Chasm City

 

Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds (2020 Orbit softcover 598pp)

 

Since his debut novel “Revelation Space” was published around the turn of the century, UK author Alastair Reynolds has become one of the go-to authors for wide-screen, big idea, written Space Opera. He’s become increasingly popular for his works which include several ongoing series and stand-alone novels. “Chasm City” is one of his very early works, I believe it was his second published book and I’m afraid it seems to show that his abilities weren’t quite were he wanted them to be yet.

Set in the “Revelation Space” universe but not directly connected to any other book, “Chasm City” is an attempt to write some sort of SF ‘Noir’ detective story.

Former soldier and corporate security thug Tanner Mirabel tells the story, mainly in first person as he tries to track down and bring bloody revenge upon Argent Reivich. Reivich’s men have killed Tanner’s boss’s wife (also Tanner’s secret girlfriend) and therefore must die (etc).

The first third of the books details the chase on Mirabel’s native planet of “Sky’s Edge” as we learn a little of its history and religion before an exciting sequence involving a space elevator. So far so good. There’s a brief interlude when Tanner wakes up in a space habitat with amnesia and is tended to by a helpful nun. Its seems he’s travelled on an interstellar spacecraft as frozen cargo and now must pick up the chase once more. He makes his way down to the colony world of Yellowstone and its major settlement “Chasm City”.

Once a wonder of the galaxy, “Chasm City” his fallen on hard times due to the outbreak of the ‘Melding Plague’ which has made all but the most basic technology useless. Oddly the plague, which sounds fascinating, gets very little mention in the rest of the novel apart from a couple of scenes. Its mainly there as a backdrop and an excuse.

Once Tanner reaches the city, I found the book nosedived somewhat. Tanner’s dream sequences where possibly due to the effects of a religious indoctrination virus he relives the life of growing psychopath Sky Haussmann became more interesting and intriguing than the main plot.

Chasm City itself reads like a massive cliché – it’s the usual SF Cyberpunk deal where there’s millions of street-level poor people and hustlers whilst the rich live a high life literally above the rest.

Tanner finds himself hunted but as a bonus every woman he meets seems to become a devoted companion after about 5 minutes with him.

There’s some interesting stuff in there but I found most of the Chasm City scenes a big yawn. Its doesn’t really get much interesting again until, towards the end,  he and his new pals venture under the city into the chasm itself. Certain story threads finally mesh together and Tanner faces some big revelations about himself and his history. Most of these you can see coming a couple of hundred pages earlier.

The book does really read like an early draft by the author, perhaps written to flesh out some aspects of the “Revelation Space” universe before committing to it wholesale. It was interesting to be back in that particular setting again and this book isn’t quite as cold and clinical as “Revelation Space” itself, but maybe Space Opera is more his style.

It was entertaining but maybe too long and didn’t have as many neat ideas as I was expecting from this author.