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Title: CONSIDER PHLEBAS by Iain Banks ISBN: 0-553-29281-1 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 September, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (62 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Head and shoulders above most of the genre
Comment: The superb quality of this work becomes even more surprising when you realise that its Banks first stab at a Science Fiction novel. He writes with such style and assurance that it puts him way up there with the greats such as Vernor Vinge and Donald Moffitt and beyond the reach of other good writers like Larry Niven and Philip Jose Farmer.
The story encompasses a tiny segment of a galactic war. The Culture, a humane society ruled by benevolent machines is at war with the immortal and biological Idirians . Neither will yield and each side is quite happy to use the 'weapons at the end of the Universe' against their opponent. The main character Horza is really likeable and in spite of his alien abilities he is the most recognisably human person in the book. He is driven not by his love of the Idirians and their somewhat brutal civilisation, but by his almost irrational loathing of the machines that run the Culture. This is a deep, exiting and well-crafted tale and is highly recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: 4.5 Stars Science Fiction on a Grand Scale
Comment: I've had 'Consider Phlebas' sitting on my shelf for years. I wish now that I'd read it long ago. Banks' novel is an awe inspiring work of Space Opera. If you like your science fiction on a grand scale then this is the novel for you! Everything is larger than life...the spaceships carry billions, enormous artificial habitats are destroyed as though they are made of noting more substantial than Lego. One set piece follows another and the pace of the story rarely lets up. The characters are a bit weak in their realization and development. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? This is a dilemma for the reader but let's face it, the real attraction of this type of fiction is the hardware. Characterization is always going to fall short when the background of a story is a war that kills hundreds of billions of people. There's little not to like here and I will definitely be moving on to the next volume of Banks' Culture novels.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wicked, Haunting SF!
Comment: I spent some time after I read this book trying to justfy whether the truly incredible and unforgettable conclusion to this novel made up for what I felt was a meandering, directionless beginning. It does. Ten times over.
As a science fiction novel it is an excellent work. For a man who hadn't previously written science fiction this is a truly a revelation.
The book opens in prison with a man drowning in the faeces and urine of his captors. It is claustrophobic and compelling as only drowning in human waste can be. From there it seems to lose its way, as the main protagonist moves from one unrelated and bewilderingly extensive action scene to the next. Characters are introduced in some detail, developed or left veiled in portentous mystery, only to be forgotten. I found myself asking, where is this going? What is happening?
And then somewhere, about half way through, almost indentifiable to a particular page, the world changes. The whole book, the chararcters, the description and the plot come abruptly to life. It is as though Banks has had an epiphany.
The narrative follows the actions of Horza, an enigmatic and withdrawn secret agent, as he attempts to capture a Culture Mind lost in forbidden territory.As Horza finally gets round to the task at hand the tension suddenly and dramatically mounts. Darkness falls and the subterranean base on the polar world in which this book is, for the last part at least, set vibrates with intensity and drama.
The final 200 pages or so are some of the most vivid and exciting I have read, leaving me with images and memories which I will not forget for a long, long time.
The novel is not necessarily provocative or philosophical. And no, you won't sit around gazing out the window at the stars wondering about life, the universe and everything. You will be more inclined to think, 'Holy xxxx! What a rush!'. It is simply, for the last 200 pages, suspense and adrenalin. Captivating and relentless.
Endings like this don't come around so often. It is like rolling slowly and deliberately over the summit of a roller coaster ride before hurlting violently and inexorably towards the earth.
Great stuff!! The stuff on which dark dreams are made.
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Title: USE OF WEAPONS by Iain Banks ISBN: 0553292242 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks ISBN: 0061053562 Publisher: HarperCollins (paper) Pub. Date: February, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: AGAINST A DARK BACKGROUND by Iain Banks ISBN: 0553292250 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: State of the Art by Ian Banks ISBN: 1857230302 Publisher: Firebird Distributing Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 |
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Title: Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks ISBN: 0743421922 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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