Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds

Honey, I destroyed the Earth! (1095 words)
by Darko Days - written on 10/03/06, updated on 10/03/06 (Very useful, 118 readings)
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fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere, it isn’t too far fetched to believe that at some point in the near future, planet Earth could be facing a catastrophe. Alastair Reynold’s ‘Century Rain’ is one such example of this. Set in a time not too far off in our future, it paints a picture of Earth destroyed by mankind’s mistakes and chemical wars, so badly scarred that it has been rendered uninhabitable. Amongst the slowly recovering race of mankind is our heroine, Verity Auger. Auger is an archaeologist whose passion for finding real Earth relics lands her in a spot of trouble; the kind of trouble that sees her unwittingly put in great danger as she is sent on a ...

Chasm City - Alastair Reynolds

The deadliest game (340 words)
by bookguy - written on 21/10/08 (Very useful, 82 readings)
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Chasm City might be called book 1.5 in the Revalation Space saga. That's not to say it's any less of a good read than the others in the series - far from it - but its action is independent from the others, and doesn't really advance the overarching narrative very much. This one is written in the first person, the narrator a hardboiled space assassin/bodyguard named Tanner Mirabel. Mirabel is carrying out a vendetta against the aristocratic Reivich, who is responsible for the death of his boss and his boss's wife, with whom Mirabel had something of a thing going. Mirabel travels across the galaxy to pursue his prey, and along the way becomes infected with a memetic ...

Chasm City - Alastair Reynolds

Filling a chasm of Sci Fi quality? Yes. (1673 words)
by mpeh - written on 09/12/02, updated on 09/12/02 (Very useful, 122 readings)
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century in a way that feels realistic and doesn't have logical holes, meaning that it must be consistent both with current physics and with itself, cannot be easy and yet Reynolds, as all good writers manage, makes it seem effortless. As I wrote in my first review: 'There isn't tortuous justification of science fiction and reality Reynolds merely lets his setting support itself as he writes, obviously equipped with the ideas necessary to fill out the backdrop.' and its true of this book just as much if not more so. The thing that makes this book really stand out is the setting. A futuristic city falling into decay, or fallen, once so successful that ...