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Chasm City (SF) - Alastair Reynolds ****

As a big fan of Alastair Reynolds’ Prefect Dreyfus books I have struggled with some of his earlier novels set in the same universe, and was distinctly nervous at the prospect of 634 pages. I’m also not a huge fan of novels that interlace multiple storylines, so after being gripped by the opening sequence with a space elevator disaster, it was worrying to then plunge back to the origin story of the planet’s human habitation, though to give Reynolds his due, this is not entirely what it first seems. 

Thanks to the skill that Reynolds often demonstrates, he keeps the reader engaged in both the ‘present’ experiences of the central character in the dangerous mix of ruin and extravagance that is the titular city, and the past story of the founding of his (separate) home world. I think the reason I prefer the Dreyfus novels is that in that setting the civilisation has not collapsed, so despite the dire threats they feel more upbeat. Here amongst the devastation caused by the nanotechnology ‘melding plague’ and the threat of a an alien civilisation that wipes out intelligence if it is spotted, there is very little light relief, just constant menace and skin-of-the-teeth escapes. This doesn’t prevent the storytelling being gripping, but it would benefit from more light and shade.

Like many good hard SF writers, Reynolds like to add a bit of physical justification for engineering wonders - there is one slip up here where an alien species is able to manipulate the mass of (say) people by modifying the Higgs field - unfortunately 99% of nucleon mass (which is the vast majority of mass of physical things, including people) has nothing to do with the Higgs field.

While it was still far too long for my liking I did really enjoy Chasm City (which dates back to 2000) and it has renewed my interest in reading more of the Revelation Space series after being somewhat disappointed by the book of that name and the novella collection Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days.

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