City on Fire (Metropolitan 2). Metropolitan, #2

Nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Award, City on Fire returns to the world-city of Metropolitan, a city dominated by plasm, the magical substance capable of both creation and destruction. With her help, Aiah's lover Constantine has established himself in the metropolis of Caraqui, a nation dominated by corrupt officials, gangsters, and the genetically altered known as the "twisted." Here they hope to create a revolution in the cosmic order--- but first they must fend off treachery, war, and the threat of Taikoen, the "hanged man, " a deadly creature that lives within plasm itself.
Aiah must fight not only for her revolution and for her place in the world, but for Constantine's very soul."City on Fire is a splendid, riveting novel in which the most powerful magic is that of a writer directing the twin streams of reason and intuition to produce a dream within the texture of reality."--- Russell Letson, Locus, April 1997"City on Fire, by Walter Jon Williams, is that rarest of entertainments, a sequel that improves on a successful predecessor .