Entertaining, thought-provoking, full of mindboggling inventions, aliens, worldbuilding. Rich, dense and very sardonic. This one includes all of the aEntertaining, thought-provoking, full of mindboggling inventions, aliens, worldbuilding. Rich, dense and very sardonic. This one includes all of the author's leitmotifs, such as how war and brutality get justified, what exactly is this weird construct called "civilization" and can it actually give lives meaning, and of course the futility of tryna reason why because ours is just to do and die, dummy. Plus a nihilistic ending that's also a happy ending, very Banks.
Still waters run deep within Inversions, concealing strange schemes and fierce ambitions, reservoirs of grief, questions on the nature of humanity, loStill waters run deep within Inversions, concealing strange schemes and fierce ambitions, reservoirs of grief, questions on the nature of humanity, longings for death and for love. In terms of setting and scope, this is an intriguing outlier in the Culture series. Yet it has all of its masterful author's hallmarks: ironic and emotionally detached prose, an eye for the small thing symbolic of greater things, a fascination with systems of power and individual culpability, and an ease with ambiguity - in the slow unwinding of his mysteries and in portraying the compelling opacity of personalities carefully holding themselves restrained.
Inversions is a medieval historical saga rich with courtly intrigue that is actually a challenging speculative work of futuristic fiction, that is actually one small link in a glittering and ornate space opera chain that spans galaxies, that is actually an intimate chamber piece tracking important moments of personal change and psychological development, that is actually two parallel stories that detail the sociopolitical impact caused by two very different change agents, that is actually a tense and tightly wound mystery about hidden pasts and hidden plans and hidden agendas, that is actually an empathetic feminist tract, that is actually a classic Banks critique of the successes and pitfalls that occur when a technologically superior culture engages with a less advanced culture, that is actually a cheeky yet highly intellectual experiment in illustrating cultural relativity versus individual responsibility and morality - and the always painful collision between the two. This is an objective book about subjectivity. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the book has levels.
Unusual for Banks, there are also twin love stories. Both are subtle and understated, never taking charge of the plot. One starts slowly, moving from awe to lust to admiration to a despairing devotion; the other is rendered so discreetly that it is fairly disguised, until suddenly the masks are off and love becomes the reason for swift and necessary movement.
4.5 stars, may go up to 5 after I finish all of these wonderful Culture standalones and contemplate which were my favorites. This one is quite high in the ranking....more
The titular novella in this collection is a perfect distillation of the rhetoric and dialectic behind the Culture series, its themes, its very purposeThe titular novella in this collection is a perfect distillation of the rhetoric and dialectic behind the Culture series, its themes, its very purpose for being. It features the entertaining Culture standbys of wry Ships, persnickety droids, and agents of mixed motivations. It discusses policies of non-interference juggled with policies of behind the scenes intervention; "going native" versus so-called "objective" distance; the idea that a natural life and a true engagement with living must include accepting that evil will always exist, and as a counterpoint, the idea that systemic evil, all of the -isms and all of the greed and self-interest, can and should actually be eradicated. Heady and at times heavy-handed stuff, forcefully articulated, and delivered with the usual Banks panache and wit. Very well done.
Most of the remaining stories are limp and forgettable, or strident and not particularly enjoyable, and in the case of "A Gift from the Culture", starts strong and ends far too abruptly. I did love the darkly amusing "Odd Attachment" in which a preoccupied alien shepherd - who looks like a moving tree - encounters an explorer from the stars, much to that explorer's extreme misfortune. And there was a touching kindness at the core of "Descendant" which portrays the relationship between a stranded and increasingly delirious Culture citizen and his sentient suit....more
WATCH OUT, SPOILERS! but I will try to keep things vague.
the name of the game is Influence. you're a good progressive super-society, you don't want toWATCH OUT, SPOILERS! but I will try to keep things vague.
the name of the game is Influence. you're a good progressive super-society, you don't want to interfere too much, just enough, in the small but important ways that will put this little not-so-super-society onto the right path. on the path towards respect for life and individual liberty, on a path away from domination and plutocracy. you want to work from the outside of it all, subtly, whispering in this ear, supporting that action, slowly moving and manipulating things in just the right direction so that things end up just the right way. you can't do it yourself of course, that would be too obvious. so you employ an agent. you have suspicions about this agent but in the end it does appear that your goals align. but what you don't know is that the agent in question is playing his own game, and the name of that game is Self-Abnegation.
if you are about to read this book please keep in mind this note about its structure: Use of Weapons employs two narratives in alternating chapters. the first narrative moves forward in time. the second narrative is composed of flashbacks in reverse-chronological order. plus a prologue and two epilogues that occur entirely outside of the narrative.
I have this sick side of me that I rarely let out of its locked room. much like The Culture, I'm a good progressive, against violence and pro-humanism, let's talk it out, let's understand the context, let's realize that there are no true binaries and we are just humans and we should all be moving forward together. yeah yeah yeah, I truly do believe that. and yet this sick side of me lurks there, wanting to not just be a decent human being but also wanting to smite my reactionary foes. and not just smite: hurt. I want to punish them for the things they've done and I want that punishment to be painful and emotional and physical and fucking traumatic - at the very least as traumatic as what they've visited on their victims. and then I want to kill them. that's not too attractive in general, so I'm rather shy about letting these thoughts surface in public. instead I just donate annually to places like The Center for Justice & Accountability, which is all about punishing these motherfuckers who think they can torture and slaughter at will and then just slink away into the shadows.
Iain Banks definitely understands this side of me because he clearly has this side to himself as well. (and I'm going to persist in referring to him in the present tense because authors are immortal as far as I'm concerned.) this side of Banks has popped up in every novel I've read by the man. he wants to be a righteous, bloodthirsty avenger too. fortunately he knows that nothing is ever simple and straightforward and if a person feels this way, wants to do these things, wants to break the unjust upon the wheel of justice - then maybe there's something about them/him/me that is broken too. Banks is definitely not the type of host who is going to make you your favorite cake and then let you eat it too. he'll let you have a few bites but then he'll smash your face right into it.
so when that intelligent, charming drone goes on a berserk killing spree and horribly slaughters those brigands intent on rape and murder and sexual slavery, he will make sure all of my pleasure buttons are pushed - they will die in horribly graphic and bloody ways, and deservedly. but he'll also make sure I realize just how sick it is that people even have those sorts of buttons. indulging in those sorts of pleasures feels good but it is just about the opposite of human growth. (hide spoiler)]
okay, the novel itself. in a word: brilliant. the characters are interesting and sympathetic. the structure is absorbingly complex. nearly half of the novel is composed of separate mini-adventures in a variety of locales with a changing set of premises and characters. these almost-short stories are wonderful to read, in particular if you can slow down and take them as they are: separate adventures. but they are all a part of a whole; their inclusion is not random. they share similar themes on such topics as the futility of trying to achieve true justice, the futility of understanding human nature, the futility of trying to find meaning in either the movements of history or the actions of an individual. that's a lot of futility, but Banks makes these little adventures so thoughtful and moving and often ambiguous that the futility is masked by the pleasure a reader can take in witnessing an author at the height of his powers construct a multi-leveled story that is telling many stories simultaneously.
the overarching narrative itself is quite compelling but rather half-baked as well. Banks clearly doesn't have much interest in creating a story that is all about satisfying resolutions and triumphant climaxes. he creates a thesis and then explores it, expands upon it; creating a cohesive or emotionally satisfying story is a subordinate goal. his theses will always dominate his narratives. at the end of Use of Weapons, the reader learns that everything is cyclical and so will be happening again and again and again. societies will hurt their citizens and societies will hurt other societies; individuals, even the bravest, the cruelest, the most righteous... are simply that: one individual in a whole universe of individuals and so what can one individual truly do; human nature is fucked up. all weapons will always be used, especially the human ones.
and so I closed this rich wonderful book with all of its amazing adventures... and I felt deflated, melancholy, depressed. Banks doesn't make it easy for anyone - not his characters, not his societies, and certainly not his readers....more
Consider Iain M. Banks. an unsentimental, often ruthless writer. his characters are provided robust emotional lives and richly detailed backgrounds...Consider Iain M. Banks. an unsentimental, often ruthless writer. his characters are provided robust emotional lives and richly detailed backgrounds... all the better to punish the reader when those characters meet their often bleak fates. his narratives are ornate affairs, elaborately designed, full of small & meaningful moments as well as huge, wide-scale world-building... all the better to deliver a sucker punch directly to the reader's gut when those narratives turn out to be ironic, predetermined mousetraps. yet despite the cruelly intelligent design of his novels, a strong case can be made that Banks is a fiery humanist - if the idea of "humanism" is expanded to include all forms of consciousness, including the psychologically aberrant, including artificial minds. is there a genre specialist who is a more passionate yet clear-eyed (even cold-eyed) partisan for the right of all conscious beings to pursue their own individual desires, dreams, and destinies - while not fucking up the lives of other beings? even his utopic, galaxy-spanning civilization The Culture has its own major achilles' heel in their theoretically positive desire to improve the self-determination of other cultures.
Consider Consider Phlebas. now this is a SPACE OPERA. it has it all. multiple alien cultures in a race against time and each other. sentient machines. piratical mercenaries. world-hopping. the destruction of 'orbitals' and entire cities. a graveyard world overseen by a transcended being. an incredibly advanced, liberal, permissive society in conflict with barbaric, right-wing, militaristic religious fanatics. a shape-shifting spy for a protagonist (a very canny choice in regards to providing an outsider perspective on The Culture). it is filled to the brim with so many things, including a handful of long digressions in the first half of the novel, chapters that are pretty much only side-adventures (some of which seem like trial runs for ideas expanded upon in Player of Games and the non-Culture Algebraist). despite the length of the novel, despite wide-ranging adventures and misadventures, the blood & vengeance, the extreme presentations of eating & defecating, despite the in-depth detail present in all that running-about in the tunnels of Graveyard World, despite the whole sturm und drang of it all... this is an intimate novel. intimate in its character work and almost peculiarly intimate in the way that Banks allows his ethical concerns, his - one could say - almost rigid moralism to dominate the proceedings. this is not a tale of crazy adventures that eventually finds its way to a punchy end; this is a novel of rigorously political ideas (and, perhaps, ideals). those ideas are carefully encapsulated within each sequence, by the grand conflict at hand, and by the eventual fates of each one of its major characters.
the choice of the title is wonderful. how fitting! i was also reminded of another well-known passage:
I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Banks is not a depressing writer. he can have a light touch. his novels are full of life, full of wit and love and laughter and bravery and mindboggling invention. and yet they are often a rather depressing experience. i can see why some folks avoid him. i can understand why some dislike Consider Phlebas and its often uncomfortable combination of digressive high adventure and stark, moralistic political analogies. hey, the world can be an awfully shitty place and so why immerse yourself in more of the same? although he is easy to read, Banks certainly doesn't make things easy on readers and their various sentimental attachments. he chooses discomfort and tragedy at nearly every turn.
well who ever said that utopian ideals are an easy thing? striving for utopia should be hard! it should be long and difficult and heartbreaking and full of intensely uncomfortable ambiguity. it should make you want to cry, little baby.
this weekend's special is an Outside Context Problem! this amazing special is so unique, most shoppers will only encounter iATTENTION CULTURE SHOPPERS
this weekend's special is an Outside Context Problem! this amazing special is so unique, most shoppers will only encounter it once - in a millenium! please look for the infinity symbol tagged on our specially-marked OCP items.
on aisle 1, back by popular demand, we are excited to present faction upon faction of Culture Minds, as embodied physically by their glorious Mind Ships!!! shoppers, we have read your suggestions and we respond! you will find very few examples of those sad, silly creatures known commonly as "Cultured humans" throughout our festive OCP sale weekend. and that's not all... we proudly announce the debut of two marvelous new Mind Ships! at the front of aisle 1, the lovely and amazing Sleeper Service - necro-artist and secret agent! and lurking in the rear, unlisted on any official Culture registry... the remarkable Grey Area - avenger of genocides, torturer of torturers! ignore his nickname "Meatfucker" at your very own and very personalized peril!
on aisles 2 through 11, our hallmark OCP product The Excession continues to be available in ever-widening sizes and ever-changing formats. whether it be a black swan event, an unreadable black body sphere, a transport system for higher powers, or an ageless conundrum appearing since before the dawn of time, the Excession is tailor-made and custom-fit for thrilling contemplation of the infinite and - perhaps - cosmic oblivion!
on aisle 12-A we are excited to feature an exciting, one-time only Super Special... Warships! buy one, get 80,000 free! literally!!
we would also like to direct your attention to aisle 12-B... to our brand new line of society, The Affront! this bold new community brings a fresh and energetic perspective to many fronts: the gender war, the race war, the male-on-male war, and of course the timeless war between galaxies! you'll laugh at the barbaric shenanigans of this sociopathic "civilization" 'til your sides literally split open, entrails spilling and flying willy-nilly! BUY NOW - we guarantee you will soon find our special Affront products to be disappearing fast.
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and now for the review: i liked it. the writing was especially witty in this one; the concepts were typically grandiose. sadly, a rather deflating ending. and a feeling of, i dunno... thinness, somehow? just not a whole lot to think about after putting this one down - a rare thing for one of my favorite authors. but i did love how this Culture novel was all about the fascinating Mind Ships and their various factions - so many of them, i had to write a list to keep track. i love the Culture Minds. besides, who needs humans anyway? wouldn't you rather read about Mind Ships?...more
The Player of Games is taken to the Empire of Azad to play the greatest oUPDATED REVIEW, 2nd read in 2015:
even more ingenious the second time around.
The Player of Games is taken to the Empire of Azad to play the greatest of games. the game is Azad is the Empire of Azad is the U.S. and the U.K. and all such toxic empires. in a civilized culture, all empires must fall. the game is feints and surprises and moves within moves; the game is the past that must be broken on the wheel of the future. Banks brings all of his customary elegance, intelligence, humor, and angry frustration at the stupidity and short-sightedness of humanity. he understands the allure but still seethes at the very thought of brutality, let alone brutality as an ingrained governmental program or system. or as a way of life, for any so-called human. much like Banks, I am on the side of the AIs.
UGLY OLD REVIEW, 1st read in 2010:
(view spoiler)[ an often brilliant allegory. it is interesting to compare the rather spare quality of this novel with the more luxurious expansiveness of the rest of the Culture novels... almost as if it is Iain without-the-M Banks writing about the Culture this time. and the themes are very much in line with banks' non-science fiction suspense novels. banks' wit and imagination are still in play. as are the wonderful drones! well, one drone in particular.
mea culpa: so i have been recommending that folks start the Culture series from the beginning. perhaps this is entirely due to reading Consider Phlebas more recently and seeing how much sense it makes as the first novel of an incredible series. well, Player of Games was actually my own first Culture novel, and it worked out fine for me in the long run. so, whatever. choose whichever Culture novel you want to start off with.
the challenge that i had with Player was its feeling of sparseness, when compared to the often over-stuffed feeling i get with more traditional space operas...and that nearly too-rich feeling is exactly what i'm usually looking for. i want that swarming of detail and incident, i want to be plunged into some richly imagined world-building. Player did not have that for me. i recognized its brilliance, but that brilliance was in a more intellectual mode, not one that i responded to emotionally or viscerally or as a means of escape into a completely realized yet often rather standardized universe. this is far from a critique (how could a person ever promote the rote and predictable? never!)... but it also did not exactly inspire me to keep reading Culture novels. after Player, it took some time for me to get back into the series. perhaps the escapist in me longed for a less rigorously intellectual pastime. or perhaps something that was less about aliens written like humans and more about actual aliens.
heavy, heavy themes done with a light and benevolent touch. the topics on display include suicide and suicide bombings, terrorism, genocide, imperialiheavy, heavy themes done with a light and benevolent touch. the topics on display include suicide and suicide bombings, terrorism, genocide, imperialism/cultural colonialism, the nature of war, the afterlife... and feature a loveable cast of pretentious robot drones, adorable and often furry alien creatures, and one very melancholy Artificial Intelligence.
VAGUE SPOILERS: the last four chapters are jaw-dropping in scope, moving from an elegiac double suicide (i teared up!) to a mind-boggling check-in with minor characters set millions of years in the future to a vicious and literally gut-wrenching display of retribution to a surprisingly wry ending (complete with a snappily ironic gotcha moment of role reversal). awesome.
good stuff on its own; amazing when considered as just one piece of the author's Culture novels. my favorite one so far....more
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