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Payndz posted:Even though it's the least complex of the Culture novels, and is also in some ways a bit scrappy compared to the later books, Consider Phlebas is my favourite of them simply for its unashamed glee in coming up with one mindblowing Big loving Artefact after another - and then blowing the poo poo out of them in genuinely thrilling action sequences. There may not be the intricacy of The Player Of Games or the sheer head-loving I have to kinda agree. Possibly because it was the first of his books I read, possibly because of the massive variety of worlds and cultures it encompasses and possibly because the Idirans are just so badass the graphic depiction of the dying one going for that final last gasp effort at the end was beautiful it holds a bit of a soft spot despite the fact that I think in a literary sense it was topped by later efforts like Use of Weapons (which incidentally was probably the hardest to get into, but once you got the hang of it was well worth it) and Look to Windward. Excession was probably the weakest of the Culture novels, and to date the only one IMO where he didn't do the subject matter justice due to tackling ideas way too big in scope. The ship dialogues were good fun though. quote:I haven't read Against A Dark Background or The Algebraist yet, but I gather there's a similar ambiguity going on in those. Its been a long time since I read AADB but I'm fairly certain the universe was distinct from the Culture settubg, The Algebraist is quite blatently a different universe.
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Feb 7, 2009 00:10
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of Use Of Weapons, but Banks' blatant delight at getting to devise all this awesome stuff is irresistable.
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Pompous Rhombus posted:
The over the top villain was worth it if only for the Dweller's reaction when he starts firing people into space as a negotiating tactic. In fact the Dwellers were IMO the coolest race ever created in any fantasy/sci-fi setting ever. Their dialogues, modes of thought and culture were by far the most interesting part of the book for me.
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Feb 10, 2009 04:44
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Away Message posted:Except for the Affront. Still well written but, gently caress those guys. Agreed, I actually think the concept he illustrated with these guys was quite poignant though. I found it hard to dislike them early on before the most brutal aspects of their nature became more and more apparent and dominant in their interactions. On the surface they almost seemed like a hybridisation of a rowdy college football team and colonial era noblemen and presented a fairly likeable rough around the edges "boys will be boys" sort of persona that almost gets one to look the other way regarding their actions. I certainly got suckered in by this a bit, which was clearly Banks' intention (he blatently states as much later on in the book) as he continually builds up their underlying cruelty culminating in the death of the loner on the Culture storage base. Its a pretty good if overly extreme analogy to real life situations such as cult of personality/ideology leadership/nations where one gets distracted by whats seen on the surface rather than focusing on their actual actions and their resulting impact.
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Feb 12, 2009 05:37
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