Chasm City might be my favorite Reynolds. Here, he steps down from the cosmological stakes of Revelation Space to explore a classic noir revenge plot across three timelines.

Tanner Mirabel is a security specialist aiming to finish one last job. His mistakes lead to the deaths of his employer Caheulla and Caheulla's wife Gitta at the hands of wealthy aristocrat Reivach. Reivach is fleeing the war-torn planet of Sky's Edge for the wealth and safety of Yellowstone, the capitol system of human space, which means that Tanner has to follow.

After a classic action-packed escape from a space elevator cut by a nuclear bomb, Tanner awakens in orbit above Yellowstone and discovers several uncomfortable truths. First, he's lost his memories. Second, he's dreaming of the mythical founder of Sky's Edge, Sky Hausmann, likely due to infection by an indoctrinal virus. Third, Yellowstone is no longer a shining wonderland, but in the near-lightspeed transit time there, has been devastated by the nanotech Melding Plague. But even with all that has changed, there's still the mission of revenge.

Tanner gets sucked into the underworld of Chasm City, centered around a healing drug called Dream Fuel, and a deadly human hunt played by bored immortals. Meanwhile, we uncover more of Sky's journey on a generation ship, and the paranoia and crimes which led to the permanent war on Sky Edge. And Tanner explains the events back home that lead to all this.

The revelations of identity at the climax are a little a pat, and the dialogue stilted noir clichés, but something about the journey is greater than the sum of the pieces.