Chasm City
Chasm City (2000) – Alastair Reynolds
Chasm City is is another book written by Alastair Reynolds in the Revelation Space universe. It chronologically takes place prior to the events of the first book, but I don’t believe it would make a lot of sense to read it first. So far this series has been the culmination of everything that I want out of a science fiction space opera. Similar to the first book it gives a very imaginative world with a vast scale in both the time and distances involved. The world building and atmosphere give a good balance of wondrous yet bleak outlook on the future.
“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 book is told from the reference of three separate time periods including the past, the distance past and the present. The author manages to transition between all these time periods in what I found to be a very clever way, but considering the nature of dreams and what is essentially a memory inducing brain virus it leaves the story open to an obvious unreliable narrator. I found this to make the twist ending to be a little more obvious than it could have been. Overall I enjoyed this book as much or more than Revelation Space. One of the time periods the story takes place in is during the period where humanity was sent from Earth on generation ships to a new home. The setting of being hundreds of years from Earth in the middle of interstellar space provides an almost horror-like mystery that I found very thrilling. Combined the with present day narrative of Chasm City itself being a once grand city that is now falling apart due to a virus that infects nano-machines gives a mental image of a world unlike any other than I have read before. Ultimately I believe this story to be about the main characters greatest mistake and his impossible quest to redeem himself. Alastair Reynolds has yet to not impress me and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
