Consider Phlebas

The first novel in the Culture series, Consider Phlebas' protagonist is an enemy of the Culture, an Idiran spy. His mission is to retrieve a Culture mind (a sentient machine) that evaded Idiran capture. The real beauty of this novel (beyond the exquisitely layered language, worldbuilding and plot) is that it sets up the reader to view the Culture as a questionable force in the universe, while all the other novels in the series have Culture protagonists! From the get-go to the very end, I found myself disliking the Culture, and yet fascinated by Banks' world. I'll definitely be purchasing the other novels in the series. Cannot recommend enough.

80% action 20% sci-fi.

Oscillates in tone between goofy and grim in a way enjoyed.

It's quite violent. I wanted to learn more about the Idirans and the Culture and was a bit disappointed by how much of this novel is just adventure as opposed to sci-fi but I'm intrigued enough to investigate other titles in the series.

Cela faisait un moment que je voulais lire le cycle de la Culture de Iain M. Banks et je me suis enfin décidé à m'y mettre. Je ne sais pas si je dois me réjouir d'avoir autant attendu ou regretter de ne pas l'avoir fait plus tôt, tout est-il que le premier roman du cycle m'a beaucoup plu.

Le récit est rythmé et finalement assez classique. On s'attache énormément aux personnages et on suit avec plaisir leurs aventures et mésaventures. Surtout, l'univers est original, on pressent une grande richesse à explorer dans la suite du cycle. C'est de la science-fiction inventive et intelligente, tout ce que j'aime.

I don't consider 3 stars a bad review. The universe created was wholly interesting and I think I will continue to read books set here but this book was a bit slow and like getting closer to the speed of light it got longer and longer toward the end of the book. Some scenes it would rush through and then the last 3rd of the book took place with hours of exposition being painstakingly described from 4 different perspectives.

As I write this I've finished Player of Games, and I can say that this book has done its job of setting up what I expect are the core philosophical questions of the series, but I don't feel as though enough attention was given to the narrative of this specific entry. Characters feel flat, motivations are written out and grappled with but there's no catharsis, I didn't come away feeling as though I understood what the point was.

This is my introduction to The Culture, a far in the future symbiosis of human and intelligent machine, an ever expanding post-scarcity anarchist utopian society. I enjoyed this book, it's a fast paced pan-galactic heist that does a good job of introducing its larger world. I felt like I was reading a sci-fi adaptation of The Mummy. Our main character is a “changer” shapeshifter on a mission from his alien overlords, he gets his ass kicked six ways from Sunday as he and his makeshift crew galivant disastrously across temples and desolate ruins. No one safe, nothing is sacred, and the author isn't afraid to build up a trope just to yank the rug out from under us.

I came away positive on the series, but this book is a freshman effort; The female characters might as well be cardboard cut-outs and the rest of the cast has zero agency which is weird since the MC doesn't start running the show until nearly the half-way point. At certain points in the story MC himself appears to be railroaded into the narrative, and for all the political philosophy and high minded rhetoric of the warring factions, the character's motivations aren't explored in a meaningful way.

Not a series I'll be continuing with. A friend said this book read like a series of short stories strung together and I agree. I can do without the island side story in particular. I did hear “Consider phlebas” towards the end but it went by so fast that I have no idea how the title relates to the story.

It moves along at a breakneck pace, so it is engaging from that point of view. But, in the end, everybody gets killed off. Ultimately, it just seemed like a tremendous waste of time.
Started Master of Games, but gave it up about 20% of the way into it. It seemed like it was starting to head off into the weeds and I was starting not to care about the characters.

The late, great Iain (M.) Banks's eerste Culture-boek – en ik was begot vergeten dat het hoofdpersonage een afkeer heeft van Culture, en aan de andere kant van een oorlog tussen Idarans en Culture staat. (Waarschuwing: heel veel “een soort X-achtige” op komst.)

Het voelt niet heel erg coherent aan, bij momenten: een opeenvolging van fijne scènes met personages die wel OK zijn in een wereld die zeer goed in mekaar steekt, maar de som van de delen maakt er geen perfect geheel van.

Heel in het kort gaat het om een Mind, een hyperintelligente machine die op de vlucht is voor de Idarans, een soort onsterfelijke religieuze fanatici die al duizenden jaren oorlog voeren tegen zowat alles en nu ook the Culture tegengekomen zijn. Die ind heeft zich verborgen op een soort taboe-achtige planeet.

Die planeet wordt bewaakt door de Dra'Azon, een soort godachtige wezens, die niemand op de planeet toelaten behalve een paar Changers. Eén van die Changers, Horza, heeft een afkeer voor al wat Culture is (wegens moreel corrupt en machines doen alles en zo), werkt nu voor de Idirans, en is dus perfect geschikt om die Mind te proberen terugvinden.

Een tal set pieces verder (een martelscène, een soort intergalactisch pokerachtig spel met emoties en echte doden op een gedoemde Orbital, bijna opgevreten door religieuze fanatici) neemt Horza het uitzicht aan van een soort piratenkapitein, en komt hij uiteindelijk met een gemengd groepje piraten en een gevangen genomen Culture-geheimagente, op de planeet in kwestie toe.

Volgen kluten en esbattementen, ontknoping, en epiloog.

De epiloog maakt nog eens ten overvloede duidelijk dat het allemaal in het grotere beeld eigenlijk bijzonder zeer futiel was.

Um ja. Het had een uitstekend boek kunnen zijn, ik vind het na herlezen gewoon goed.

At first, I was pretty into this book. I liked the concept of Changers and the back and forth between Horza and Balveda, but as the book went on, I just wound up seeing more and more of the trope that ruin “classic” sci-fi for me. From the gruesome cannibal cult to the constant fridging of women in the protagonist's sphere to the general unlikeablity of the protagonist himself, this book just lost me.

The absolute worst though was when Yalson reveals her pregnancy to Horza and promptly offers to have or abort the baby on his whim. You know a book is written by a dude when... And of course the pregnancy only exists to fuel Horza's rage further when she gets killed.

I read this for book club, but it was first recommended to me by a guy I was chatting with online who then went crazy stalker, flooding my messengers with hundreds of repetitive, creepy things when I failed to respond to him instantly, so I had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for it before I read it. That said, other than Balveda, I just couldn't find much to enjoy in this one.

This was my first reading of Consider Phlebas, and it felt odd to ponder that it's the first of the Culture books. In particular: if this had been my first exposure to Banks, I'm not sure I would have had a second. This is a very, very weird sensation! It's not that my life would feel hollow—for how would I know—but the Me who has read the Culture books shudders to think of a Me who hasn't.It's a decent book, and offers glimpses of the writer Banks is to be, but it's just, well, off somehow. Too-pat characters. Too many improbable coincidences. Too shallow, too preachy. So weird, in fact, that I've waited almost a month to write this review. I had to wait to read another Banks ([b:The Player of Games 18630 The Player of Games (Culture, #2) Iain M. Banks http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166984450s/18630.jpg 1494157]) to restore my balance.If you're a Banks fan you'll need to read it; but if you are you're not asking me for advice. To the rest of you: you don't need to read this one. (And if you haven't read Banks, try starting with [b:Against A Dark Background 422452 Against A Dark Background Iain M. Banks http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174599757s/422452.jpg 809748]. That still shines out as my favorite. I'm on a Banks kick, though, and am eager to find out if it survives rereading).

This was one of those books that was enjoyable while reading, but ultimately less than satisfying when it was done. The main character only occasionally became sympathetic, and his views of the universe were unrelentingly negative, which were never really explained (especially in light of other viewpoints presented in the novel that were significantly at odds). He was angry, but if there was a cause for his anger, I don't recall it.

The imagination behind the setting, though, is immense. The images and concepts presented as background material are really what kept me reading. From the mind-bogglingly cosmic construction of Orbitals, to the unimaginable size of some of the starships presented, to the intriguing development of some of the alien cultures, there's plenty to gawk at in this book.

This was interesting. It reminded me a bit of Hyperion and a bit like Rendezvous with Rama in that it felt like several vastly different scenarios and stories within a single science fiction narrative and included a bit of an exploration of a strange environment with imaginative world-building. A medieval dungeon, an island of cannibals, a high-stakes casino, a heist or two, a rag-tag crew, etc.

While I won't say it is stellar or on the level of Hyperion (which is one of my all-time favorites) I did enjoy it and there were several times I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. There were also a few times of “get on with it” which knocks it down a star for me.

One thing I enjoyed was the personality that was put into the various races and settings. Changers in general and Horza specifically, Yalson, Balveda. Also Schar's World, orbitals, Minds. I liked the imagination.

This is my first foray into the Culture series, and I look forward to exploring it more.

Utopia at War

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1O2ZTIQXZ3S26?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp


This is the first installment of Iain Banks Culture series.

I was blown away by it as a diamond in the “Space Opera” exhibit.

First, we have alien civilizations. In this case, the main alien civilization is the “human” civilization of the Culture. I put “human” in quotes because I am not sure that they are human, at all. They act as humans, i.e., the good guys, but Banks never identifies them as human and the Culture appears to be an egalitarian melange so it isn't clear.

The Culture is clearly a hyper-advanced socialist system encompassing a large part of the galaxy. Society is largely run by artificial intelligences. Humans are not excluded from the system, but, clearly, society is too complex for mere human intelligence. In addition, artificial intelligences are incorporated into society as independent beings in their own right.

The Culture is wealthy enough to have solved most problems of existence for its inhabitants. This seems to leave the inhabitants with something of an ennui issue. We might call them “decadent” but Banks presents them as the lucky inhabitants of a culture that Marx dreamt of.

There is still ambition among some and they become explorers, pirates, mercenaries, etc. at the fringe among the non-Culture worlds (which it is understood that the Culture will eventually incorporate and enlighten.)

The plot of the story involves a war with an alien species. This alien species is not enlightened and not quite as technologically advanced. The Culture needs to time to repurpose its enlightened, peaceful systems to a war footing. In the meantime, the war will be handled by “Special Circumstance,” which acts in part as the Culture's intelligence and Special Operations Executive.

Second, there is the magnificence of concepts that is typical of Space Opera. The Culture mostly resides on specially created objects (“Orbitals.”) In this case, there is something that is not exactly a ringworld but is flat and constitutes a huge flat ocean on which ocean liners endlessly tour. It is the kind of off-hand extravagance that one would expect from a wealthy, somewhat decadent civilization.

Third, there is the action/adventure of the plot. In this case, the plot involves a race to get to a marooned AI which has important information. The reader watches as a crew of fringe pirates battle against the agents of the enemy to get to the AI. I was surprised at how much action there was in a book whose background was a decadent socialist utopia.

Banks' “The Culture” series has a good reputation. I was impressed with this opening book.

I’m certainly considering Phlebas. There was a lot of action in this book, and though some of it got densely descriptive and confusing, it was still intense. Banks bends the third-person limited perspective in really interesting ways and starts breaking the rules of his prose to create tension or mystery in a very cool way. Story was very intentionally bleak, done well. Feels like I would need to read it again to truly appreciate it, but I think Horza is a fascinating and complex character.

The thing that strikes you straight away is the effortless was Iain creates the his universe. The scale is as large as anything I have read while the set up is as simple as a Hadley chase novel. The conflict may seem to be between the Idarians and the Culture but there are enough and more beings and players to keep you occupied. In the end, its this more than anything that makes you lose the trail a bit. And frankly, at the end of it I never really understood why they were all after the Mind.