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Pompous Rhombus posted:
The Algebraist was tacky as hell. It also reeks of British post-colonial whatever, at least to me. Anyway, I re-read all the M's every summer, and buy new ones as soon as they're out. Banks is a smart author and has a way with words that puts him above your standard Sci-Fi hack. My top three: Look to Windward Excession Player of Games Also, A Song of Stone is dreadful and Against a Dark Background is a pointless McGuffin chase.
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Feb 7, 2009 23:23
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My favourite action scene, Player of games The final showdown on the firestorm planet, with the fires reaching the fortress, the game of Azad culminating in mass suicide and the Culture ship dropping in to save Gurgeh at the same time
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Mar 1, 2009 22:19
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I finished reading Transition last week and it took me until today to decide I hated it. It reads like a Banks parody, everything about the Concern seems like a bad attempt at developing another society on the Culture model. The storytelling really blows, I couldn't help myself thinking I was reading a second rate Use of Weapons. The worst part is probably the Prologue, but I can't really hold it against Banks because he really sucks at that in his other books. I don't even know why I bother reading them any more. I especially hated whole Adrian part which was just a thinly veiled attack on the nature of the capitalist system, presumably written after the author had lost most of his savings in the AIG collapse. And what's with this parallel universe poo poo? First Ian McDonald pulls it in Brasyl, then Stephenson and Anathem, now Banks. Honestly, it stinks of low effort. So, why did you hate it?
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Oct 24, 2009 17:55
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The Dwellers are the imperial British 
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Sep 15, 2010 14:12
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staberind posted:The anticipation is the sweetest nectar, thus, I draw out every Banks book as long as possible. Two large obstacles stand in way of a Banks' book made into a semi-decent film. The first one is, his aliens are just too alien, not just dudes with stuff on their heads Star Trek style, not to say anything about the Minds. I'd hate to see a film in which Minds look like old dudes in robes conversing in some sort of paradisy VR environment, and I'd hate it even more if Homomda or Afrronters were "humanized" for a film. The other big problem would be that the coolest things about the Culture can't really be shown, they have to be told. You'd need terrible unfilmable infodumps to introduce even the simplest concepts such as glanding or neural laces. Leaving that aside, I'd love to see Player of Games on film. I believe that one would be the easiest to film since Azadis look fairly humanoid. However, making the CGI for the game of Azad would be very challenging. Bill Murray should do the voice for Mahrwin-Skel. Consider Phlebas is fairly filmable, but at a danger of the last third looking and feeling like AvP, which is absolutely a horrible thought. James Callis would make an awesome Horza, though. Wow, this sounds so goony.
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Oct 21, 2010 10:26
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TjyvTompa posted:I started reading Feersum Endjinn and I was wondering if I could skip the "weird" chapters without missing out on the general story? Read Matter then. Don't worry, one day you will be ready for Feersum Endjinn. And don't read The Bridge if you dislike the phonetic chapters in Feersum Endjinn, it's very similar.
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Dec 29, 2011 14:16
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Flipswitch posted:poo poo, I own them all on paperback, do I get the next one for my Kindle or add to my collection... Get the actual book. I know I will. I love my Kindle and hardly buy any physical books anymore but my Banks collection is something else.
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Feb 24, 2012 07:46
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Flipswitch posted:The only alien I had trouble envisioning was Kabe. More like a tetrahedron with a huge mouth on top and three legs. Jet black, if I am not mistaken. A huge mouth as well, I remember something about people being alarmed when they saw him eating.
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Mar 23, 2012 17:47
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TouretteDog posted:
This! The defining experience of my life was when I woke up from anesthesia after surgery and felt my consciousness blink into existence. "So, this is what death feels like" was my first immediate thought. This experience somehow convinced me that "I" didn't exist during the time I was unconscious and made me question whether the elusive "I" existed at all, but that is a matter for another thread. Therefore, my exact, atom-by-atom and brainwave-by-brainwave copy is "me" no more or less than I am "me" typing this right now. Banksian backing-up ensures the avoidance of death as a permanent state of non-existence. Still doesn't eliminate the rather unpleasant experience of dying but I would say that a copy from back-up is the same person as the original.
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Mar 26, 2012 15:39
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uXs posted:17$ for the Kindle edition with the Hardcover being 15$? gently caress off, 'the publisher'. They pulled the same poo poo with Surface Detail. I waited patiently for the price to drop, although I am a huge fan.
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Oct 5, 2012 18:15
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This is so sad. I thought 56 new replies meant a new book was out, not that my favorite author has mere months to live. I hope he has an awesome time with his loved ones, at least.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:59
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