Chasm City: Alastair Reynolds

Product Information

There were a few sections that were a little clichéd, especially the ending, which felt a little rushed after nearly 600 leisurely pages, but overall, I thought it was a very good read. Pacey and generally well-written, 'Chasm City' roars along - even the passages set aboard the restrictive environment of the generation ships did not disappoint. Tanner meets some people who hinder him and some people who help him, including a few unusual and attractive women. I started off publishing short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone in the early 90s, then eventually branched into novels. 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.

One of the main characters contracts this virus, which implants the memories of a revered historical figure, thereby revealing key historical facts. Him being driven by revenge against a certain Argent Reivich, the book is actually an account of his travels from his planet Sky's Edge to Chasm City, accompanied by lots of fighting, shooting, chasing, saving and double-crossing; chapter by chapter discovering the motifs behind his own actions, layers of memories (true and fake) to be peeled off before he finally realizes who he was. A character recovering from amnesia certainly is a tried and true method of revealing someone's past, but Reynolds manages to make the amnesia fit into the story in a logical way; the amnesia doesn't come across as a contrived excuse.

I would say, in fact, that Chasm City is tighter and more compelling than the Inhibitor Trilogy that spawned it. As an “easing” that’s right up there with “are you in the right headspace to receive information that could possibly hurt you? There were also a couple of 'what's going on moments' as mutant-pigs bubble out of the background, nudge the plot a bit, and then disappear never to be heard of again.

I don’t think it is intended to be one; there is sufficient foreshadowing as to where things are possibly heading. Chasm City is a book of deliberate hyperbole in which Reynolds showcases some of the worst of what humanity has to offer, filled with extreme examples and nasty caricatures that rise to the level of wry satire and sardonic cheese. As if that weren’t enough, Reynolds introduces a series of plot twists in the final third of the book that force us to rethink what has come before. John Lee as always does a solid job on the narration — he is well suited to the dark tone of the book and has chemistry with Reynolds ' work. For your information we have compiled this document to explain some of the key events in our recent history.

Chasm City also has a fully-developed sub-plot that involves Sky Haussmann, a man who is a member of a fleet of generational starships that is heading to colonize a new world. It was a struggle to plough through these 600+ pages, with seemingly no payoff at the end to warrant reams and reams of not-particularly-active "action" and a plot twist that could be seen a thousand miles away. Reynolds briskly flogs the story along, never letting up the tension, or slackening the flow of brilliant ideas. In Chasm City Reynolds seems to be paying homage to cheesy who-dun-its, plot-twisty detective novels and overwrought crime thrillers.