Alastair Reynolds
Chasm City

'Chasm City' is a science fiction novel by the Welsh writer Alastair Reynolds, born in 1966. Originally published in 2001, the hefty novel (over six hundred and fifty pages) is a space opera set in the same universe as his other main works but, as often happens, has its own characteristics that make it accessible and readable regardless of familiarity with the entire universe created by the author. He is not the first and won't be the last to set multiple novels within the same broader imaginary world.

Discussing the plot of this novel in all its aspects is particularly challenging, given the multitude of twists and mysteries revealed only page by page by the author. He not only narrates and depicts the main events but ensures they are specifically set and represented within a wider context, thus giving the reader every possible hook to understand all the dynamics contained within the novel.

From the outset, the work seems to take the form of a real thriller: a manhunt that will lead the agent Tanner Mirabel from the frontier planet Finiscoeli, perpetually at war since the arrival of the first settlers, to the planet Yellowstone, where the crater city that gives the novel its name is located. After a prosperous period lasting two hundred years, a sort of self-aware Belle Époque, the city fell into ruin following a 'structural plague,' a nano-technological virus that attacked machinery and metals and killed a lot of people, considering that most individuals have their structure altered by the implantation of mechanical devices, which would not be immune to the consequences of the virus spread.

Tanner Mirabel is a man trained to kill like few others and is driven in his mission by revenge against Argent Reivich, whom we will discover to be one of the 'aristocratic' inhabitants of the crater city. Reivich escaped after injuring Tanner’s foot and after the death of Gitta, the woman of his 'employer' — the ruthless snake hunter named Cahuella — whom he was meant to protect and with whom he had secretly fallen in love. Nevertheless, apparently, there seems to be no other purpose than revenge, along with a desire to fulfill his duty due to a kind of innate 'sense of duty' in Tanner Mirabel’s actions, a methodical assassin who knows exactly what needs to be done. Having known nothing but war all his life, as we continue reading, all the way to the end, we will discover the larger picture wherein the events unfold and all the mysteries that slowly envelop his figure like a cloud of fog will eventually be unveiled.

Furthermore, Reynolds' work is not just the narrative of Tanner Mirabel's adventures, a sequence of unpredictable and exciting dynamics, and the trail of actions and terrible violence he carries along from Finiscoeli to Yellowstone, from the depths of the crater to the high city inhabited by the so-called aristocrats. In what ultimately becomes a true parallel narrative, the author reveals the dramatic and grotesque events that led to the colonization of Finiscoeli, sparked by the first colonial expedition of five spaceships launched from Earth, the so-called 'Flotilla.' Particularly, it details the life of the legendary Sky Haussmann from childhood to his dreadful end. Being part of the third generation of the Haussmanns who consecutively commanded the 'Santiago' spaceship expedition, Sky is simultaneously considered by Finiscoeli's inhabitants and especially the 'heirs' of the 'Santiago' expedition as both the hero who completed a journey lasting hundreds of years until the colonization of Finiscoeli and as a traitor who was later captured and crucified, thus fostering a religious cult around him. This cult, under many respects, is based on the Christian model and is practiced by a secretive and potent sect on the planet, marked by a strong ascetic component, leading them to perform rituals like acts of mutilation or to deliberately spread a kind of contagion — a virus that they transmit to anyone who comes into contact with them, causing in the infected individual physical mutations, such as the appearance of stigmata and hallucinations in which they continually relive, in their dreams and sometimes even in waking 'visions,' the story of Sky.

Reynolds' narrative, which mainly follows these two storylines, eventually intertwines due to a series of hallucinations suffered by Tanner Mirabel after becoming infected right at the beginning of the events. It is aimed not only at achieving specific goals regarding the two narrative planes but also at depicting the events that lead humanity to the colonization of space in his universe, and how this occurs differently depending on historical moments and technologies used. If the Flotilla, for example, is the first expedition launched from Earth and takes hundreds of years and multiple generations to reach its destination, subsequent missions would take much less time, thereby giving rise to more advanced and stable civilizations not strained by long 'journeys of hope' and tensions among their members (starting with rivalries between different ships) and without considering that part of the crews consists of 'sleepers,' destined to awaken from hibernation only upon landing, and by nature also meant to have a life significantly longer than that of the other colonists. An approach that inherently is destined to create inevitable conflicts upon the foundation of the colonies,

A brilliant novel, written in a manner as captivating as it is mysterious, practically urges the reader never to let go because they want to know 'everything.' Perhaps Reynolds' greatest skill lies precisely in being able to meet this great demand.

The many themes proposed and, rather than being argued, presented according to the facts already constitute both science fiction components (considerations on the relationship between humans and animal species, primarily dolphins, and the depiction of alien entities or mutants will not be missing) and social considerations that can also be viewed in the contexts in which we live. Longevity, dependence on mechanization and automation processes at all levels, competitiveness in obtaining major energy resources, social inequality, religious fanaticism, and 'boredom' are subjects that, after all, we can consider current and real challenges humanity has to tackle both in the present and future times. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be on the path to resolution but are destined to worsen, alongside the explosion of dramatic phenomena and events that are part of what we call geopolitics as well as simple daily chronicles.