Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Book Five -- Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

Consider Phlebas
Iain M. Banks
science fiction
467 pages

Well that was bit of a romp with an annoying ending. The first of Banks' novels set in the world of "The Culture", Consider Phlebas follows a fairly standard plot line. A "Mind," an AI capable of running a space ship, escapes an attack on its ship and lands on Schar's World, a Planet of the Dead. It's a valuable thing/person and both sides of the Idiran-Culture War want to get their hands on it. The Idirans, religious fanatics trying to convert the galaxy, send in Horza, an agent of theirs and The Culture, a post-scarcity society run by AIs so the humans can live the good live, send in Balveda, one of their own agents.

Horza is a Changer; he can take the on the form of other people and along the way, he picks up some fairly lame space pirates and their ship, with Balveda in tow. After that, it's pretty much a Quest for Treasure story, featuring some interesting stops and settings as it moves on.

I can't explain my disappointment with the end without spoiling the book, but in spite of that, I haven't ruled out reading more of Banks' Culture books. This one is an enjoyable space opera with a few gross-out scenes, the usual space and ground battles and some very mildly written sex.

I should probably talk about my spoiler policy. For anything somewhat recent, I'll try to avoid spoiling the book if I can. I'm a little more inclined to spoil for the historical novels; when I get around to Colleen McCullough's Antony and Cleopatra I may mention the fact that Antony loses. Not only is this a matter of history, it's also been covered in any number of books, plays and movies and if you didn't know, well too bad.

Also, Darth Vader is Luke's father.

That is all.

3 comments:

  1. Oh dear, I feel awful that I recommended Banks and you felt so lukewarm about this one. I would say that is the first (published) Culture novel and I have not really been able to go back to it because it is so half-arsed. I think Banks didn't really like Horza or sympathise with his beliefs and it kind of shows through in the writing. For a fairly bleak space opera of his that still has a lot of fun in it, I'd go with Against a Dark Background. Later Culture novels like the Player of Games and Use Of Weapons (and Excession and and Look to Windward - I could go on, I do love his books) are much more about the Culture and so more fun. And his latest, the Algebraist, rocks. And Feersum Endjinn is one of m faves. And Whit and The Business are two of his best non sci-fi novels IMHP (In My Humble Opinion - my dratted husband is a devotee of foolish acronyms).

    Oh, I have gone on haven't I? I'm sorry. By the way - have you tried Sheri S Tepper? She gets a bit worked up and lets the politics govern the story at times but things like Grass/Raising the Stones/Sideshow and Beauty really do achieve something pretty great in imagination terms.

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  2. Oh no, no worries! I was a little disappointed with the end, but I like his writing and I'm curious about The Culture, so I'll certainly read more. I really don't consider the book to be a waste of time or anything.

    And yeah, I've read some Tepper and really liked her. :)

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  3. As a fellow Banks enthusiast, I'd highly recommend "Against a Dark Background" and "The Algebraist," the former I'd had the good fortune to be my first exposure to his work.

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