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Sep 16, 2011

Joel rated it:

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.)
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Jan 05, 2009

Sfmurphy rated it:

Originally published at Strange Horizons.

On the nitrogen-methane world of Yellowstone, within the domed enclosure of Chasm City, humans had perfected a utopian civilization founded on nanotechnology. During the twenty-sixth century, Chasm City was considered the apex of cultural and technological achievement in human space. Immortality was taken as a basic right and the buildings themselves grew like trees.

Newcomer Tanner Mirabel, combat veteran turned security consultan More...

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Dec 17, 2009

Silvercharmer rated it:

This is the first alastair Reynolds book I read, and I was so blown off my ass I couldn't think straight for a few days. This guy has the perfect toolkit for writing science fiction: a background in astrophysics, an amazing imagination, a strong sense of character and a compelling plot with a deserving ending. What attracts me most to his writing is his uncanny grasp of human nature and human behavior, and what it would evolve into when projected into the future, when technological advancements More...

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Jan 04, 2012

Peter rated it:

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Jun 13, 2011

Zach rated it:

Alastair Reynolds is wildly imaginative, even for a science fiction author. Whereas in some science fiction books of similar length, the author might focus on the intensely creative development of a futuristic setting and of the interesting characters who live there, Reynolds does this in Chasm City and then creates fully realized settings two more times; we have action in the city and following the main protagonist who travels there to solve mysteries and pursue villains, then we have the acti More...

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May 25, 2011

Karen rated it:

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Mar 27, 2011

Andreas rated it:

Scary in it’s placing of humanity firmly at the bottom of the Universe’s pecking order, this series of books contains some pretty big concepts. Worth reading just for the descriptions of cultures and aliens. Watch out though, Reynolds is not afraid of making the Universe a scary place. I refused to read Redemption Ark close to bedtime. I would just lay awake and shiver at the thought of how huge the universe is, and how short-lived and fragile we are.

* Revelation Space – Cool, pure More...

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Aug 08, 2010

Danielle rated it:

Alastair Reynolds writes big books. Big in size: Chasm City is nearly 700 pages in the paperback mass market edition, and stuffed with enough detail on its future setting to fill a travel brochure. Big in scope: good and evil, vast reaches of time and space, men and mutant pig-men and aliens from the void. Chasm City is like a bowl of wildly overflowing yeast. Even the author can’t punch it down to an entirely manageable shape.

We start out with two interleaving story lines. One More...

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Aug 04, 2010

Forrest rated it:

There's a pleasant attempt at 80s-style dystopian cyberpunk decadence crossed with widescreen space opera hiding somewhere in this baggy, shambling novel, but you have to wade through a lot of flat characterization, tin-eared dialog, and predictable plotting to get to it. If tragedy is the combination of irony and inevitability, its shadow hovers over the proceedings, but the blindingly obvious signposting of the narrative greatly weakens the effect. More ruthless editing would have helped this More...

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Jul 01, 2010

Michael rated it:

First things first: Chasm City is NOT Revelation Space number two, unless the information on Alastair Reynolds’ personal website is wrong. That seems unlikely. Chasm City is stand-alone and can be read at any time. You’ll hear various opinions, but I can only speak to one of them -- Chasm City is my second Reynolds, after Revelation Space, and I enjoyed reading City with the context Space gave me. I’m very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

Not that Chasm City is per More...

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Aug 14, 2009

Jeremy rated it:

A well written dystopian novel, yet one which I had trouble connecting to. Not only had this far future society crumbled (thanks to the Melding Plague), but the story was told first person through the eyes of an equally crumbled human. Reynolds does a good job of keeping the reader guessing throughout the book, with surprising turns and believable technology, but I had higher hopes for the ending. I wanted the pain and ugliness described throughout the book to lead someplace redeeming. Perha More...

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Dec 31, 2010

Akiva rated it:

This was almost a really good book. It suffered some of the same problems as his first book Revelation Space: awkward dialogue, a lack of sympathetic characters, general bloat. But somehow these flaws didn't matter as much. The storyline seemed more focused (though even longer) and the characters had more charm and clearer motivations than Revelation Space, at least until the end when everything got confused. And one of the plotlines, taking place in weird dream flashbacks aboard a generational More...

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Jan 22, 2012

John rated it:

A welcome return to the Revelation Space universe, Chasm City seems more focused than the books of the main trilogy. Like those books, Chasm City has several narrative strands whose relationship to one another doesn't become clear until towards the end; but in Chasm City those strands have at least some connection from the start, since they're all being recounted or experienced as dreams by the single first-person narrator. The reader is kept trying to work out how the strands relate to one anot More...

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Feb 17, 2011

Alexandra rated it:

As with Revelation Space, this is the second time I've read Chasm City - and the first time was some years ago. Consequently, while there were a few things I remembered quite well, I still managed to be surprised by some of the twists and turns of the plot. This time, there were more occasions on which I picked up hints and allusions; I was quite proud of guessing what might be going on until I remembered that I'd already the thing...

It's another awesome space opera from Reynolds. On More...

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Sep 15, 2010

Jenny rated it:

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May 25, 2010

Michael rated it:

Rounded up to 4 from 3.5, because 3 is a little toooo mean.

This is going to sound weird for a hard-as-diamond hard sf New Space Opera book, but this book could have used a tad more worldbuilding and a hundred pages less plot. I wish we'd SEEN more melting buildings, witnessed more people with implants gone haywire by the Melding Plague, or more of a glimpse of the haywire scenery of the Rust Belt.

But that, I guess, is the upside and the downside of an Alastair Reynolds bo More...

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Oct 05, 2010

Lightreads rated it:

I am so jaded: you read one book about plagues that eat nanotechnology, and religious experience as the result of an indoctrinal neurovirus, and the particular kind of psychosis that results from decades-long sublight space flights, you’ve read them all.

Particularly when you’ve actually read three, all by the same guy. Seriously, Alastair Reynolds, think about something else!

And this book is a mess anyway – bloated, terrible dialogue (seriously, the narrator of my audiob More...

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Dec 30, 2010

Brian rated it:

Revelation Space has a few faults of its own, but they are hard to focus on amidst the plethora of evocative images and grand ideas that Reynolds is working with. But Chasm City is torturous. My intention over the course of this review is to dissuade readers who are coming from Reynolds' debut novel eager for an expansion of the ideas, people, and places present in that piece. For the sake of your time and enjoyment, look elsewhere!

Chasm City is essentially a neo-noir detective st More...

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Sep 11, 2010

Adrian rated it:

This is probably my favorite novel of the Revelation Space universe. By this point, Reynolds has polished his character writing ability; Sky is possibly the most disturbed character I have ever felt a personal affinity for in a novel. The novel follows an unusual path, starting with a character who appears intrinsically good, exploring his forgotten past life of near maniacal selfishness and cruelty, and pulls him back out of it to, if not redemption, then at least the defeat of his own inner de More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Meg rated it:

The novel encompasses a set of three distinct narratives that Reynolds carefully weaves together into a single story. Early in the book, these three tales seem uncomfortably disjoint (albeit each interesting in their own right), but as the book progresses the stories begin to interweave and the reader is carefully introduced to their interdependencies.

Reynolds does a beautiful job of slowly and gradually unwrapping the layers of his story, dropping plenty of foreshadowing hints to al More...

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Jul 02, 2011

Josh rated it:

Another great story by Alastair Reynolds. Listened to the audio format of this one; as always, narrator John Lee does a FANTASTIC job of telling the story, keeping the characters separate with his amazing variety of voices, and adding just the right touch of emotion and intonation at all the right times. And of course it's very pleasant to listen to, I still think it sounds just like Sean Connery reading the story! In short, I wish he was the narrator of a lot more audiobooks out there.

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Feb 07, 2011

William rated it:

So this was another excellent book from Reynolds. I maintain that I prefer the similar works of Stross, but there is something really amazing about the worlds Reynolds creates. My only real problem with this book is the same one I have with his other works: there is no feeling that you know what's going on or what is possible to the same extent that the characters do. I felt like an outsider reading this book and all the grant tech stuff always came from a blind spot. To compare, the tech in More...

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Mar 29, 2010

Alex rated it:

Reynolds has a gift for ideas. But then it has a problem with characters.

This book amplifies the faults I felt in book one: characters difficult to relate to, and also characters that are inconsistent. On the one hand, they're usually ruthless and vicious; suddenly, they're incredibly empathic to others.

In this book, in particular, the author follows a tortuous path with his main character. The author's struggle to convey his evolution are evident, specially towards the e More...

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Feb 17, 2009

Nathan rated it:

Part mystery, part action, all hard sci-fi.

Like his previous book (Revelation Space), Reynolds tends to interweave events from previous times into one narrative. Unlike his first book, however, this one doesn't jump around illogically and in fact, the transitions between time and place are seamless in the greater narrative.

This book is related to, but not a direct sequel, to Revelation Space. And you can read this one as a stand alone novel without any issues. It's o More...

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Jul 25, 2010

Morgan rated it:

Another amazing hard science fiction book from Alastair Reynolds (is anyone really surprised?). Taking place chronologically before the events of Revelation Space the book was a great glimpse into some of the history of the Revelation Space universe especially regarding the world of Sky's Edge. Characters were interesting, the protagonist especially, and as usual the technical descriptions and detailing of the futuristic world of Yellowstone was top notch (again no surprises here).

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Jun 30, 2010

Zivan rated it:

As usual Reynolds writing is captivating.
I really enjoyed this book though I wouldn't recommend reading it right after Revelation Space.

I got my Revelation Space series books from Audible.com. Audible skipped this second book in the series and jumped straight to Redemption Ark. I was surprised when I found out that there was a second book in the series that I had skipped.

However Chasm City is more of a prequel or side story and doesn't advance the series a single io More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Cass rated it:

The book opened with a letter explaining, to the newly arrived visitor, why the planet was nothing like the brochure. It was a corny way to begin a book, it was easy, it was a shortcut.

Having said that it was actually an interesting read. If the author had stopped there and published it as a short-story I would have really enjoyed it. However the book began and the tone, not surprisingly, was completely different to the letter. For the first time in my life I flicked to the back to s More...

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Apr 19, 2011

Mike rated it:

In my review of Revelation Space (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/156...) I complained that the book was too slow to get started but had an awesome ending. I then indicated that I was working my way through the sequel, which is Chasm City, and that the "slow beginning" problem was repeating in that book as well. Unfortunately, Chasm City did not have the same mind-blowing ending that Revelation Space had. Instead it was meandering, meaningless and boring throughout, and the payoff More...

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Nov 01, 2009

Robin rated it:

Great concepts and visual suggestions of worlds and technologies. While his characters weren't a strong point, they were adequately drawn enough to push through the plot that drives the book. He has a great way of describing things with just enough suggestion of detail and concept of technology that guides you to imagine an object, from micro to macro without being pushy or doing a great deal of handholding. I'll admit I wasn't blown away until about page 50, but then it got me.

I' More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Isabel rated it:

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