The State of the Art

A nice little break from the mainline stories. This was a quick and light read, I thought that each short story was interesting and worth the time it took to finish. My favorite three:

1. The State of the Art- The titular novella, it's a neat little easter egg of a story. I can understand the urge to pull the Earth into the Culture Universe but at the same not wanting to impact the tone/canon in a Novel sized tale. I can see a desire for a little more Culture/Contact action, but I really felt gratified by how much Earth is featured, illustrated, and reflected upon. This is a tight story with a thoughtful take on determinism and cultural relativity. I think it's worth it to read the collection just for this story. Nice to get more Sma and Skaffen Amiskaw (Iain Banks really knows what the readers want).

2. Descendant - This is how you write a horror story in 6 pages or less. The prose reminded me of Cormack McCarthy. This is one of the shorter stories in the novel, but I thought it was a head above the rest.

3. Cleaning Up - The most meta story of the bunch, there's even a nod to the Satanic Verses. A foreshadowed ending buried within the agnst and commentary. I thought this the most direct and touching story, at least for me.