Chasm City

This article is about the book. For the city, see List of Revelation Space locations: Chasm City.
Chasm City
Author Alastair Reynolds
Cover artist Chris Moore
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Revelation Space
Genre Hard sci-fi novel
Publisher Gollancz
Publication date
 2001
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
ISBN 978-0575-06877-3
Preceded by Revelation Space
Followed by Redemption Ark

Chasm City is a 2001 science fiction novel by author Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe. It deals with themes of identity, memory, and immortality, and many of its scenes are concerned primarily with describing the unusual societal and physical structure of the titular city, a major nexus of Reynolds's universe. It won the 2002 British Science Fiction Association award.

Synopsis

Chasm City is framed and largely written in the voice of Tanner Mirabel, a security expert who has come to Chasm City to avenge the death of his former client's wife at the hands of a "postmortal" noble named Argent Reivich.

Tanner arrives to find that Yellowstone, the most advanced civilization in human history, has descended into squalor; an alien nanotech virus known as the Melding Plague has wreaked havoc throughout the system. Chasm City, a dense forest of mile-high shapeshifting skyscrapers, has melted into a slum. The Glitter Band, a sparkling diorama of ten thousand orbital habitats, has been reduced to a "Rust Belt" of a few hundred survivors, mostly primitive and pre-nanotech antiques.

In this chaos of plague and desolation, Tanner seeks his prey, only to discover that Reivich is more clever than he originally thought. In the midst of his hunt, he begins experiencing virus-induced flashbacks from the life of Sky Haussman, the founder of his home world, Sky's Edge, who is both revered and reviled for the crimes he committed for his people.

From the depths of the gas plume at the heart of Chasm City, to the aristocratic canopy spanning what remains of the skyscrapers, Mirabel begins to unravel the mystery of the Melding Plague.

Awards and nominations

Chasm City won the 2002 British Science Fiction Association award.[1][2]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "N.b.news". Bookseller (5021): 6. 12 April 2002. ISSN 0006-7539.
  2. ↑ "Book Prize Information – British Science Fiction Association Award – Best Novel".
Bibliography

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.