Chasm City is the sequel to Revelation Space but works fine as a standalone.
*****
Chasm City follows two main characters via a narrative in which one man, Tanner Mirabel, has visions of another man, Sky Haussmann.
Chronologically, the story begins in the 26th century, when Earth launches a fleet of generation starships to establish a colony on a distant planet.
The ships carry humans in reefersleep (hibernation), who will be revived when the ships reach their destination, hundreds of years after the launch.
Live crews man the vessels and monitor the sleepers.
Following an attempted sabotage on one of the starships, a man named Sky Haussman becomes the vessel's head of security.
Sky has an agenda and does unspeakable things to (eventually) become the ship's captain and advance his personal interests.
After the starships reach their final destination, named Sky's Edge, Haussmann is ultimately convicted and executed for his crimes. By then, Haussmann has become a cult leader with a fanatical following, and his fans carry and spread a nanovirus that gives people visions of Sky and his life.
The other main character, Tanner Mirabel, is a former soldier who lives in Sky's Edge hundreds of years after Haussmann was executed. Like many people on Sky's Edge, Mirabel is infected with the nanovirus.
Thus Tanner has visions of Sky whenever he falls asleep. Tanner works as head of security for a barbarous arms dealer called Cahuella, a sadistic brute who's made many enemies.
One of Cahuella's foes is a wealthy citizen called Argent Reivich, who blames Cahuella for the death of his family. Cahuella learns that Reivich means to kill him, so the arms dealer and his security chief go on alert and prepare for the attack.
The attack occurs, things go wrong, and security chief Tanner vows to kill Reivich.
As things pan out, Tanner follows Reivich to Chasm City on a planet called Yellowstone; this necessitates a decades-long voyage that requires travelers to enter reefersleep. The hibernation causes partial amnesia, so once Tanner awakens, he needs rehab before he sets off to bag his quarry.
Tanner's quest in Chasm City is hampered by the fact that the region has become infected with the Melding Plague. The plague infects machines of all kinds, including humans with biomechanical body parts.....
......and/or people with internal nanobots.
The Melding Plague causes these people to mutate in bizarre and hideous ways.
Thus most of Chasm City is a disgusting ground-level slum inhabited by the dregs of society.
By contrast, the relatively few wealthy people in Chasm City - who've had their 'mechanics' removed - live in elevated homes in the canopy.
Much of the story is an epic chase in which Tanner gets into one dangerous situation after another as he tries to find and kill Reivich. Tanner meets some people who hinder him and some people who help him, including a few unusual and attractive women.
Scenes of Tanner's murderous quest alternate with scenes of Sky's life, which Tanner sees whenever he nods off. Thus we follow Sky's increasingly horrendous escapades from childhood through adulthood.
This is a bare bones description of the plot, which is enhanced by elaborate world-building and descriptions of futuristic weapons, technology, and novel beings - such as pig people. My favorite lifeforms are the hamadryads, snake-like creatures who grow to hundreds of meters in length. When hamadryads approach adulthood, they wrap themselves around trees and meld with the trunks, becoming part of the structure of the plant.
The story is convoluted and action-packed, with a diverse array of characters - some human, some animal, and some other. Neither of the main characters is a likeable guy, and one is downright disgusting and despicable (in case you need to know).
I enjoyed the book, and especially liked the imaginative worlds created by the author.
3.5 stars
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