Finished Chasm City last night -- You're right, it's a better-told story all around than the first one. I first was a little sceptical of the first-person "film noir" narration, but it didn't take me long to understand that it was the only way the story could have been carried off.

Next up (in order of library due date): Varley's The Golden Globe; the fourth Artemis Fowl, The Opal Deception; and a new book I've been awaiting for nearly three months, Big Weather by Mark Svenvold, a non-fic about storm chasers in this neck of the woods.

Haven't reserved 1776 yet... or the next Sarah Andrews mystery, or the next in Reynolds' series.