Chasm City: Alastair Reynolds

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The crater's edges granted protection from the wind storms and its gases helped provide a breathable atmosphere for the original colony, and for the city that would come later, which was contained underneath eighteen huge bio-domes known collectively as "The Mosquito Net". Instead, it was about a conflicted and very broken man slowly rediscovering his identity and realizing how little he understands about himself. So he changed from someone who would torture a subordinate to death for a well-intentioned mistake, to someone who would still kill and kill, but now occasionally has twinges of conscience. Tanner’s actual hunt for Reivich always seems to meet obstacles and get him side-tracked in true action-movie fashion. 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.

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. Almost overnight everyone on Yellowstone either removed the implants they relied on or became dead - or at leasts not exactly alive.The one time high-tech utopia has become a Gothic nightmare: a nanotechnological virus has corrupted the city's inhabitants as thoroughly as it has the buildings and machines.

De aceea, aproape nu mai contează că spre final, personajul principal se dovedește neinteresant, cu prea multe personalități scoase din pălăria autorului, dar cu prea puțină coerență din punct de vedere psiholog Rather than the blockbuster saving-the-world stakes of Revelation Space, Chasm City is a more personal story of vengeance, as former soldier and bodyguard Tanner Mirabel travels from his war-torn home of Sky’s Edge to the planet of Yellowstone, in pursuit of the man who killed his boss’ wife. The other main character, Tanner Mirabel, is a former soldier who lives in Sky's Edge hundreds of years after Haussmann was executed. 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. Both touch on philosophy of the mind, a field that fascinates me, and I suspect this is why they intrigue me.By contrast, the relatively few wealthy people in Chasm City - who've had their 'mechanics' removed - live in elevated homes in the canopy. Also, the generation ship race seemed a bit unrealistic - why would it matter which generation ship reached Sky's Edge first - a big planet ain't going to feel full if tens of thousands of such ships arrive at an empty world, let along a handful. Normally that sort of thing doesn't sit well with me but it works much better in a dark context than in a humorous or other lighter context. Now, with the entire city corrupted -from the people to the very buildings they inhabit- only the most wretched sort of existence remains. The one time high-tech utopia has become a Gothic nightmare: a nanotechnological virus has corrupted the city’s inhabitants as thoroughly as it has the buildings and machines.

In Chasm City Reynolds seems to be paying homage to cheesy who-dun-its, plot-twisty detective novels and overwrought crime thrillers. As an “easing” that’s right up there with “are you in the right headspace to receive information that could possibly hurt you? The chase requires quite a bit of interstellar travel, part of which is even on a space elevator which brings to mind Arthur C.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. En esta novela Reynolds sienta las bases del universo que crea de una manera más fácil de entender y mejor estructurada que en Espacio Revelación y te prepara para lo que viene después. The story is convoluted and action-packed, with a diverse array of characters - some human, some animal, and some other. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. The ships carry humans in reefersleep (hibernation), who will be revived when the ships reach their destination, hundreds of years after the launch.

which is a little weird in a society where people can apparently easily swap body parts and/or flip gender identities.I began with The Prefect and, as I said in my review, it was not snazzy book but it was exceptionally well executed. That persona was already lost by the time he knew it was lost, and so there wasn't any immediacy or consequence to it, and I thought that might have been a great opportunity to turn a good book into a good gut-wrenching book. The main elements that distinguish Chasm City from many other space opera and cyberpunk offerings is its unique “gothic cyberpunk” feel.