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Entropic posted:It should be an M-less next, since Matter was last. Haven't heard any hints as to what it's going to be about. 18 months between book releases from now on as he said he is getting on. Matter was early 2008 so it should be approaching I guess. FelchTragedy fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Apr 15, 2009 |
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Apr 15, 2009 16:25
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Does anyone know if Orbit has any plans to release his other Culture novels in the larger format (Trade paperback? Paperback? I can never keep which format is what straight) that Matter, Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, and Use of Weapons were released in? I've tried to email Orbit US twice and checked their webspage, but I've got nothing. I'd really like to read the rest of the Culture series, but I really despise the small format (Mass-market Paperback?).
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Apr 21, 2009 22:39
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I think they're going through his entire back catalog, doing one or two a year. Next one is Against a Dark Background on or about July 1st.
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Apr 21, 2009 23:23
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lilbean posted:Know what bugged me about the end of Matter? Banks makes a big deal about the protagonist dying in a big ball of sacrificial glory, but there was a scene earlier in the book talking about the importance of Special Circumstances operatives backing themselves up. So she didn't die, and she didn't sacrifice gently caress all. And then in the next scene, the other two major players (forgive my poor memory) are acting all loving sad about her being gone. I just finished Matter, and I liked it quite a bit. This was my first time reading Banks, and although the book was somewhat slowly paced, I appreciated all the world-building that went into it. It made the book approachable for someone who hadn't read any of the other Culture books. The spoiler text in the quote above brings up something that I have an issue with with most post-singularity science fiction - the lack of tension. Everyone is practically invulnerable and can be ressurected or re-instanced or whatever, so what do we care happens to the characters? When I read Peter Hamilton's "The Dreaming Void", I was definitely having singularity fatigue, and was really having a hard time caring about what was happening. Somehow, though, Banks made me care about what happened to the Prince and his family, which surprised me a little.
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May 26, 2009 17:17
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Joshtafari posted:I just finished Matter, and I liked it quite a bit. This was my first time reading Banks, and although the book was somewhat slowly paced, I appreciated all the world-building that went into it. It made the book approachable for someone who hadn't read any of the other Culture books. The only Banks book where I really had that problem was Inversions. Once you figure out that Doctor Vosill is a special circumstances agent (which is obvious from the beginning if you noticed that it a says "A Culture Novel" on the cover) you immediately lose any sense of possible danger for her. In some of the other books, most notably Use of Weapons, the characters may be for-all-intents-and-purposes physically immortal but they can still be emotionally destroyed. In Inversions though, you don't ever really get inside the heads of the Culture characters so there isn't even that possibility.
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May 26, 2009 17:54
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Entropic posted:The only Banks book where I really had that problem was Inversions. Once you figure out that Doctor Vosill is a special circumstances agent (which is obvious from the beginning if you noticed that it a says "A Culture Novel" on the cover) you immediately lose any sense of possible danger for her. In some of the other books, most notably Use of Weapons, the characters may be for-all-intents-and-purposes physically immortal but they can still be emotionally destroyed. In Inversions though, you don't ever really get inside the heads of the Culture characters so there isn't even that possibility. There was still UrLeyn/DeWar/Perrund's story. And I still found Vosill's story fairly entertaining. I honestly rather liked Matter, although I will agree it dragged once they got to space. And the Morthanveld were certainly interesting.
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May 27, 2009 00:04
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Joshtafari posted:The spoiler text in the quote above brings up something that I have an issue with with most post-singularity science fiction - the lack of tension. Everyone is practically invulnerable and can be ressurected or re-instanced or whatever, so what do we care happens to the characters? When I read Peter Hamilton's "The Dreaming Void", I was definitely having singularity fatigue, and was really having a hard time caring about what was happening. Somehow, though, Banks made me care about what happened to the Prince and his family, which surprised me a little. I think Banks would probably be totally on board with this. There is an extent to which many of his characters suffer from "singularity fatigue" as you've called it. The way people react to and try to combat this is a bit of a recurring theme.
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May 27, 2009 11:37
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JgPz posted:I just finished after putting it down for a couple weeks, more out of ocd than genuine interest. The ending was cool, I didn't care a lick for Zakalwe so I was just like 'hehe twisty'. Reading it as a comedy definitely helped, the part where Zakalwe fights the voiceless guy was funny. Verloc fucked around with this message at 17:35 on May 27, 2009 |
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May 27, 2009 17:33
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Hello Pity posted:I think Banks would probably be totally on board with this. There is an extent to which many of his characters suffer from "singularity fatigue" as you've called it. The way people react to and try to combat this is a bit of a recurring theme. Yeah, Look to Windward even had a suicidal Mind, and characters who refused the Culture's possibility of immortality while still living daredevil lifestyles.
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May 28, 2009 06:50
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After reading the Culture books that have been re-released recently, I picked up Feersum Endjinn hoping that it would be as good. Good god, I'm like 100 pages in and while it seems like it might be getting interesting, having to puzzle through the awful language that guy thinks in is completely killing it for me. I'm getting flashbacks to House of Leaves and having to twist the drat thing every which way on the train to try and make sense of it. Books should not be this difficult to read.
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May 28, 2009 18:41
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frood posted:After reading the Culture books that have been re-released recently, I picked up Feersum Endjinn hoping that it would be as good. Good god, I'm like 100 pages in and while it seems like it might be getting interesting, having to puzzle through the awful language that guy thinks in is completely killing it for me. I'm getting flashbacks to House of Leaves and having to twist the drat thing every which way on the train to try and make sense of it. Books should not be this difficult to read. It's a clever book - but I'm not entirely persuaded that the difficulty in reading it is rewarded. I had to vocalise the words to make any sense out of it. Recently finished "Matter" which left me unsatisfied for hard to define reasons. Maybe the story was too cluttered with alien races and cultures. Maybe it's because 80% of the book passes before the main group assembles and plot gets going - before that it's just a travelogue. Maybe it's the almost casual way in which characters are disposed of. nonathlon fucked around with this message at 18:35 on May 30, 2009 |
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May 29, 2009 09:37
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outlier posted:Recently finished "Matter" which left me unsatisfied for hard to define reasons. Maybe the story was too cluttered with alien races and cultures. Maybe it's because 80% of the book passes for the main group assembles and plot gets going - before that it's just a travelogue. Maybe it's the almost casual way in which characters are disposed of.
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May 30, 2009 14:27
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Entropic posted:The only Banks book where I really had that problem was Inversions. Once you figure out that Doctor Vosill is a special circumstances agent (which is obvious from the beginning if you noticed that it a says "A Culture Novel" on the cover) you immediately lose any sense of possible danger for her. In some of the other books, most notably Use of Weapons, the characters may be for-all-intents-and-purposes physically immortal but they can still be emotionally destroyed. In Inversions though, you don't ever really get inside the heads of the Culture characters so there isn't even that possibility. I quite liked Inversions especially very early on trying to figure out who were the Culture characters and then watching the one who still had Culture tools to work with and the one who didn't deal with the situations that they were involved with. And although the Dr. is pretty heavily armed and protected seeing all that stuff happen from the perspective of the way, way less advanced culture was pretty entertaining. The thing with the Backup copies is one of those science fiction things that can seem to cheapen the peril that characters face. I've dealt with it by reminding myself that the backup is essentially a 'serial twin' it's not really the same person the experiences of the original and the backup diverge immediately as soon as the backup is created (or activated I guess, since it's just data before that). For the character who's in danger/pain/love or whatever those experiences are the only version of himself that matter, if they die and are replaced by the backup, the character is in fact dead. My favorite ship names are Sleeper Service and Killing Time Because of the double meanings in both of them. e; oh and Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The.
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Jun 1, 2009 06:25
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I just finished Matter and it's definitely my favourite Banks novel to date. Holy poo poo, what an ending! I grew very attached to the three royal siblings, more than any other characters he's written. Oramen especially had an awesome character curve, and at the very end of the book I realized how amazing Ferbin had become. About halfway through the book there's a bit of a loss of momentum, and I found myself wishing Banks was still writing balls to the wall action like in Consider Phlebas. Sure enough, the man doesn't disappoint and the last 100 or 150 pages are nothing but some of the craziest Culture action ever. Things get pretty dark by the end too and it can be a bit of a shock considering how carefree much of the book seemed leading up to it. Also, the Liveware Problem is definitely up there in cool Culture ship names. The ship itself kicks a lott of rear end in the book, too.
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Jun 6, 2009 23:35
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Hah, I just found my copy of Canal Dreams with a bookmark halfway through that I gave up on like 10 months ago. Is there anyone here who really enjoyed that book? It's only like 200 pages and I couldn't finish it. And I can be a fairly fast reader when I'm interested, I read about 200 pages of a Christopher Brookmyre book just this morning. (Who, based on the 1.5 books of his I've read so far, is another awesome Scottish author.) So far I'm more more a fan of Banks' very early output as far as the M-less books are concerned. One of these days I'll get around to reading The Crow Road though. I think the only M. book I have left to read is Against A Dark Background, but my local library doesn't have it and in any case I've been trying to read something other than American/British SF lately. (And yet, halfway through an Italo Calvino I pick up a Brookmyre book...) Also: Is it just me, or could you do a decent McSweeney's list-quiz type thing of "Culture Ship or Mountain Goats song"?
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Jun 7, 2009 00:09
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Entropic posted:(which is obvious from the beginning if you noticed that it a says "A Culture Novel" on the cover) All three covers of Inversions that I've seen don't have "A Culture Novel"...
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Jun 7, 2009 19:46
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Maybe I'm a bit dense, but where does the title of Consider Phlebas come from? I just finished the book and aside from noting it was also the apparently out-of-nowhere title of the brief chapter where Horza died towards the end I'm a little puzzled. Got a bunch of new Banks (mostly non-M) in the mail, can't wait to dig into it.
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Jun 12, 2009 19:45
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Maybe I'm a bit dense, but where does the title of Consider Phlebas come from? I just finished the book and aside from noting it was also the apparently out-of-nowhere title of the brief chapter where Horza died towards the end I'm a little puzzled.
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Jun 12, 2009 22:09
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Started reading Excession and am enjoying it, but the GSVs sending each other messages reminds me a lot of the intergalactic Usenet in A Fire Upon The Deep that was published a few years before...
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Jun 12, 2009 23:03
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Morlock posted:Weirdly, just asked and answered on another thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3149277&pagenumber=1#post361942162 I read this question again and thought that I didn't hit post or something. Crazy. Also note the "look to windward" part of the poem too, Iain likes his T.S. Eliot apparently. \/\/ Many people totally skip past introductions and epigraphs ShutteredIn fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jun 12, 2009 |
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Jun 12, 2009 23:36
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Maybe I'm a bit dense, but where does the title of Consider Phlebas come from? I just finished the book and aside from noting it was also the apparently out-of-nowhere title of the brief chapter where Horza died towards the end I'm a little puzzled.  I've never seen an edition that didn't have the Wasteland epigraph at the beginning of the book. (see above) ShutteredIn posted:Many people totally skip past introductions and epigraphs Entropic fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Jun 12, 2009 |
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Jun 12, 2009 23:36
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Entropic posted:
Oops, thanks for that. I haven't read anything in a book before the story since Joseph Heller's loving foreword in Catch-22. Highlander posted:Started reading Excession and am enjoying it, but the GSVs sending each other messages reminds me a lot of the intergalactic Usenet in A Fire Upon The Deep that was published a few years before... Except that book sucks and the Minds are a lot more interesting to read.
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Jun 13, 2009 03:51
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Just to chime in on Against a Dark Background, I never particularly found the Lazy Guns concept to be that crazy or zany as a theme in the book is the philosophising on whether their society can ever achieve a balance or perfection or whether every ruling system is going to be just as bad and so fourth - the Lazy Guns represent the solution to this, left in their system after the destruction of the AIs (who strike me as similar to or even more advanced than a culture mind), they are devices which can miraculously create and alter matter on any seemingly any level but can only be used for destruction. It's as if they were left as a sort of 'hey look what you jerks could have had if you'd only trusted technology' message which would be in line with Bank's sci-fi philosophy in other novels, the only real glimmer of hope at the end of the book is the city of Androids (or of course the AI hiding in a 'The Algebraist' style escape as its destruction is never clearly described) Probably my favourite banks book alongside Feersum Endjinn TheFatController fucked around with this message at 19:53 on May 15, 2012 |
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Jun 17, 2009 00:28
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FelchTragedy posted:18 months between book releases from now on as he said he is getting on. Matter was early 2008 so it should be approaching I guess. I'm surprised that no one has pointed out that Transition is up for pre-order on amazon. Due out at the end of September. It's weird that it's an 'M' novel, because the description doesn't make it seem like high SF: Spoiler just in case, but if there's anything actually spoilery in the Amazon blurb I'm going to be mad. 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 organisation with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers? On the Concern's books are Temudjin Oh, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice; and a nameless, faceless torturer known only as the Philosopher. And then there's the renegade Mrs Mulverhill, who recruits rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, hiding out from a dirty past in a forgotten hospital ward. As these vivid, strange and sensuous worlds circle and collide, the implications of turning traitor to the Concern become horribly apparent, and an unstable universe is set on a dizzying course. It sounds... bizarre. Here's to hoping it's another good one!
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Jun 21, 2009 05:15
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Are all 'M' books Culture novels? All of the ones I've read so far are, but maybe I'm just selectively buying Culture books.
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Jun 21, 2009 13:32
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syphon posted:Are all 'M' books Culture novels? All of the ones I've read so far are, but maybe I'm just selectively buying Culture books. Most of them. (See the OP) 'Against a Dark Background', 'Feersum Endjinn' and 'The Algebraist' are not.
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Jun 21, 2009 14:40
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NmareBfly posted:I'm surprised that no one has pointed out that Transition is up for pre-order on amazon. Due out at the end of September. It's weird that it's an 'M' novel, because the description doesn't make it seem like high SF: Sounds a lot more like the non-M 'The Bridge' and 'Walking on Glass', which sounds good to me as those are my favourites.
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Jun 21, 2009 15:01
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Psiharis posted:Am I alone in thinking Complicity was utter poo poo? Loser with no redeeming characteristics plays some Civ, rapes some peeps, slaughters some dogs... yeah, raping the husband with his wife's pink dildo (in loving detail Congratulations on guessing the identity of the murderer without even finishing the book. How very perceptive of you. P.S. Nobody bother reading The Wasp Factory. It's just about a factory that makes wasps.
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Jun 21, 2009 21:01
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) was as far as I made it into that book, and I haven't picked up a Banks book since.
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syphon posted:Are all 'M' books Culture novels? All of the ones I've read so far are, but maybe I'm just selectively buying Culture books.
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Jun 22, 2009 15:06
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Finished The Player of Games today and as the OP mentioned, it felt a bit too simplistic and maybe even lacklustre. I couldn't help myself from interpreting the whole portrayal of the Azadian culture as a half-assed social commentary on Western governments and corrupted power structures (even though he probably didn't intend that). While I did enjoy the book, I wish there had been more to it. The plot followed its neat straight path and the ending felt anticlimatic. Anyways, I'd love to check out his other Culture novels. Which one would you guys recommend reading next?
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Jul 3, 2009 21:37
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Use of Weapons. Didn't I read somewhere (maybe even this thread) that it's even Banks' favorite book? After that, I kinda liked Look to Windward or Matter.
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Jul 3, 2009 23:04
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syphon posted:Use of Weapons. Didn't I read somewhere (maybe even this thread) that it's even Banks' favorite book? After that, I kinda liked Look to Windward or Matter. He said that The Bridge is his favourite, and Use of Weapons is his favourite of the Culture books. Mind you, I think that quote is like 10 years old now. I highly recommend either Use of Weapons or Look to Windward.
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Jul 3, 2009 23:17
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These Loving Eyes posted:Finished The Player of Games today and as the OP mentioned, it felt a bit too simplistic and maybe even lacklustre. I couldn't help myself from interpreting the whole portrayal of the Azadian culture as a half-assed social commentary on Western governments and corrupted power structures (even though he probably didn't intend that). While I did enjoy the book, I wish there had been more to it. The plot followed its neat straight path and the ending felt anticlimatic. Though my favorite of his sci-fi writings is Against A Dark Background, it's not actually a Culture book.
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Jul 4, 2009 02:27
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I've only gotten into Banks this year after getting an itch for some sci-fi that wasn't just the heroic Terran Federation fighting off the animal-themed alien hordes. I started with Consider Phlebas, which was tasty but really did come across like a space romp I was trying to get away from and the /big/ ideas tended to be the sort of 1 to 3 paragraph thoughts like the destruction of Vavach. It was enjoyable enough that I moved to The Player of Games and while it took a little while to take off, was a thoroughly enjoyable ride - possibly because I went into it without much in the way of preconceptions. Matter came next and I was just utterly disappointed. Perhaps just due to expectations again, I wanted a headful of sci-fi and spent half a book in feudal drama. When things finally fell together and stayed on the move and the pace built up-bam everyone dies. The End. A bit of a disappointment after slogging through so much king's-evil-advisor. Excession was brilliant. Perhaps just because the Minds have personalities that are arguably rampant - and they're the friendly ones. Currently working through Use of Weapons. It's good, but I've found that it seems to take Banks half a book to really put pieces in place and get rolling with the real story. I'm just about there now.
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Jul 4, 2009 09:41
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I think we have all concluded that matter was a bit poo poo. Its the only one I never finished. Such a shame as most of the M.Banks books are at least in my top 20.
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Jul 4, 2009 11:05
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Graviton v2 posted:I think we have all concluded that matter was a bit poo poo. Its the only one I never finished. Nah, Matter was at least OK. I listened to it as an audiobook though. Don't know if that has an effect.
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Jul 4, 2009 18:21
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I liked it. It had a good sense of how under-developed species interact with the more developed ones. I liked how the main character's species had a mentor species, who themselves had a mentor species, who themselves had a mentor species, that was roughly equal to the Culture.
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Jul 4, 2009 19:39
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syphon posted:I liked it. It had a good sense of how under-developed species interact with the more developed ones. I liked how the main character's species had a mentor species, who themselves had a mentor species, who themselves had a mentor species, that was roughly equal to the Culture. I really like the idea, but it felt tossed in and not explored to it's fullest. The early-industrial and court drama just bored me, I suppose. Banks seems at his best with his big ideas that carry a sense of mystery. In Matter I was really entranced by some of the things thrown out there - Why were the Shellworlds built? Why did the Iln want them destroyed? Why do Xinthians occasionally take up residence? These sort of questions really hooked my attention but went mostly untouched. Excession, in contrast, ended up more or less explaining itself, albeit abstractly.
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Jul 4, 2009 23:07
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Cuntpunch posted:I really like the idea, but it felt tossed in and not explored to it's fullest. The early-industrial and court drama just bored me, I suppose. Iln destroyed Xinthians because it seems that Iln were a machine intelligence from what the one at the end says while cradling our SC-er. Xinthians were a big force in the swarm wars, where they battled AI's. Some Xinthians are at the centre of Shell worlds, which means that they might destroy the shell worlds to destroy the Xinthians as they are connected, even if that connection is current residence. There may be some assumptions there and the overall why's of other stuff are still unknown, but that's just how it is.
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Jul 4, 2009 23:25
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Cuntpunch posted:I really like the idea, but it felt tossed in and not explored to it's fullest. The early-industrial and court drama just bored me, I suppose. It's hard to do "inscrutable higher intelligence" well. If the author isn't careful, it just ends up looking like a crutch to prop up a few neat ideas they had but couldn't think of any way of justifying. Which is probably the case, often enough. I think the Sublimed definitely work, but mostly because none of the stories really revolve around them. They really are absent from the galactic affairs of the Culture universe, and it's hard to mess that up. And the shell-makers and the Iln are more detailed, but there's strong suggestions of what they're up to that actually seem to make some sort of sense, it's not just bafflingly mysterious. An example of the "inscrutable higher intelligence" thing I really liked was in Greg Egan's last book Incandescence. It takes place in The Amalgam, a society even more advanced than The Culture who've basically colonized the entire galaxy, except for the core. That's the territory of The Aloof, whose existence is only known by the fact that any attempt to colonize the core is gently but systematically repelled by forces unknown.
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Jul 4, 2009 23:36
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