The Quarter Century Project - Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds
Publisher – Gollancz
Published – 2001
Price - £10.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook
Come to Chasm City and embark on a mind-bending ride through the universe of Revelation Space
Tanner Mirabel was a security specialist who never made a mistake - until the day a woman in his care was blown away by Argent Reivich, a vengeful young postmortal. Tanner's pursuit of Reivich takes him across light-years of space to Chasm City, the domed human settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet of Yellowstone.
But Chasm City is not what it was. The one time high-tech utopia has become a Gothic nightmare: a nanotechnological virus has corrupted the city's inhabitants as thoroughly as it has the buildings and machines. Before the chase is done, Tanner will have to confront truths which reach back centuries, towards deep space and an atrocity history barely remembers.
I have no memory of having read Chasm City before, I do remember reading Revelation Space by Alastar Reynolds around the time it came out but I’d be hard pressed to recall things but I have enjoyed a few tales from Reynold since. This is a story that is aiming for a big revenger themed space opera and yet for me is a bit of a misfire.
Tanner Mirabel is on the hunt for a man who destroyed his life. It will take him across space to the mysterious ruined utopia known as Chasm City. Tanner is also plagued by strange dreams of the infamous Sky Haussman who created their world but with a high cost. Many secrets await to be discovered.
For me this is an interesting story that does not deserve the epic length Reynolds gave it. On the interesting side of things, I liked the seeds of ideas dotted throughout. Religious cults that can infect the unwary with stigmata and memories of their heroes. There is a beautiful space elevator in peril sequence that manages that tricky bit of being science fiction focused but also makes you feel the danger and stakes of the situation. When we eventually reach Chasm City it’s a more organic gothic horror of corruption with people submerged into buildings and may be alive. On an ideas level I was impressed but ultimately there wasn’t much else for me to hang onto.
The pacing is sedentary. Set piece is usually padded out by Mirabel going somewhere else being grumpy and then moving into more danger. Chasm City is about a quarter of the way into the book and I didn’t feel we needed to wait so long. For a space opera its more landscapes than big empires and big casts so we feel like we wander around in space, but I don’t really feel like I was getting anywhere (I feel like I did travel all those light years doing nothing). A big part of my issue is Tanner who recalls many 1990s anti-heroes you could find – hard as nails, morally flexible and unfortunately here I found dull as dust water. The dialogue is tortuous. Reynolds has opted to make this first-person narrative and Tanner ‘s voice falls flat on me. He is apparently a mercenary but at the same time can talk like a science textbook (may be reasons later for this but for me feels poor character building). Other characters we meet have almost the same voice – each talks exposition paragraphs which as we know is my pet hate. I can see where it is going but its way too little and late for me to be invested at all. I also note how shallow, and few are the women that appear in any significant roles.
Can I see how this won? Not really and I would rate two nominees ahead of it (Gwyneth Jones’ Bold As Love and Jon Courtney Grimwood’s Pahazade both of which I remember much more clearly 25 years on). I don’t think this is a story that’s really made any long-term impact on the science fiction novels since and so am glad to be moving on.
