2 book about two different cities. Can't remember titles

[Pastel]

The first one was about a city with a spire that went to space. There were lvls with angels that lived at the top with great technology. But one died and fell to the lower levels in the start of the book. Also later on there were airships and war with them.


The next city also had layers and lvls. And had a huge garbage dump underneath and around it where people who didn't live in it scavenged. Rich lived on the top lvls poor on the bottom ones.

I just can't seem to find these book or remember their names any help would be great. Thank you.

 

[hitmouse]

First one could be Feersum Endjinn by Iain M Banks.

The second sounds like half a dozen stories. See Astro Boy or that recent film with the girl with big eyes.

 

[Danny McG]

The first one is Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds

From Goodreads...

Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different—and rigidly enforced—level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains . . .

Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint's Celestial Levels—and with the dying body comes bad news.

If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The second one reminds me of Frances McKnight‘s Ronan Dijon books - did they have a pain mage in them?

 

[JunkMonkey]

In Bill The Galactic Hero there is a sequence set in the sewage waste disposal system of the World City capitol of the Galactic Empire. That might fit the second.

 

[Danny McG]

The next city also had layers and lvls. And had a huge garbage dump underneath and around it where people who didn't live in it scavenged. Rich lived on the top lvls poor on the bottom ones

So is this city also linked to space by a spire/elevator?
Or is it more fantasy than sci-fi?

 

[tinkerdan]

There are some elements here that make me think it is the generation ship novels of Elizabeth Bear.

Dust: A Novel (Jacob's Ladder Book 1) - Kindle edition by Bear, Elizabeth. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Dust: A Novel (Jacob's Ladder Book 1) - Kindle edition by Bear, Elizabeth. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Dust: A Novel (Jacob's Ladder Book 1).

www.amazon.com

Dust: A Novel (Jacob's Ladder Book 1) eBook : Bear, Elizabeth: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Dust: A Novel (Jacob's Ladder Book 1) eBook : Bear, Elizabeth: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[hitmouse]

The second could be The Fireclown aka The Winds of Limbo by Michael Moorcock.