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Tenth Chapter for "Agent Shield and Spaceman"

The next chapter for my ongoing web fiction "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is now available.

I am currently reading Alastair Reynold's "Chasm City," a follow-up to "Revelation Space," a cyberpunk space opera I enjoyed very much when I read it nearly a decade ago. I'm also enjoying "Chasm City," as it contains much of what I suspect earned Reynold's his reputation. Although he paints on a very large canvas, he is very economical in his writing. He skillfully focuses on the perspective of a single highly motivated character, for example, rather than rope in a large number of extra characters right of the bat. He also employs an interesting technique to get some other perspectives in what is essentially a first person perspective: infectious spiritual memories. Lastly, knowing what I do about the hellscape the book is ultimately destined to describe, I respect the patient and methodical approach Reynold uses in world building. No concept is introduced in its entirety, but only as an example of some smaller and easy-to-grasp phenomenon in the world. These pieces click together in a natural way, assembling a coherent universe together.

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