The Algebraist, a book review

Iain M. Banks is one of the more literate authors to take on science fiction (he also writes mainstream literary fiction, as Iain Banks (without the ‘M.’)). I find his science fiction novels highly enjoyable, but he does have tendencies that can be obtrusive; in particular, he invariably includes horrific scenes, he often incorporates overtly evil villains, and his novels tend to be overstuffed with extraneous information (i.e.: they’d make a serviceable doorstop. For pure geek enjoyment this is a good thing, but it is ponderous at times).

I enjoyed The Algebraist, but struggled with a few sections. The villain is so over-the-top that I can picture him twirling the ends of a Snidely Whiplash moustache, and I faithfully slogged through the middle of the novel while feeling as if the book had entered into the ‘slow time’ of the main character, Fassin Taak (a Slow Seer, who delves the depths of a gas giant planet to converse with Dwellers, creatures that can live for billions of years and prefer to cogitate at a slower speed than humans).

The story is presented as an ‘epic’, huge in scope; and yet, it is really quite simple when divested of its accouterments. I enjoyed the first third of the book, aged faster than normal in the middle, enjoyed the build up to the ending, and found the summing-up satisfying (I was especially buoyed by the hopeful statement embodied in the final sentence).

I appreciate Iain M. Banks’ writing style; he can be quite humorous (even his morbid scenes can be comical), he creates interesting characters, and he usually includes enough imaginative ideas for several novels.

I didn’t think this was one of his better books; nevertheless, it was well worth the time invested in reading it.

Sadly, Iain Banks has been diagnosed with gall bladder cancer and is not expected to live more than a year. His final book, a work of literary fiction, The Quarry, is due for publication later this year. He has posted a personal message on his website, and there is a guestbook on his site that is set up for fans and friends to leave messages.

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Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks

I just finished Surface Detail, by Iain M. Banks: one of his Culture novels (2010). I’ve read and reviewed several of his novels in this series before, so I’ll be brief (note: although the Culture novels are a ‘series’, each novel is a stand-alone story).

I thought this was one of the better Culture novels, with an interesting idea of a virtual-reality hell, which is used by certain societies as a punishment system to purportedly maintain a moral civilization. The virtual hells are only a part of the novel’s story, but I found it difficult to slog through these sections (it is an interesting idea, but I could have done with fewer pages devoted to the depictions of hell).

As usual, Mr. Banks provides some interesting characters with differing motivations that move the plot along quite successfully.

My favourite quote (p. 540):

“They set off, whirling down the steps so fast it was almost falling.” (my emphasis on the last two words, which were the key to my enjoyment)

Recommended.

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Look to Windward; a book review

Look to Windward (2000) is another of Iain M. Banks literate, grand space-operas set within the interstellar society of the Culture. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Banks has written several stand-alone novels about the Culture, an exceedingly affluent and powerful civilization that places a high value on individual rights and liberty and has an uncomfortable habit of intervening in the business of other civilizations. Their ‘interventions’ are undertaken with the Culture’s best intentions, although their secret military branch (Special Circumstances) believes that the ends justify the means, and their actions sometimes have disastrous consequences (in case the reader misses the connection, Banks gives a hint that the novel’s politics resemble affairs in our own world: he dedicated the book to the Gulf War Veterans). And it is a disastrous consequence that drives the plot of Look to Windward. Prior to the events portrayed in the novel, agents of the Culture had attempted to dissolve a repressive, hierarchical social system and their actions precipitated a devastating civil-war in the Chelgrian civilization.

There are three main threads to the story:

i) Ziller, a famous Chelgrian composer, spurned the oppressive caste-system of Chel and left his society to live with the Culture citizens of Masaq’. He has composed a new work that he will conduct during an historic event on Masaq’.

ii) Quilan, an ambassador from Chel, travels to Masaq’; allegedly on a mission to convince Ziller to return to Chel, but Quilan, a former soldier, has a darker mission that is slowly revealed as the novel proceeds

iii) a young scientist studies an inscrutable, sentient dirigible within the thriving, internal ecology of a colossal gas bubble that roams through space (as an aside, my inner-geek really appreciated this thread, which epitomizes Banks’ ability to converge and diverge).

There isn’t much wiz-bang action, and the novel develops slowly, but the threads eventually intertwine to form an interesting conclusion.

I could have done without the vindictive, sadistic assassinations at the end, and I have some other quibbles, not the least of which is the fact that I’ve yet to read a book by Iain M. Banks that has completely blown me away as a novel. He writes well, creates an intricate story, has an exceptional imagination, fills his characters with depth, and is able to maintain my interest throughout the book, but his endings leave me oddly unfulfilled. Then again, perhaps this is exactly what he intends.

Recommended

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The Use of Weapons, a book review

The Culture is a fictitious, galactic civilization; a hedonistic, socialist utopia, which is populated with intelligent, biological species, but overseen by sapient machines called Minds, which not only rule the Culture, but also control massive star-ship-colonies  that house billions of beings. The Culture books form a ‘series’ of stand-alone novels, written by Iain M. Banks (aka Iain Banks, without the M., when he isn’t writing science fiction, e.g.: The Wasp Factory). The Culture, managed by the machine Minds, sometimes needs difficult, non-Culture-related tasks taken care of, which come under the auspices of Contact. The most sordid activities are directed to Contact’s Special Circumstances  branch. The Culture utilizes psychological and political schemes to ‘persuade’ other civilizations to adopt the Culture’s philosophy as a means to assure the Culture way of life is not endangered; many times, persuasion leads to war.

I’ve read three of the Culture novels. I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies, so I began with the first Culture novel published (Consider Phlebas (1987), which I didn’t like much), then I read the second Culture novel (The Player of Games (1988), which I did like), and I just finished the third Culture novel, Use of Weapons (1990), which I think is the best so far, by a country kilometer.

Use of Weapons unfolds in alternating-chapter plot-streams: one plot moves forward in time (chapters one through fourteen), and the other stream flows backward in time (from XIII to I). The forward moving chapters reveal the current activities of Diziet Sma (to be precise, Rasd-Coduresa Diziet Embless Sma da’ Marchehide), Special Circumstances agent,  in her latest assignment as the handler of Cheradenine Zakalwe, a non-Culture, human-norm Soldier-of-fortune/General who does the Culture’s dirty-work. Zakalwe has dark, hidden memories that haunt him, and these memories are motivation to fight for the ‘good guy’, but Zakalwe is forever questioning the tactics of the Culture (do the ends justify the means?), and I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I suggest that Zakalwe is one of the weapons being used. The chapters that flow backward in time move resolutely toward an event that Zakalwe would rather forget.

This book includes graphic violence in several sections, and Mr. Banks’ imagination has a morbid steak, but I enjoyed this book more and more as the plot moved along. The ending was well set-up and presented, and the revelation sent reverberations back through to the beginning of the novel.

If you can manage your way through the plasma-guns, spaceships, and graphic violence, the book is quite enjoyable.

Recommended