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Chasm City
by Alastair Reynolds
by Alastair Reynolds
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 perfect, and in fact it is, overall, not as well-written as Revelation Space. Very little occurred in Revelation Space that didn’t make sense, that didn’t seem well-founded in the various agendas and quirks of each of the characters. It all fit very well together.
On the other hand, City feels a bit rushed in parts, more telling than showing, some of the dialogue clunky and unbelievable and quite naive for such street-wise characters, and some parts, especially toward the end game, after a shot down a long tube in particular, seemed far too easy for the protagonist to accomplish, and too anti-climactic to be believable.
It all became a little Scooby-Doo-ish, with the “you stay here/no I’m coming with you/no you’re not/yes I am.” Part of me thinks Chasm City, published second, yet feels more rough, might have been written before Revelation Space.
I would have liked to learn more about the mysteries as well, and I would have liked one detail in particular to be wrapped up -- which is explained away, unsatisfactorily, in the novel’s closing pages.
The novel accomplishes some clever stuff -- not the least of which is a charmingly noirish and dark, engaging and often page-turning story. I also enjoyed the shifting perspectives. While too abrupt at times, the shifts in time/place/character worked to keep me very much engaged. In many novels I often find these shifts expose one tedious, less engaging perspective that I typically dread to read through -- not so here.
Overall, City is probably a 3.5 that I’m rounding up to a 4. Space was a solid 4. This is an intelligent, well-written, dark and compelling space opera detective story. Tanner Mirabel is your Sam Spade. Think Blade Runner.
Highly recommended!
Not that Chasm City is perfect, and in fact it is, overall, not as well-written as Revelation Space. Very little occurred in Revelation Space that didn’t make sense, that didn’t seem well-founded in the various agendas and quirks of each of the characters. It all fit very well together.
On the other hand, City feels a bit rushed in parts, more telling than showing, some of the dialogue clunky and unbelievable and quite naive for such street-wise characters, and some parts, especially toward the end game, after a shot down a long tube in particular, seemed far too easy for the protagonist to accomplish, and too anti-climactic to be believable.
It all became a little Scooby-Doo-ish, with the “you stay here/no I’m coming with you/no you’re not/yes I am.” Part of me thinks Chasm City, published second, yet feels more rough, might have been written before Revelation Space.
I would have liked to learn more about the mysteries as well, and I would have liked one detail in particular to be wrapped up -- which is explained away, unsatisfactorily, in the novel’s closing pages.
The novel accomplishes some clever stuff -- not the least of which is a charmingly noirish and dark, engaging and often page-turning story. I also enjoyed the shifting perspectives. While too abrupt at times, the shifts in time/place/character worked to keep me very much engaged. In many novels I often find these shifts expose one tedious, less engaging perspective that I typically dread to read through -- not so here.
Overall, City is probably a 3.5 that I’m rounding up to a 4. Space was a solid 4. This is an intelligent, well-written, dark and compelling space opera detective story. Tanner Mirabel is your Sam Spade. Think Blade Runner.
Highly recommended!
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Peter
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rated it 4 stars
Jan 04, 2012 04:35pm
I was just reading your review and laughed out loud once I saw "It all became a little Scooby-Doo-ish". That's nearly indetical, word-for-word, to what I've mentioned in my review about the same part of the book. :-D Yeah, it felt too much like "OK, Tanner/Sky/whatever, you lead the way and we'll try to act amazed as you reveal obvious plot twists to us while we're driving around in the cable car". :-)
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