Transition

Product Details

• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Mark New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• ISBN13: 9780316071987

Description

There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?

Among those operatives are Temudjin Oh, of mysterious Mongolian origins, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice under snow; Adrian Cubbish, a restlessly greedy City trader; and a nameless, faceless state-sponsored torturer known only as the Philosopher, who moves between time zones with sinister ease. Then there are those who question the Concern: the bandit queen Mrs. Mulverhill, roaming the worlds recruiting rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, under sedation and feigning madness in a forgotten hospital ward, in hiding from a dirty past.

There is a world that needs help; but whether it needs the Concern is a different matter.

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Customer Reviews

Huge Mess, Big Disappointment
The non-linear, multi-character, multi-thread plot is distracting and exhausting, and after about a hundred pages, I just didn't care anymore. And by the end of the book, I was scanning hard. I bought this book because I loved "The Algebraist", but reading this mess is like wading waist deep through a swamp in the dark. There are a few golden nuggets here and there but, by and large, it's not worth the effort.

2010-03-12 (Austin, TX) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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a failure
I've read a lot of Iain Banks books in the last couple years, and this is the first one that wasn't amazing. This books is not only less than amazing, it is, actually, terrible.
The characters are all obvious stereotypes. There are extended monologues where these characters explain their identity directly to you, the reader - and then most of those characters are just dropped from the storyline.
The plot ranges from nebulous to pointless. No character seems to have any particular motivations, so the story lurches along towards a climax for its own sake.
Everyone has sex with everyone else, for no apparent reason.
The science fiction elements of the story are half-baked and unconvincing. It is hard to believe that the same author who created the Culture series and "The Algebraist" would have left such gaping inconsistencies in the descriptions of the use of any technology, but there it is.
Rather than resolving mysteries, the story arc just piles on more and more deus ex machina.
The book even seems to have some sort of political message about 9/11 hysteria, but despite all the tactless "Christian Terrorist" scenes and descriptions of torture, there didn't seems to be any *particular* point to the whole thing - which makes it feel like those elements were thrown in just for the tabloid value.
This books is so unlike any other book by the author that I've seen, I cannot help but assume that this text was actually an early draft of a better novel, stolen from his files and published without his permission.

2010-03-04 | jes5199 (Portland, OR) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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A Transition from Entertaining to Droll Compulsive Rambling...
One of the few books that I'm going to review before 'finishing' the book(about 10% remains)... Takes a very simple yet profound and always fascinating 'theme' of (alternate realities), and then muddles itself into monotony and gimmicks with revolving 'character' chapters. If it is meant to carry a tone of 'schizophrenia' it succeeds in the 'blunt affect' part of it. Of course when you reach a level of commercial success, you have every right to churn out a 'buck'. Figure with 'Matter' came out 2008, and this book shortly thereafter, it must be rushed and treated with less care. Not a single character in the book is likeable, perhaps that can be a reflection of 'reality', but in fiction, you need a likeable character, at least one. And then there's the blatant preaching of the author's viewpoint on predominant social regimes, which makes me feel hungover before I've even had a dirty martini and its salty and metallic taste. Now that I've had one, I just had to write this review.

Hopefully, the last 10% of the book will surprise me in some way, please, in anyway... something good, or perhaps, something even more sh--tty then the rest of the book occurs in the final chapters.

2010-03-04 | Smash (In your backyard...) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Some Weaknesses in Plotting
I liked this book. I came close to loving it, but there were some serious inconsistencies in the plot. First of all, there are a number of viewpoint characters: Adrian, a narcissistic financier, Madame d'Ortalan, a power hungry sociopath, Patient 8262, who is hiding in a mental hospital, Mrs. Mulverhill, a brilliant rebel, and most of all, the Transitionist (Temudjin Oh), a brilliant, cynical but basically idealistic assassin. Madame d'Ortolan has come to control the Central Council of the Concern, an organization that has the power to "flit" or transition their consciousnesses from body to body, world to world. They profess to use this power in order to keep the various societies on an even keel. Mrs. Mulverhill has discovered that the sub-text to the Concern's concerns, at least since its takeover by Madame d'Ortolan, is to keep humanity from discovering, and then presumably losing out to, alien races.

What are the problems? For one thing, the members of the Concern need a drug--septus--in order to transition, but what is it? Where does it actually come from? How was it invented and discovered. We never find out. They transfer their minds from body to body, always leaving their bodies behind, but then how do they manage to always keep their vials of septus on their persons when they transition? At one point, Temudjin Oh and Mrs Mulverhill are sitting in a hot tub on an Earth that has been scoured of life by a cosmic catastrophe. The Concern has discovered the world and use it as a base--but if there is no life, then there are no people there into whom they can transition. So how do they get there? What is going on in the hospital where Patient 8262 is confined? There are implications that the answers involve the Concern, but we never do find out. Mrs. Mulverhill states at one point that she will not stoop to Madame d'Ortolan's level of casual murder, then, after she has won, she very casually, and without any apparent necessity, does so. There are other inconsistencies, or at least mysteries, that make this book more annoying than it should have been and I get the sense that at times the author is either going through the motions or he's lost control over his material. Still, Iain M. Banks is always worth reading. At his weakest, he's better than almost every other writer out there. I just wish it was a little better.

2010-02-14 (Port Jefferson, New York USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Complex ideas delivered well
You have to love a book that uses great storytelling to communicate complex ideas, such as the "many worlds" theory. Rich enough to keep the experienced reader interested, but not clever for the sake of being clever. The story pulls you along instead of pushing you. Always telling when your enjoyment increases as the book progresses.

2010-02-07 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Use of Weapons

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780316030571
• Prepare: NEW
• Notes: Stamp New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Description

The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks and military action.

The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.

The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a lost cause. But not even its machine could see the horrors in his past.

Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, USE OF WEAPONS is a masterpiece of science fiction.

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Customer Reviews

Pure Brilliance!
Ingenious. Melancholy yet consistently funny. Thought-provoking. Had enough yet?

I really shouldn't review this book. Bad idea. How can I criticize something that comes as close to perfection as I dare hop for in this imperfect world? So excuse me if what follows seems more of a love-in than an objective critique. If it will make you feel better, I promise to be rude about J.D. Salinger or make jokes about Kurt Vonnegut. The pinheads.

I love "Use of Weapons" as a science fiction novel that isn't about science fiction. Oh, for sure, it takes place in Mr Banks's "Culture" universe, first introduced in "Consider Phlebas", a galactic society with technology so mind-bogglingly advanced that everyone has everything they could wish for, except for a sense of purpose. But the book isn't about the Culture. Instead, it's about people, or rather one man in particular, a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe, and his purpose is quite clear. To quote, "the need was obvious: to defeat that which opposed [his] life. The method was that taking and bending of materials and peoples to one purpose ... that talent, that ability, that use of weapons".

As the title suggests then, the book struggles with questions of ends and means, and the justifications we require to bridge the two. Zakalwe is a mercenary in the service of the Culture, tasked with intervening in the wars of less-developed civilizations in order to steer them towards becoming kinder, gentler, more Culture-like people. He is also a very troubled man, haunted by a horrific event in his past. The title works on two levels then; it questions how societies that consider themselves moral and just rationalize the use of sometimes ruthless means to make others so too, and on the personal level, how each person justifies their own existence.

There's that philosophical edge, but this is no cerebral treatise. It is space opera with a point, Han Solo as Hamlet. Zakalwe is the classic Harrison Ford-fiqure, snarky humor and brash cynicism wrapped around a surprisingly vulnerable core. The structure compliments that message beautifully. It feels like sliding down the proverbial slippery slope, like riding on a bomb as it leaves the bay doors. The genius of the book is in the way Mr Banks shows us that moment, the point of impact.

We begin after the bomb. Zakalwe, scarred psychically, begins another mission for his paymasters in the Culture. From there, Mr Banks sends us blasting both forwards and backwards in time through Zakalwe's life in alternating chapters -- following the course of the mission on the one hand, and viewing progressively earlier and earlier episodes from Zakalwe's career on the other. The two tales travel in opposite directions, but loop back together as we hurtle towards the inevitable detonation, the revelation of the dark secret in Zakalwe's past.

The flashback chapters in particular are wonderfully inventive, and oddly moving. Zakalwe cycles through just about every activity mankind has found to excuse its existence, and finds them wanting; loyalty to a country (he is betrayed); love (it doesn't last); art (it can't hide ugliness); even drugs (they prove illusory). It's almost a high-tech version of John Gardner's "Grendel" in its quest for meaning. It's Zakalwe's rather sad realization that the struggle for life is all there is, that using weapons is its own justification, that lifts "Use of Weapons" from mere adventure store to top-tier literature.

Some may find the final revelation too melodramatic, too out of character for Zakalwe. Then again, some people don't like Belgian beer, British luxury cars or "The Lion in Winter". So hell with them.

What else can I say? "Use of Weapons" is beautifully written, dazzlingly original, haunting. Pure brilliance, really. OK, I'll stop now.

2010-03-04 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Use of weapons
I always love Iaan M Banks, but this book was brilliant on so many levels- I am astounded anew. True, I cannot pass this on to many other readers, as his books seem to fly over their heads, but that's no insult in my books. Ahh, a tale that stays with me and resonates, in a world of crap. Rare, special and wonderfull. Thank you sir!

2010-01-30 (Los Angeles) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Wonderful, surprising, sad, breath taking
Top notch story. I felt more connected with the characters in this story than most of the others in the Culture Series. When the truth finally comes out at the end of the story, I truly felt sad.

2009-09-29 | all_day_breakfast (New York, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Stops and starts... like driving with a crazy driver.
Only recently have I been reading Bank' Culture novels. I have had my eye on them for many years but could never find the first one or determine the reading order. Wikipedia and Amazon finally let me jump into this pretty amazing series.

Use of Weapons is a little frustrating. Its herky jerky, its story reads in fits and stops. Sort of like driving in a car with a new driver. The book is told with 2 time lines, (1) the main plot proceeds from the current time forward (Zak attempts to rescue and convince an aging General to aid the Culture and (2) the other is told backwards starting in the current time and going backwards - we see Zak thru various missions to before he begin as an agent of the culture.

Frankly, the backwards moving story line, clever as it is, really disrupts the flow of the main plot. The main plot builds wonderfully well. Very clever and interesting and Zak and Sma are fun, interesting characters. I really enjoyed this story line - its exciting, clever, even humorous at times.

The backwards story line just attempts to fill in the story behind Zak, where he came from, what he was before becoming a Culture agent. The main prob here is every single chapter of the backwards line is self contained - and each one takes several pages to "re-orient" yourself. Most of those start with Zak in deep water after some mission that went badly. I found myself sighing at these chapter and really looking forward to the progressive chapters.

I think this book would have been much better with fewer backwards story lines. I don't think I mentioned that for every forward story chapter there is one backwards story chapter. A clever lesson in fiction writing but makes but a train wreck to read. Its not confusing mind you, it just really breaks the flow of the main story.

But hey, I paid $1 for it.

2009-06-01 (Texas) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 3

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Iain Banks' masterpiece
Cheradenine Zakalwe is a (non-Culture-born) agent in Special Circumstances, skilled in steering less-developed planets towards the path that the Culture thinks is best for them. Unlike most SC agents, Zakalwe's speciality is fighting and the use of weapons in both prosecuting wars, and averting conflicts. His handler is SC agent Diziet Sma who, along with her drone companion Skaffen-Amtiskaw, has to set out to locate Zakalwe when his abilities are needed again.

I've read enough of Iain Banks' other work to be able to say that Use of Weapons is almost certainly his masterpiece, which is really saying something compared to the high quality of his other novels. In this book everything just works. The characters are sublimely handled, with Banks immersing you in their lives to the point where you stop thinking of them as characters and instead accept them as people. The structure of the story is inventive without over-relishing its own cleverness. The chapters alternate between a forward-moving story about Diziet tracking down Zakalwe for a new mission, and how that mission unfolds, and a backwards-moving one as we follow Zakalwe's story back to his youth. Just to shake things up, both narratives also feature flashbacks to earlier events as well. The structure could have confusingly imploded in on itself (and earlier drafts stretching back fifteen years before it was published are apparently far more complex), but in the published book it works effortlessly. The storylines may be moving in different directions and feel dislocated from one another, but they collide with impressive force at the end of the novel in a stunning final chapter.

Banks' signature creation, the Culture, has never been so convincingly portrayed or as well-handled as in this book, and its total bafflement at Zakalwe's antics (personified by Skaffen-Amtiskaw's exasperation with events) is amusing to see. In fact, there's a lot of Banks' traditional black humour running through the book, lightening the gloom that threatens to descend during some of Zakalwe's more introspective moments.

Use of Weapons (*****) is a spectacularly good science fiction novel that addresses questions of memory, motivation, guilt and conscience in a consistently entertaining and sometimes very funny manner. A masterful novel from a writer at the very height of his powers, and highly recommended. The novel is available now from Orbit in the UK and USA.

2009-04-24 | Werthead (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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The Player of Games

Product Details

• Environment: NEW
• ISBN13: 9780316005401
• Notes: Discredit New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Description

The Culture - a human/machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game...a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.

Praise for Iain M. Banks:

"Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy -- the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more" -- NME

"An exquisitely riotous tour de force of the imagination which writes its own rules simply for the pleasure of breaking them." -- Time Out

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In The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks presents a distant future that could almost be called the end of history. Humanity has filled the galaxy, and thanks to ultra-high technology everyone has everything they want, no one gets sick, and no one dies. It's a playground society of sports, stellar cruises, parties, and festivals. Jernau Gurgeh, a famed master game player, is looking for something more and finds it when he's invited to a game tournament at a small alien empire. Abruptly Banks veers into different territory. The Empire of Azad is exotic, sensual, and vibrant. It has space battle cruisers, a glowing court--all the stuff of good old science fiction--which appears old-fashioned in contrast to Gurgeh's home. At first it's a relief, but further exploration reveals the empire to be depraved and terrifically unjust. Its defects are gross exaggerations of our own, yet they indict us all the same. Clearly Banks is interested in the idea of a future where everyone can be mature and happy. Yet it's interesting to note that in order to give us this compelling adventure story, he has to return to a more traditional setting. Thoughtful science fiction readers will appreciate the cultural comparisons, and fans of big ideas and action will also be rewarded. --Brooks Peck

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Customer Reviews

Another solid entry in the opus
I never thought I was a fan of space opera until I read Iain Banks. I bought my first Banks' novel by accident (thought it was something else) and was appalled when I saw it was 600+ pages and full of really strange names. 50 pages in I was hooked, 300 pages in I was still up, and then when it was 3:00 a.m. and I couldn't keep my eyes open any more to follow along I finally fell into a coma and dreamt about drones and AI and the Culture. Banks is actually a much better writer than he gets credit for, and he doesn't get enough credit for his inventiveness and ability to string a plot together and keep it together for 600 pages.

2010-02-15 (San Francisco) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Motivation in a World Without Scarcity
The far-future world of the Culture that Banks has created must be a difficult world to write in, because characters can have almost anything they want in the material world. The first Culture novel, Consider Phelbas, avoids the problem by having the characters operate at the edge of the Culture or beyond. It's a good, and serviceable, but not excellent, book. The Player of Games is an order of magnitude better, because The Player of Games confronts the problem of lack of scarcity head on.

Finding motivation in such a world would be difficult, when there's nothing you have to do, and all you must constantly choose what you will do and become. All the initial characters grapple with ennui and lack of wants, with the main character slowly becoming bored with what had been his primary pursuit, expertise in all known games.

Banks finds a way to turn this preoccupation with games and a lack of direction into a grand story full of games within games within games, where the main character realizes himself as a result of being forced into the most challenging game known. Banks' description of the games themselves is masterful, full of great turns of phrase and beauty, while at the same time further drawing out and explaining the main character, both to the reader and to the character himself. Ultimately, it is a stirring description of a person's obsession and singular abilities becoming a world-changing event merely through the exercise of those gifts.

2010-01-19 (Fresno, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Not as good as "Consider Phelbas"
All in all I enjoyed this book, but it did take awhile to get started. It was somewhat slow to start, but Iain M. Banks does paint some beautiful scenes.
I loved the book "Consider Phelbas" because one it was action packed. Also the main charecter in the book is awesome. Kinda like an Indiana Jones type.
"The Player of Games" is a good book, but I never found myself really attached to the main charecter. In fact most of the time he annoyed me how he handeled situations and so on.
All in all though it's worth a read, and about 100 pages in or so you'll get hooked.

2009-05-10 | Constantine (Corvallis, OR USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Not the best, sorry.
Maybe I need to read this again, but it seemed kind of formulaic to me.

Or maybe not formulaic. Maybe just after a certain period of time you simply expected the player's victory to be inevitable, and it was all yawns thereafter.

Sure, it gets a little tense towards the end, but a large Greek Chorus of Dei ex Machina(e) handle the loose ends.

It was one of those OK books to read. Certainly not at all in the same league as "Use of Weapons," or jeez! "Matter." Now, *that*'s quite the book.

2009-04-19 | Winebibber. Java/JEE Developer. (Atlanta, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Fiendish and intelligent
Jernau Morat Gurgeh is a master games-player. From his home Orbital, he has mastered many different games played by many different species and been beaten rarely. Slightly bored with his life, the Culture offers him the chance to travel to the cruel Empire of Azad and there take part in the most complex game the Culture knows of, a game so important that those who win it can become generals, statesmen and even emperors.

As an alien, Gurgeh is of course barred from winning public office from the game, but is determined to win anyway, even when doing so may strain relations between the Azadians and the Culture. However, nothing is as it seems.

The Player of Games, the second Culture novel originally published in 1988, is less epic than Consider Phlebas and much more personal. It is nevertheless every bit as compelling. The first third or so of the novel follows Gurgeh's life on his home Orbital and his growing dissatisfaction with life there which provokes him into making a rash move which soon has him considering the offer to journey to Ea, the Azadian homeworld. As the story develops, we explore both the Culture and the alien society through the games that Gurgeh plays, but the book itself is also a game. The characters are the pieces, being moved around for stakes far greater than those in the fictional game itself, and the finale offers a highly satisfying resolution and explanation of what has gone before.

Gurgeh isn't the most likable of protagonists, as he's an obsessive who is naive about the world outside his games, but at the same time his conflicts make for interesting reading. The secondary cast of drones, Azadians and fellow Culture agents are all well-drawn, and their reactions to Gurgeh tell us a lot more about his character than he reveals himself (with a couple of very brief exceptions we are in Gurgeh's head in a limited third-person POV for most of the book). Banks' black sense of humour is also present and correct.

The Player of Games (****½) is an unusual but highly satisfying SF novel that couldn't be more different from its predecessor but works just as well. An ingenious and compelling story of games, intrigue and character, and well worth a look. The Player of Games is available now from Orbit in both the UK and USA.

2009-03-08 | Werthead (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Against a Dark Background

Product Details

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• Modify: NEW
• ISBN13: 9780316036375
• Notes: Maker New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Description

Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilization based around the planet Golter. Now she is hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes that she is the last obstacle before the faith's apotheosis, and her only hope of escape is to find the last of the apocalyptically powerful Lazy Guns before the Huhsz find her.

Her journey through the exotic Golterian system is a destructive and savage odyssey into her past, and that of her family and of the system itself.

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Customer Reviews

Against a Dark Background
Originally published in 1993, //Against A Dark Background// by Iain M. Banks was extremely difficult to find in the United States for many years, until becoming available in this new edition. Unlike most of Banks' science fiction books, it stands alone and is not part of his "Culture" series.||The book is set on the isolated world of Golter in the far future. The main character, a minor aristocrat and former soldier named Sharrow, finds herself hunted by a religious sect that wants her dead and must reunite with her old military comrades to hunt down the only thing that can save her from them- the Lazy Gun, an ancient product of lost technology and a weapon of horrifying power.

//Against a Dark Background// is an excellent book for any science fiction fan. The plot is interesting, gradually revealing more about both Sharrow and her world. Golter and its environs provides a strange and fascinating setting, and the book has a very powerful atmosphere of darkness and foreboding. It's great to see this book available in America once again.

Reviewed by John Markley

2010-01-11 | SacramentoBookReview.com (Sacramento, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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One Of The Best From One Of The Best
Despite the questionable ending, this is one of the best novels from one of sci-fi's best novelists.

2009-12-10 (Los Angeles, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Long. Boring. Dark. Vaguely incestuous.
Subject line says it all, really.

WHAT A TRUDDDDDDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fot the first 90% of the book it's a bit of a pursuit. In the last 10%, after the fjords, well, it's a bit predictable, except that cousin shows up. Then it gets to feeling incestuous.

90% boring and predictable. Not redeemed by the rest.


My God! I wasted hours of my life on this! Aaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!11Eleventy!!!!!!!!!!1


I really did not enjoy this book.

2009-10-14 | Winebibber. Java/JEE Developer. (Atlanta, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

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First Banks novel I read
I picked this novel up from a grocery store rack one day back in '93. I had never heard of Iain M. Banks. I bought it on impulse, just from reading a little of the back cover. To say I was taken by surprise would be an understatement. I'm old school SF: Heinlein, Asmimov and Clark...and a few others. The man can write. I had to wait about 6 weeks to finish the novel, because I made the mistake of leaving it around for others to pick up and read. By the time I got it back, it was dog-eared, the cover was creased, and I have no idea how many hands it might have passed through before I eventually got it back again and finished reading it. The only other SF novel I can recall having that kind of thing happen with was Cecilia Holland's "Floating Worlds", which was returned to me completely dishevelled and barely hanging together.

Well, what can I say...I was blown away. I have to disagree with calling this "space opera"...I've read enough of that to know the difference. Yes, toward the end it sort of bogged down...but I almost wonder if that wasn't intentional, to reflect that Sharrow herself was ill, and not on her best game. I dunno...maybe. This was very unlike other SF novels I had read, and was my introduction to Iain M. Banks.

After reading Against a Dark Background, I read everything by Banks I could find. Some excellent SF, I especially like the equality (or even superiority) of sentient machines. I also read The Wasp Factory, because it had his name on the cover. Ummm. Well. What can I say. I managed to finish it, and the next time I see a burning dog running through town, I'll know who to blame.

Consider Plhebas and Use of Weapons were both compelling reading, but neither quite grabbed me the same way Against a Dark Background did. IMOH, Lady Sharrow was the model for Lara Croft, quite the "Aristo" herself, and an "antiquities dealer", no less.

It is now 2009, and the concepts of disposable phones or computers that travel in small tubes which you can unroll isn't quite as distant as it was in '93...only more proof of Bank's vision.

2009-08-14 | Vorga (Austin, Tx United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Quest becomes tedious; for a true Banks fan
Iain Banks' fourth sci-fi novel, while not a Culture novel, follows a similar pattern as Consider Phlebas and The Algebraist, a fellow non-Culture novel. The latter two novels were planet hopping, solar system exploring, alien delving, quest faring, 5-star plunges into the realm of science fiction like I've rarely experienced before. Now, while Dark Background may not be many of the above, it is at its nature in the `quest faring' category. The entire novel takes place within just ONE solar system (only Inversions beats this small scope by taking place in one continent). Banks' description of this solar system is detailed and enthralling. The prose he uses to describe something as mechanical as orbital body order is impressive. To compound this, his written sketch of planetary particulars paints a vivid enough picture to nearly make one hallucinate. The tri-planet quest will leave you with your own vibrant memories of their search for the Universal Principles book and the Lazy Gun.

The quest for the two relics above sets the background for the entire novel, but it doesn't take center stage. At center stage is the relationship between the protagonist Lady Sharrow (since this isn't a Culture novel, she doesn't have an absurdly long name) and everyone else be it friend, foe, android, King, cousin, half-sister or even God. The family relationships are well probed as the novel tends to occasionally flashback to Sharrow's past experiences, whose lessons' reflect on the continuing storyline. The entire flashback cliché isn't humdrum or eye-rolling; Banks does a fine job of keeping everything relevant. His visions of 18,000 year-from-now humankind on a distant planet feel real, even though much of the story is about its aristocracy (which I hate in nearly ALL novels but Banks does such a fine job, yet again).

The plot flow for a typical Banks novel is fairly steady, which would a large reason why I've rated all of his sci-fi novels either three stars (Inversion and Feersum Enjinn) or more. Again, here in Dark Background, the pace is steadily addictive... up until about the 75% point where I began to put the book down more and more often before it finally picked up 50 or so pages later. I finished the novel is a brisk 3½ days with little sweat.

Banks is inclined to focus on plot and character development in his novels while technology takes second-string (unlike fellow British SF authors Asher and Hamilton). This is also the case in Dark Background. There's a strong spotlight on the Lazy Gun in the beginning of the book, but there's minimal technological attention paid to it. There is also light attention paid to the weapons, predominant land vehicles, space vehicles and modes of communication. If there is one prime piece of technological wonder in the novel, it would be the monowheel (a ground car with one center wheel), which makes an appearance on the cover of the British version of the cover and towards the last 15% of the novel.

A solid novel by Banks but it has its' one stretched moment of lapse and boredom, which seriously took it down one star. This is amalgamated with the protagonists' repetitive dreams of friends' deaths. The last 15% could have been more solid.

2009-06-22 | 2theD (Ban Chang, Rayong, Thailand) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Matter

Product Details

• Notes: Make New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Fit out: NEW
• ISBN13: 9780316005371

Description

In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one man it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.

Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has changed almost beyond recognition to become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilizations throughout the greater galaxy.

Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.

MATTER is a novel of dazzling wit and serious purpose. An extraordinary feat of storytelling and breathtaking invention on a grand scale, it is a tour de force from a writer who has turned science fiction on its head.

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Customer Reviews

Huh? Is it fantasy? Is it Scifi? No, its FantiFi. Its also tedious.
One to avoid in my opinion.
I have never read this author before and will not try again. I had to give this up
after about a hundred pages.
The writting is not particularly good and the book is more about the authors fascination with his little galaxy than he is of telling a good story.
Once I figured out the main story was taking place inside a large structure I couldn't escape the feeling they were all in a giant warehouse instead of a real world. I also couldn't escape the ridiculousness of this primitive people living in a box with advanced aliens watching them and the whole time they know highly advance beings are a few feet away watching them and they can even go live with the advanced species if they wanted but their whole experience is still real and necessary. It all felt like a silly unecessary game after that.
The descriptions are terrible. At one point we are introduced to an alien that is shaped like a Bush but can contort itself to twenty feet and mimic a face to make humans comfortable. I never could figure out what this thing was supposed to look like. This was true of most the species and the entire world. I could not visualize it as real. It was as though the author wasn't really sure himself what things look like.
I am a huge fan of Fantasy and SciFi and I know what a good story looks like. This didn't cut it for me. I wanted to like it but started to get frustrated and finally disgusted at how little I cared about the world, the people, the plot, any of it.

2010-03-03 | I Read Backwards (Western US. By mount Nebo.) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Pretty Dope Stuff here...
This was the first Iain Banks book I ever read. Although I got the Kindle version, I only stumbled upon the book because the actual hardcopy Cover illustration caught my eye near some kiosk in some city. Nonetheless I enjoyed the book as it is both entertaining conceptually and dialogue, without erring on the side of 'seriousness or proselytizing'. In fact, the book does not take itself seriously and therein lies the enjoyment in it. I read it straight for a few days and even recommended it to a few people who deliver harsh critiques of sci-fi.

If you have several choice pieces to read, yet you choose to finish a certain book before moving on, that must mean the book is at least decent, this is one of them.

If you like massive world epics with a fair amount of characters, and outcomes and events that are not necessarily run of the mill, you might find it here.

2010-02-26 | Smash (In your backyard...) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Greatest of the Culture books so far
I'm lucky, I didn't even know about the Iain M. Banks Sci-Fi books until late in 2009. After discovering them, I've read all of his Culture novels in a row from Consider Phlebas to Matter over the course of a few months. With that perspective in mind, I believe Matter is the apex of the Culture books.

Culture fans will love this book. Inversions haters will get more of what they hated. Combined, it's a great book. You will get your Culture fix from this one, trust me.

2010-02-07 | book maven the unoriginal | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Banks needs a better editor
I wonder if some of Bank's earlier work (like "Player of Games" and "Consider Phlebus") are better because before he was successful he was forced to listen to the criticism of his editor(s). It just feels like "Matter" could really have benefited from some better editing. The writing is good, the characters are interesting and the basic concept of the story is cool, but the pacing of the plot is just awful (tedious) and the ending feels rushed and unsatisfying. Frankly this really goes for all of the Culture books since "Use of Weapons." If you are new to the Culture series, I recommend you read Player of Games first (great story, great character development). And don't worry about the order you read Culture books. Each one stands alone - they aren't sequels, they just happen in the same Universe. Once you have read enough of the other culture books, then you will probably be interested (and invested) enough to make reading "Matter" worth it.

2010-01-26 | eg123 (ny, ny USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Seen it all before...
This is actually the first Banks book I've not got to the end of. I'm feeling we've seen it all before, the competing siblings, neo-feudal society, and so on. The setting at least is new, but I just couldn't get on with it.

I actually preferred Algebraist, but it would be nice if he returned to top form soon - things are getting too comfortable and familiar in the Culture.

2009-12-07 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Inversions

Description

Iain M. Banks, the international bestselling author of The Player of Games and Consider Phlebas, is a true original, a literary visionary whose brilliant speculative fiction has transported us into worlds of unbounded imagination. Now, in his acclaimed new novel, Banks presents an engrossing portrait of an alien world, and of two very different people bound by a startling and mysterious secret.

On a backward world with six moons, an alert spy reports on the doings of one Dr. Vosill, who has mysteriously become the personal physician to the king despite being a foreigner and, even more unthinkably, a woman. Vosill has more enemies than she first realizes. But then she also has more remedies in hand than those who wish her ill can ever guess.

Elsewhere, in another palace across the mountains, a man named DeWar serves as chief bodyguard to the Protector General of Tassasen, a profession he describes as the business of "assassinating assassins." DeWar, too, has his enemies, but his foes strike more swiftly, and his means of combating them are more direct.

No one trusts the doctor, and the bodyguard trusts no one, but is there a hidden commonality linking their disparate histories? Spiraling around a central core of mystery, deceit, love, and betrayal. Inversions is a dazzling work of science fiction from a versatile and imaginative author writing at the height of his remarkable powers.

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Customer Reviews

The Doctor sends a note, "...declining the invitation, citing an indisposition due to special circumstances."
The scale of Iain M Bank's epic Culture books is, well, ...epic is the right word here. The scale often is galactic, with a time scale sometimes in the billions of years, and the fantastic technologies the norm rather than the exception.

But every story can be split into smaller and smaller segments. Who can tell whether novelist Ed Abbey was a plant on Earth to initiate environmental activism as a minute part of a larger effort to preserve and protect those are and precious habitable worlds?

Well, probably not Abbey, as he wrote, "Aliens on this planet? Us? Who said so? Not me. And if I did, that was yesterday. Tonight I know better" (Abbey's Road, p. 189).

Inversions is a Culture story, albeit an exceedingly thin slice of it. I read the Orbit 1999 paperback, published in Great Britain.

Doctor Vosill, a foreigner from the distant lands of Drezen (where nobody seems to know her), cares for King Quience as his personal physician. Rival King UrLeyn is protected by his bodyguard, DeWar, and his favorite consort, Perrund. This is an age of battles, bitter rivalries, court intrigue, and torture chambers.

Might there be subtle, oh so subtle, attempts from Culture to influence this society? What form might these attempts take? Why would Culture even be involved?

I sensed that this volume was an interesting blend of the two hats worn by Iain Banks and Iain M Banks. Although I certainly want more of the CUlture on the traditional epic scale, I enjoyed the intrigue in Inversions.

2009-06-07 (Honolulu, HI & Logan, UT USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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A tale of two cities
The story so far features two states in a post-empire world. The interesting juxtaposition is of a warrior "Protector" and his bodyguard happily killing people versus a hypochondriac king and his doctor trying to cure people. As the story unfolds, we see that the doctor, who is doing her best to move the monarchy in a progressive direction, is hated by many of the conservative nobles, who set in train various assassination plots. Little do they know.....? In the other side of the world, the Protector is increasingly inveigled in an unwinnable war, while the bodyguard gets more involved with the chief concubine. And all the while the Protector's son may be dying. Ironic that the doctor is attending to the hypochondriac king, while the Protector's son is really unwell. The two stories are told in an interwoven way (like Devil in the White City) alternating chapter by chapter. The reader is left to work out whether they are truly interlinked (did the doctor know the bodyguard in a previous life?) and to see the interesting ways the one country's attitudes shine a light on the other. Each story is written simply and would be good on their own, but the way they are interspersed makes the reader's imagination work harder; it's a great book.

2009-06-06 | delistu (New Canaan, CT United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Not believable or compelling
I love to claim this excellent series as one of my favorite in scifi, but this book is nothing better than embarassing. The entire book takes place in ballrooms and courtyards with yawning noblemen and the politics of high culture: easily the most boring of Banks's novels. I'd read War and Peace if I wanted that kind of novel.

Also the plot is just preposterous, especially the ending. Almost everyone in the story completely breaks character for the last chapters. Well, that's a little generous. They break SANITY for the last chapters!

Skip this one and head straight for Look to Windward; it's one of the best of the series.

2009-01-21 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Not a typical Culture novel.
This is another excellent book by Mr. Banks. It gives you a glimpse of the actions of Special Circumstances agents from the viewpoint of the native civilizations that they are embedded in.

2008-01-27 | dumbwhitekid (philly) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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good but not up-to-par Banksian SF
This book was advertised as being a SF book and after reading all but 2 of his SF books, I looked forward to Inversions with a salivating tongue. There is no science, technology, aliens or spaceshipsb (as is typical and wonderul with Banks' SF). The story takes place on an undisclosed planet with human or human-like individuals. The two stories (which are well told) revolve around two kingdoms on the same world. Kings, Dames, harems, doctors, generals and Barons are scattered throughout the storyline which creates a gothic yet civilized portrait of the world.

Banks doesn't let the reader down with his refreshing injections of humor and darkness. I kept reading hoping for an angle of SF but was ultimetly left without. This would be a great book for fantasy readers, but as a hard SF fan and especially a Banks space-opera fan, Inversions was a disappointment to my expectations... however, I enjoyed it whilst I read.

2007-11-20 | 2theD (Ban Chang, Rayong, Thailand) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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