Quotes from book
Chasm City

Chasm City

Alastair Reynolds

Chasm City is a 2001 science fiction novel by British writer Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe. It deals with themes of identity, memory, and immortality, and many of its scenes are concerned primarily with describing the unusual societal and physical structure of the titular city, a major nexus of Reynolds's universe. It won the 2002 British Science Fiction Association award.

““I gather you were all too busy killing each other.”
“That’s a fairly reductive summary of our history, but I don’t suppose it’s too far from the truth.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 21 (p. 359).

““Is there anyone in Chasm City she hasn’t deceived?”
“Possibly, somewhere, but only as an extreme theoretical possibility.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 29 (p. 481).

““Don’t you agree with me?”
“On some distant theoretical level, just possibly.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 12 (p. 177).

“Don’t tell me you aren’t the slightest bit curious, Norquinco.”
“I hope you burn in hell, Sky Haussmann.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Chapter 35 (p. 562).
Chasm City (2001)

“Who was it who said that a wise man speaks when he has something to say, but a fool speaks because he must?”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 12 (p. 197).

“The poor didn’t have them and so the rich flaunted them, the larger and more conspicuous the better.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 25 (p. 406).

“Is he dangerous?
“Anyone who lies for a living is dangerous.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 29 (p. 485).

““Is there anyone or anything in this city which can’t be bought?” I said, slipping him a note.
“Yeah,” the man said, laughing quietly. “But I’m not it.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 39 (p. 634).

“I learnt the true meaning of what was euphemistically described as close-quarters combat. No line-of-sight particle-beam weapons now; no delayed-detonation nano-munitions. What close-quarters combat meant was something which would have been infinitely more recognisable to a soldier of a thousand years earlier: the screaming fury of human beings packed so close together that the only effective way to kill each other was with sharpened metal weapons: bayonets and daggers, or with hands around each other’s throats; fingers pressed into each other’s eye-sockets. The only way to survive was to disengage all higher brain-functions and regress to an animal state of mind.
So I did. And in doing so, I learned a deeper truth about war. She punished those who flirted with her by making them like herself. Once you opened the door to the animal, there was no shutting it.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 7 (p. 108).

““But you can be sure there are pockets of wealth and influence, and I’m willing to wager that a few people are wealthier and more influential than they were before.”
“That’s always the way with disasters,” I said.
“What?”
“They’re never bad news for everyone. Something nasty always rises to the top.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 13 (p. 208).

“Am I that fascinating to you, or are you just more bored than I imagined?”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 27 (p. 438).

“Evolution doesn’t greatly care about what happens to creatures once they’ve passed on their genetic heritage.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 20 (p. 332).

“Just because something had spawned a myth did not automatically mean it had to contain anything of substance.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 33 (p. 531).

““I don’t trust you.”
“Of course you don’t. I know I wouldn’t. And I’m not asking you to. I’m not putting you in a situation in which your trust of me is even remotely relevant. I’m just pointing a gun to your head and giving you orders.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 26 (p. 424).

“His parents had abdicated responsibility to an illusion.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 6 (p. 83).

““Besides—we all know guns don’t kill people, do they?”
“No, it’s the small metal projectiles that generally do the killing,” Cahuella said, smiling.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 19 (p. 315).

““That’s how it went, wasn’t it Zebra?”
“It might,” she said. “If I happened to be colluding in your own delusions.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 29 (p. 479).

“The one thing I never counted on was having luck on my side.
It was generally simpler that way.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 13 (p. 209).

““Tanner, are you insane?”
“Very probably several kinds of insane,” I said. “But I’m afraid it doesn’t change anything. I’m perfectly happy with my current delusional system.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 27 (p. 454).

“By and large these attempts to rewrite history were not taken seriously, but it was disconcerting to hear that they had gained even a toehold.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 30 (p. 490).

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