More than five and a half years ago on a trip to the Philippines, I read Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds’ first novel. At the time, I enjoyed the book enough to buy his second novel, Chasm City. The book has been sitting in my pile of books to read ever since.

Looking for a science fiction book to read, I picked Chasm City up a couple of weeks ago and finished it on the trip to Spokane. I really enjoyed the book. With longer books, I often find myself reaching a point where I am ready to move on to something else. Chasm City kept me engaged and interested through 700 pages. The story line reminded me in some ways of the Bourne Identity. Although the resolution of the climatic scene is odd and the last five pages are a little flat, it is a hard science fiction novel that I would recommend.

I liked this book A Lot until I got to the ‘final battle’ scene. Something happened there that blew so hard I chucked the book across the shop-room, it landed in a puddle of heavy lube, and I didn’t care.

Set in the same universe as Revelation Space, but with an all new cast of characters. I started reading it on the Disneyland trip, but now that I’m back I’ll probably slow down the pace…

Finished during a trip to Chatanooga. Good, a little bit more predictable than Revelation Space.

It was a toss-up between Gurdjieff and more Reynolds.
This time, Alastair won.