of McGuffin that drove Iain M. Banks “Consider Phlebus” – but we also get involved in the mystery behind one Sky Haussmann’s obviously successful leadership in setting up some original human colonies in the first place for which he was thanked by being…crucified. What the hell happened? Is everyone a critic? What connects that piece of bloody history with the use of Dream Fuel and experientials with a maggot logo on them? Everything about Haussmann’s story is rivetting particularly when he starts going incrementally off his rocker.

Once Mirabel is free of the Ice Mendicants and wandering slack-jawed around Chasm City itself (Cairo times ten, in my head) there is much to-ing and fro-ing between Zebra, Pransky, Chanterelle, Madame Dominika, the Mixmasters and their dodgier competitors the Black Geneticists all interspersed with (narratively legitimised) flashbacks to Sky Haussmann going all Game Of Thrones-y. Central to all of this is the very interesting “Melding Plague”, which cropped up in “Revelation Space” but here affects the whole – and I do mean the whole – of Chasm City. It’s a brilliant idea, one which makes you go “of course!” and certainly gives one pause for thought if you’re pro-nanotechnology. As with “Revelation Space” Reynolds remembers to tie his separate narrative threads together by novel end, rewarding the reader for sticking with him through 600 pages of sci-fi but if you’ve got this far it’s a safe bet that, like me, you’re in for the long haul. Just stack ‘em up, I say.

If pushed I’d say the clearer narrative thread and the Haussmann material edges “Chasm City” past “Revelation Space” for me, although “Revelation Space” is arguably technically more accomplished. That novel inducted you into the world-building so in “Chasm” a bit of mystery (Hausmann’s backstory) and a classic plot line (the mission is a murder) allows us to settle in and have a wander. For those of us reading these novels in publication order there are non-essential nods to Calvin Sylveste’s disasterous neuroscanning project, the Monument to the Eighty, Dan Sylveste’s encounter with the Shrouders etc. and much more about the murderous game the post-mortals play to stave off boredom. Me, I’d be happy to stave off boredom with a set of these books and a cool drink on a desert island. Preferably far from any outbreak of the Melding Plague. “Life’s what you make it.”

Razi has been digging into the past of the Alliance for years, but now she has found the Oefric origin world she has a problem. The world is disintegrating at an alarming rate so if they are going to find the origin of this species, they have to work quickly. Ailan and Eckhar are her assigned assistants and despite their being unfamiliar with dig sites, they have one other trait that irritates her, they claim that she is their own. A fall and interference from a determined AI change her attitudes toward her new mates in a way she cannot deny

 

 

Review

 

This short stories is great for those who have been reading the series as it reveals the origin of one of the species. We also get a poly mating and a  AI. Good stuff.  

Tanner Mirabel, who I would deem an assassin by trade, is after the man who killed his boss. As he zooms in on his target, events begin to unfold which include memories induced by a virus which cause him to doubt his mission, as well as his own existence. Plunging into the storyline, one is reminded of events of Blade Runner, as well as the weirdness of a Gilliam's Brazil. The story raps up nicely, but not before the reader is taken on a journey where he/she wonders why they read the novel, or where the hell it's going to end up. I am honored to have finished this book, but I have to admit that I was taken on a journey of wonder, self-doubt, and satisfaction at the end. Perhaps I have experienced the genius of Alastair Reynolds without being fully aware of it. I would advise future readers to keep a WIDE open mind when tackling this adventure.