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    <TITLE>SFDG Notes on CHASM CITY</TITLE>
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    <P CLASS="Breadcrumbs"><A HREF="index.html">SFDG</A> -> <A
      HREF="specificBooks.php">Specific Books</A> -> <CITE>Chasm
      City</CITE></P>

    <H1><CITE>Chasm City</CITE> by Alastair Reynolds</H1>

    <H2>(discussed August 21, 2003)</H2>

    <P><STRONG>On a ten-point scale (1=bad, 10=good), the people who
      read the book gave the following ratings:</STRONG> <?php
      showVotes(); ?><BR>
      <STRONG>Average:</STRONG> <?php echo(voteAverage()); ?></P>

    <P>Alastair Reynolds has a website at <A
      HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~voxish/Home.html">http://members.tripod.com/~voxish/Home.html</A>
      . The content on the site is pretty nice (notes on his various
      writings, and his comments on hard SF writers past and present),
      but his web host, Tripod, forces an annoying popup banner window
      while you browse the site.</P>

    <P>The book was &quot;sponsored&quot; by <STRONG>Ignacio
      Viglizzo</STRONG> and <STRONG>Raja Thiagarajan</STRONG>.</P>

    <P><STRONG>Raja</STRONG> says</P>

    <BLOCKQUOTE>

      <P><CITE>Chasm City</CITE> is set in the same universe as two
        other novels: <CITE>Revelation Space</CITE> and
        <CITE>Redemption Ark</CITE>, and six shorter stories: "A Spy
        in Europa", "Galactic North", "Great Wall of Mars", "Glacial",
        "Diamond Dogs", and "Turquoise Days". You can read "A Spy in
        Europa" <A
        HREF="http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/europa.htm">online</A>
        at the <CITE>Infinity Plus</CITE> website.</P>

      <P>While I enjoyed <CITE>Revelation Space</CITE> (his first
        novel), I pushed for the group to read <CITE>Chasm City</CITE>
        instead because (a) I think it's a better novel, (b) I think
        it stands alone quite well (<CITE>Revelation Space</CITE>
        points strongly to a sequel), and (c) it comes first among the
        novels, in terms of internal chronology (<CITE>Chasm
        City</CITE>'s Epilogue has a short scene pointing to the start
        of <CITE>Revelation Space</CITE>).</P>

      <P>If you plan to read more stories set in this universe, I
        recommend that you read <CITE>Redemption Ark</CITE> last--it's
        a "sequel" to not only <CITE>Revelation Space</CITE> but also
        to "Galactic North", "Great Wall of Mars", "Glacial", and
        <CITE>Chasm City</CITE>. (At least, those were the references
        I recognized when I read it; I wouldn't be surprised to find
        I'd missed references to the other short stories.)</P>

      <P>Reynolds's next novel, <CITE>Absolution Gap</CITE>,
        "concludes the loose sequence of novels relating directly to
        the Inhibitors." (That would place it after <CITE>Redemption
        Ark</CITE>.) "That doesn't mean that there won't ever be
        another novel set in the same universe as these books. Any
        further books, however, will be more like <CITE>Chasm
        City</CITE>, standing on their own and with only background
        references to the Inhibitor theme."</P>

    </BLOCKQUOTE>

    <P>Both <STRONG>Chris Stanley</STRONG> and <STRONG>Lisa Bradley</STRONG>
      finished the book later and emailed their votes in. Interestingly,
      both said that a better book &quot;could have been distilled from
      it.&quot; However, they disagreed about which part they liked; Lisa
      (and several others) thought the first part was more interesting,
      while Chris wrote &quot;...I found the whole thing boring except the
      last 50 pages or so.&quot; and &quot;It's as I always suspected.
      *I'm* the weird one.&quot; ;-)</P>



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