Chasm City: Alastair Reynolds

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I remember the gargantuan, Gormenghast-esque spaceship with a miniscule crew spending decades to travel between stars; I remember the archaeological dig of an extinct alien species whose myths hinted at some terrible and vengeful god; I remember the impression that humanity’s scattered, isolated colonies were all authoritarian dictatorships, their little remaining statecraft consisting mostly of threats and coercion.

I'm a big fan of Ian M Banks' culture novels because, like all good "Space Opera", they focus on the development of one or two characters at a time in some galaxy-spanning universe that is never about the universe as much as it is about the characters - the "space" is just a backdrop for a really good story. So I figured it was worth going back and actually finishing the Revelation Space trilogy – which I’ll still do, even though it turns out his second novel Chasm City is set in the same universe but is actually a stand-alone story taking place centuries beforehand. I thought about it for days after I had read it, and my memories of its stand-out scenes still send shivers up my sci-fi loving spine. El autor entremezcla 3 y 4 hilos argumentales todos ellos imprescindibles para la compresión final de la historia y en cada uno de ellos tu empatía hacía los personajes van variando del amor al odio con cada nueva acción que realizan. 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".we initially follow two storylines: one with our first-person protagonist tanner mirabel, a gruff security operative and weapons expert, who’s looking to kill the guy who murdered his previous clients.

Pero lo mejor de todo es el sentido de la maravilla que tiene Alastair Reynolds, su forma de abarcar cientos de años en una misma historia y que todo cuadre.

I began with The Prefect and, as I said in my review, it was not snazzy book but it was exceptionally well executed. Definitely inventive and highly entertaining, this sci-fi thriller is a deep preview into the future of human race, with all tricks we can already predict now: perspective of limited immortality, scanning of personal experiences into computers, minuscule and gigantic machines permeating every sphere of live and bearing the seeds of mortal dangers, swapping of memories and erased personalities, brain implants, body sculpture etc feeding the hungry reader with nightmarish visions. For your information we have compiled this document to explain some of the key events in our recent history. Into this background comes our main protagonist Tanner Mirabel, a mercenary hunting his employer's killers from the giant serpent infested Jungles of Sky's Edge to the plague infested Canopy of Chasm City to the very maw of hell itself.

As an “easing” that’s right up there with “are you in the right headspace to receive information that could possibly hurt you? The potential exists buried deep within, but this novel does not successfully convey the nuanced dissonance that raises red flags for readers to follow. what starts as a simple revenge story in a cyberpunk dystopia turns out to be much more complex as several characters’ lives, both past and present, interlock and slowly reveal the Real Truth of the matter.One of the big contributing factors to this novel’s success is the atmosphere that Reynolds injects into his Revelation Space books. I know it sounds gross, and I suppose that's partially the meaning I intend to convey, but I also mean that Chasm City oozes darkness and human desperation, and I further mean that the setting—Chasm City itself—oozes around you while your read, displacing your warm and comfortable wealthy Western surroundings. This was my third Reynolds book after 'The Prefect' and 'Century Rain', and again, I have not been disappointed. in the end, i could ramble on about this book’s faults for ages, but how much you enjoy this book will probably depend on how much you will appreciate the last fifth of the book, and how you interpret the true themes and mirabel’s journey as a character.