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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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Here's some: http://www.i-dig.info/culture/culturefaq.html#EARTHTIME quote:
Some of that is deduced from interviews and the like, some of it from State of the Art and A Few Notes on the Culture. State of the Art is specifically stated to be in 1977 as that's the time when Dziet Sma and the Ship are deciding whether or not to Contact the Earth, as far as I remember that's the only time that official Earth humans are shown and they are described as being just another part of Pan-humanity with a few differences from the Culture norm, such as it is. a kitten fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 01:41
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Lasting Damage posted:(such as slicing people to bloody ribbons with its knife missiles). It's nice to be able to have a job that you love so much. 
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Dec 17, 2011 22:50
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Fleetwood posted:Horza may be portrayed as a good guy in some eyes, but from a Culture viewpoint, he murders the transport ship Mind on Vavatch and Uncle Tom's the drone he kidnaps for much of the book.
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Mar 1, 2012 08:36
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It's really hard to beat Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The for ship names. A few years back my roommate had a copy of Consider, Phlebas that I read on a whim, I hadn't heard anything about Banks or the Culture beforehand. The ending pissed me off so much that I literally tossed the book aside in anger, something that I've never done in all the years I've been reading. Despite that rather immature reaction I was intrigued enough by the world he set up that a month or two later I decided to buy Player of Games just to see if maybe this one wouldn't end up making me angry. I've been a huge fan of the books ever since. Even if Matter and Surface details aren't quite as great as some of the others, I'm still pretty excited to hear that a new one will be out reasonably soon.
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Mar 3, 2012 02:16
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Natty Ninefingers posted:GOU The Big Stick OU I Said, I Have a Big Stick e: holy crap, the wiki entries for the Culture have gotten way, way more expansive since the last time I looked.
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Mar 3, 2012 08:03
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GCU Oh, Were You Using That? I think I'm going to go ahead and put down the Silmarillon for a bit and re-read Surface Detail it's the only one that I haven't read more than once.
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Mar 6, 2012 00:16
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I just finished up a re-read of Surface Detail and I have to say that I actually liked it better the second time around. The Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints is a fantastic and fascinating character who, were I somehow to end up transported to the Culture-verse, I would hope to never, ever encounter.
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Mar 15, 2012 00:25
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osici posted:BastardlySkull posted some awesome covers earlier in the thread too. I think this is his photostream, there are the covers as well as a GSV and assorted aliens. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukejfrost/sets/72157626729157968/with/5723720481/ 
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Mar 22, 2012 01:23
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Fragmented posted:
Oct  Morthanveld  Nariscene 
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Mar 22, 2012 23:35
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Diogines posted:I love the premise of the Culture saga but I just don't like Consider Phlebias, I just couldn't get past the first 120 or so pages. The characters so far introduced were bland and the narrative, uninteresting. If I skip it, where should I start the series?
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Apr 3, 2012 00:59
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I definitely liked State of the Art too, A Gift From the Culture from the same collection didn't do anything for me though. My favorite part of that collection is the essay "A Few Notes on the Culture" just because it fleshes out his idea and the universe he's built a lot. When I picked up Consider Phlebas I had never even heard of Banks, all I thought when I grabbed it off of my roommate's shelf was "isn't that from The Waste Land?". I've grown to kind of like it now, but when I first finished it I sure didn't, the end just felt needlessly cruel to the characters.
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May 27, 2012 17:51
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gently caress A friend just told me this news, such a shock to hear. 
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Apr 3, 2013 17:41
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Oh no. part of me was hoping for some sort of crazy statistical fluke. RIP Mr. Banks, you created one of my favorite settings and filled it with some of my favorite stories.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:33
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Neil Gaiman on Iain's passing http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2013/06/iain-banks-with-or-without-m.html Neil Gaiman posted:I finished, a kitten fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jun 9, 2013 |
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Jun 9, 2013 19:50
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:I guess this is a Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight. I laughed so hard after reading about how Culture names work: quote:Some humanoid or drone Culture citizens have long names, often with seven or more words. Some of these words specify the citizen's origin (place of birth or manufacture), some an occupation, and some may denote specific philosophical or political alignments (chosen later in life by the citizen themselves), or make other similarly personal statements. An example would be Diziet Sma, whose full name is Rasd-Coduresa Diziet Embless Sma da' Marenhide So now at least I'm happy to have remembered that in addition to still being pretty broken up by his passing.
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Jun 9, 2013 22:28
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Those On My Left posted:
Never Let Me go is fantastic and knocked me on my rear end more than just about anything else ever has. Ishiguro has since become one of my favorite authors. It's not very scifi though, if that matters.
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Jun 26, 2013 05:05
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Circle Nine posted:Wikipedia has a pretty thorough list of the ship names mentioned in the books. God I love that list, and it starts out well enough, but when it hits State of the Art it always puts a big smile on my face because that's when the names go from very good to fantastic.
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May 22, 2014 02:02
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ClearAirTurbulence posted:The Culture doesn't have a monopoly on good ship names. That's just your clear Hronish bias showing through. 
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Jun 7, 2014 15:59
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Yeah, that's crazy, it's like they didn't like the actual end and just fanfictioned one up and then proceeded to review the book. e: a fanfictioned up ending that they didn't actually like all that much. 
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Sep 4, 2014 03:28
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I figure you could pull it off like this: Ship: "Hold on to your butts (or whatever)" ever so slightly longer scene transition Super crazy, kinetic, high-speed space battle for several tense minutes. and then towards the end the Ship says something like "Now, watch closely; here comes my favorite part" Passenger(s)  "what you you mean favorite part? This isn't happening right now?"Ship:  "What? No, the whole thing only took .04 seconds. Now watch what I do here..."Basically just like near the end of one of the books.* *Leaving it vague, because it was cool as hell to read it.
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Sep 18, 2014 00:57
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:This is also a fantastic name for a ship. Oh man, it totally is. I'm thinking GCU Hold on to Your Butts (or Whatever)
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Sep 18, 2014 18:09
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I dunno, I could maybe see enjoying a tribute to Banks and the Culture in a book of short stories by various authors. I don't have any real strong contenders to who I would put in such a thing and overall it might just be better as an unrealized "wouldn't it be cool if..." idea.
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Sep 21, 2014 02:55
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Yeah, I really did not like Consider Phlebas at all when I finished it, or more precisely its ending really pissed me off. it just seemed so pointless and futile and awful. ...and yet I was intrigued enough to warily pick up Player of Games from my roommate's shelf a few days later and I'm really glad that I did because since then Banks became one of my favorite writers and the Culture universe one of my favorites in all of fiction. I should really re-read that first one again, since I already view it differently after reading the following books. a kitten fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 05:26
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Prolonged Priapism posted:Isn't that sort of the point? It's completely the point! But, I had no idea what I was getting into when I first read it (literally just grabbed it off my roomie's shelf when trying to find something new to read) That's why I need to re-read it now that I've completed the rest of the books, like I said I already view it very, very differently.
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Oct 11, 2014 18:50
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I probably would not. But, I would tell you it was an awesome shirt if I saw you wearing it. 
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Nov 8, 2014 17:28
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neat
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Jun 27, 2015 17:14
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 Hahahahaha oh man why did you have to die so young. 
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Jul 10, 2015 02:14
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excellent
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Oct 28, 2015 04:50
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Snapchat A Titty posted:Is that when he tricks the shuttle Mind into allowing him to kill it? I haven't read the book in like a decade but it still stays with me, but in a good way. It says a lot about the universe. Yes, but it wasn't a Mind, just a low level AI, nothing on the level of even a drone or other average Culture citizen.
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Dec 13, 2015 03:10
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Oh I'm not trying to argue whether or not it was moral, just that he didn't outsmart anything particularly intelligent.
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Dec 15, 2015 18:47
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Decided to finally delve into his non-Culture stuff starting with The Algebraist, the setting is so amazingly notCulture that it trips me up sometimes. No AI? No hyperspace? No crazy force fields? Madness. I'm really enjoying it so far, just now met some Dwellers for the first time and I think I love them.
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Mar 15, 2016 05:40
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Strategic Tea posted:You still have to respect Horza a little, Yeah, but so does his fuzzy girlfriend and unborn child. And so I don't.
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Apr 28, 2016 23:11
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E: yeah wow, wrong thread.
a kitten fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 29, 2016 06:25
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A human heart posted:he's bad You're a worthless fucker who seems to spend all your time trying to poo poo on things here. Get bent.
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Dec 24, 2016 02:50
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