CHASM CITY by Alastair Reynolds
Ace, June 2003, 694 pgs, ISBN: 0441010644, Mass Market Paperback, $7.99

Genre: Science Fiction

Let me begin by saying that, if you’ve read Chasm City‘s back cover blurb, you’d do well to go ahead and pretend that you hadn’t.

Oh, the blurb has something to do with the plot, that’s true enough. But it’s nowhere near as accurate as it ought to be. So, before I give my thoughts on Chasm City, I’ll have to rectify this faulty image of the story.

Tanner Mirabel, formerly employed as a security operative by a man named Cahuella, is after Reivich, the man responsible for the death of said employer. However, simple revenge doesn’t turn out to be nearly as straightforward as he expected it to be. After a series of unexpected events (unrelated to Lemony Snicket, I assure you), Tanner finds himself far from his homeworld of Sky’s Edge but still on the trail of Reivich. To find him, he must go to the once-utopian Chasm City, a settlement that has been altered beyond recognition by a virus called the Melding Plague. Nevertheless, Tanner continues his journey, only to stumble into more than a few complicated situations. Not least on his list of problems is an indoctrinal virus causing him to have detailed dreams about the war criminal Schulyer Haussmann, the man who was first to land on Sky’s Edge and begin colonization. But, rather than eventually wearing off, these dreams turn into waking visions, and soon Tanner has to face the possibility that, somehow, things aren’t exactly as they appear to be, not even within his own consciousness.

Chasm City has to be one of the more enjoyable science fiction novels that I’ve read over the last few years. Oh, it has its ups and downs, but over all it doesn’t disappoint. Of particular interest is Tanner Mirabel, the main character of the story. Somehow Reynolds manages to make this character likeable and interesting right from the beginning. The other two characters present in the first three or four chapters, who are, in fact, incidental to the novel, manage to pull off the same coup, and you’re left wondering whether you’re going to end up liking everyone regardless of what part they play.

Continue Reading….