Reviews

Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds

11corvus11's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm not sure exactly what I think of this massive book. I read this one after the first instead of going in publication order because I read multiple readers suggest reading it second because it elaborated on things and made the other books easier to understand. For me, it read mostly like a separate story from Revelation Space. It's also very very centered around a toxically masculine revenge story and all the women exist as sexual exploits and/or to support the protagonist in ways outside their own interest.

All of that said, I did enjoy this book. This author is so incredibly creative and is a good writer overall, despite the flaws. Like the first book in the series, I've never read anything quite like this. I read a lot of science fiction so that's saying something. I like that there is a mixture of space opera, hard sci-fi, and cyberpunk among other elements. I like that the story kept taking twists and turns and unexpected directions. The big reveals, of which there are multiple, are all pretty interesting even when they were predictable. The world building is excellent. Overall, I will definitely be reading the rest of the books in the series. I think I'm going to take a break for the moment though.

writinwater's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

3.75

xsea's review

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dark informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

astralpastures's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

kouma's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.0

salazarina's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jmoses's review against another edition

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5.0

Full of everything that makes far-future scifi awesome, and books enjoyable to read.

brian9teen's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.25

benjamin_zoumenou's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Slow at first.
The MC is not sympathetic, I didn't care about the supporting characters.
There's 3 story in one, and the city is not as predominant as the title would suggest. The second half of the book is a bit more interesting but I did not enjoy that book that much

zaphod46's review against another edition

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4.0

Good space opera