Publications: Reviews

CHASM CITY by Alastair Reynolds

Gollancz 2001 524pp £10.99

Alastair Reynolds’ second novel is billed as a return to the universe of his first, Revelation Space (2000). Luckily it is not at all necessary to have read Revelation Space to enjoy this book. And a very different book Chasm City is from its predecessor.

Chasm City is a domed human settlement built next to -- you’ve got it -- a giant chasm, on the planet Yellowstone. The city has seen far better days, and when Tanner Mirabel arrives there in search of revenge, to find and kill Argent Reivich, its decay and corruption, and the lawlessness and hedonism of its various types of inhabitant do nothing but apparently hinder Mirabel from carrying out his task.

At the same time, Mirabel starts to suffer the effects of an indoctrination virus, and at the most inconvenient times he effectively relives episodes from the life of Sky Haussmann, a leading colonist from centuries in the past. Ancient wrongs, hidden for centuries, are becoming known.

As someone else’s apparently irrelevant past begins to catch up with Mirabel‘s increasingly dangerous and complicated present, it becomes clear that the present is nothing like what it should be -- and Mirabel and his task isn’t, either.

Chasm City is an intricate novel, yet lacks the confusedness of Revelation Space. But it has all its pace and verve -- and possibly more. With its pervasive noir atmosphere, Chasm City gradually reveals more and more of a byzantine plot, one in which the nature of reality and deception, truth and lies is explored and unfolded relentlessly and in such a way as to keep the reader constantly interested.

While not having the hard-sf scope of Revelation Space, Reynolds’ second novel is a mind-bending and lively treat. And it amply shows that Reynolds is one of the hottest new British talents around.   

Copyright (c) 2001 John Howard