Terminal World(2010) Alistair Reynolds
Finally! A novel that I would welcome being extended to a series but gratefully has not been. A stand alone book about the distant future. I grunge plunge into a post apocalypse world that then dips further into anarchy before ending with a vision of hope.
Our here is Quillon. An fallen angel, which in this world actually elevates him since the angels are not such great beings. The world is composed of zones of physical properties such that going from a higher to lower level entails a loss of function of complex machines. The center of the word is a place called Spearpoint. The levels include the celestial level, circuit city, neon heights, horse town, steamville, etc. After spending years in neon heights as a coroner, Quillon, is suddenly faced with plot to kill him in preparation for an invasion of the lower levels by a sect of angels. He must escape Spearpoint and go to the out lands. His guide is Mariko, who has her own reasons for hating the angels. Along the way they meet a techomancer and her mother and are saved from the skull boys and vorgs by the airborne Sworm. Quillon convinces them that they need to come to the aid of Spearpoint and at the same time discovers that the technomancer may have a role to play in the restoration of a millennia gone era to the whole world.
Reynolds creates a captivatingly realistic world. It reminds me of Dune.
