The family's godfather sat back in his plush leather recliner and calmly ordered the hit, like the man who was about to be murdered was nothing more than a bug to be squashed …The crack sniper squinted through his gun's sight, aligning the target's forehead in the crosshairs, and pulled the trigger with no second thoughts or remorse …The muck and grime of the city's underworld didn't alarm him at all, as he trudged through the rain-flooded streets in search of his prey …Come one, come all, see t...

One of the big contributing factors to this novel’s success is the atmosphere that Reynolds injects into his Revelation Space books. I love this series of books, and Chasm City in particular. I was pretty invested in this story, but boy was it an emotional roller coaster. The author does not shy away from the darkness. The abstract (moral) theme that Reynolds brings to the fore here resonated strongly with me. I also found the build up nice and suspenseful, and I quite liked the resolution even

There's something very important attached to modern, well-crafted space-opera. It's not precisely the way new and old tech drives the boundaries of plot, nor is it the very common feel of jaded semi-immortals gripping onto their lives in fascist drama. It's something hidden, an underlay of expectations that successfully build so much momentum that the text screams like a runaway train and it doesn't matter how much inane and crazy plot-twists crop up, because you're just left holding on to the r...

The book Chasm City is the sequel to "REVELATION SPACE" and is a bit better than the first.

Reasons not to listen to this audiobook while assembling cabinets:1. That moment when a big reveal happens and you say "HOLY SHIT!!!!" tends to make people panic.2. You have to take the cabinet apart and reassemble it. Twice.This was absolutely amazing! The main character, Tanner, is an assassin who is on the trail of a man that he intends to kill for revenge. Throughout the book Tanner is also flashing back on this crucified martyr named Sky. Through this we get to see who Sky was and how the c...

Is this what a China Miéville novel would be like if China Miéville wasn't so much with the prose? Because like China, Alastair Reynolds is totally horny for the Big Idea (and perhaps even better than him at actually providing a sort of logical justification for all the weird and wacky world-building he does, though that simply might be a circumstance of his preferred genre -- hard sci-fi -- more or less demanding that kind of effort from an author.) (Also he is an ex-scientist of some sort.)So,...

“How long would you have to live; how much good would you need to do, to compensate for one act of pure evil you’d committed as a younger man?” The darkest in the Revelation universe so far, even horrifying one, with a brilliant crescendo in events and terrifying characters. I changed my feelings about the main one several times during reading, from pure hatred to pity and sympathy and now that I finished it, I have no idea whether I hate him or not. “’Why would people want to experience s

Welcome to the fabulous, rotten, mutated, degenerated, cyberpunk dystopian nightmare where the elite is celebrating with sick games while the base is rotting away, good old Roman decadence style. Want some cheap, illegal, operation as a welcome gift to make sure that you don´t grey/green goo too much and make the place even slimier and grittier?Possibly one of the darkest future city planning scenarios, it reminded me of China Mieville and shorter descriptions of decay and madness in other Sci-F...

We all have triggers, certain topics in our beloved genres that instantly make us sit up and pay attention. Artificial intelligence is one such trigger for me; identity is another. (Both touch on philosophy of the mind, a field that fascinates me, and I suspect this is why they intrigue me.) There is scant AI in Chasm City, but there is plenty of reflection on identity and the ramifications of using technology to alter one’s identity. As every other review notes, this book is part of the Revelat...

“victory loses its meaning without the memory of what you've vanquished.” what starts as a simple revenge story in a cyberpunk dystopia turns out to be much more complex as several characters’ lives, both past and present, interlock and slowly reveal the Real Truth of the matter.we initially follow two storylines: one with our first-person protagonist tanner mirabel, a gruff security operative and weapons expert, who’s looking to kill the guy who murdered his previous clients. the sec

Posted at Heradas“How long would you have to live; how much good would you need to do, to compensate for one act of pure evil you’d committed as a younger man?”Very, very good. One of those books that I massively enjoy having read, past tense, but ultimately didn’t enjoy while reading. It slogs, and turns its wheels for about 200 pages in the middle, but I see now why it was necessary, and it ultimately pays off in strides.Strong similarities to Iain M. Banks’ Use of Weapons, except that it didn...

I read this because Alistair Reynolds is my teenage son's favourite author. Although it is sometimes labelled as Revelation Space book 2, he reckoned this was the best book and has the advantage of being readable as a standalone story. Although you could summarise it as a long chase story of hunter and hunted, it is a complex and well-written page turner (and there are quite a lot of pages), the main theme of which is the nature of identity and the effects of various ways of changing it (e.g. bo...

“I’ve been sent here to kill someone who probably doesn’t deserve it, and my only justification for it is some absurd adherence to a code of honour no one here understands or even respects.” While reading the book I was a little bothered by the protagonist's motivation which did not make a lot of sense to me. Suddenly Alastair Reynolds addressed my problem directly and things begin to fall into place. This book is a very intricately plotted sf novel with strong element of a noir thriller, bu

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Stupid Space Elevator: "Chasm City" by Alastair ReynoldsHow far down can you bring the science in science-fiction before it becomes simply fiction? For instance, if we image a world were exploration of the moon never ceased, and wherein this exploration led to development and a permanent society but stayed within the context of current existing technology, is this science-fiction? Or is science-fiction simply described as anything diff...

3.5 starsChasm City is the sequel to Revelation Space but works fine as a standalone. *****Chasm City follows two main characters via a narrative in which one man, Tanner Mirabel, has visions of another man, Sky Haussmann.Chronologically, the story begins in the 26th century, when Earth launches a fleet of generation starships to establish a colony on a distant planet. The ships carry humans in reefersleep (hibernation), who will be revived when the ships reach their destination, hundreds of yea...

Chasm City. Originally settled by self-replicating robots carrying the genetic material to construct humans on site ahead of a more conventional colonisation. A city built around a chasm that spews gas and steam that is harnessed to generate energy and atmosphere. A city that experienced a 200 year utopia known as the Belle Epoche where technology advanced to the stage where implants and nanotechnology made immortality viable. A city where buildings were grown and designed by nano machinery. A c...

Have you ever read for so long that your shoulder seizes up, and you have to stretch, but you do it one arm at a time so you can keep reading with your other hand? That happened to me while reading Chasm City. Even physical pain could not make me put this book down- I was getting to work half awake from my late nights with this one, and hanging out for my lunch breaks so I could race through a few more pages.While the rest of the Revelation Space series deals with big ticket narrative items- One...

"How long would you have to live; how much good would you have to do, to compensate for one act of pure evil you'd committed as a younger man?"Redemption. It seems to be one of Reynold's favorite themes. It was prevelant in the Revelation Space series, and it takes center stage in Chasm City. It's normal for Alastair's novels to push the 500 page mark, but unlike other works I've read in this genre, his stories are lean and mean. This is the leanest and meanest story I've read of his. Although

Chasm City: Gothic cyberpunk at its dark bestOriginally posted at Fantasy LiteratureChasm City (2001) is the fourth Alastair Reynolds book I’ve read in his REVELATION SPACE series, though it is a stand-alone and a much better book. The main trilogy (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap) featured a lot of good hard SF world-building, but was heavily weighed down by clunky characters, dialogue, and extremely bloated page-count. While Chasm City is not any shorter at around 700 pages, i...

This novel tried my patience. 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.Too much description, scenery-setting, exposition, people talking without purpose. Too many damned words that contributes little to the reader's understanding of the world, its history, etc. Ultimate fail: what should be background overwhelms the foreground.A...