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Do any of Banks' books have satisfying endings? So far I've read The Wasp Factory, Consider Phlebas, The Algebraist, and Excession, and none of them have had strong endings. The ride is awesome while it lasts but then he just kind of throws everything out the window and decides the story is finished. I can go into specifics on why I didn't like the endings of those books, but I get the impression others were similarly put off by the end of The Algebraist, for example. And on another note, what are everyone's favourite Banks action scenes? Consider Phlebas: The main characters are on a ringworld and land on a giant drifting super cruise ship in the fog to steal a laser cannon for their ship. The giant cruise ship slams its billions of tonnes into an even more gigantic iceberg causing it to fold up like an accordion as the main character runs away with his shipmates to leap into a shuttle, leaving a guy behind. The guy who was left behind has a PERSONAL NUKE and he goes nuts trying to kill everyone by setting it off. The Algebraist: The sailing races on the gas giant with the Dwellers. The betrayal with nano machines, followed by The Major falling into the gas giant and firing upwards before being blasted out of her suit and sliced in half. Then the emergence of the massive Dweller fleet out of the stormwalls to destroy the stupid humans, the rising of the Deniable and the annihilation of an entire enemy fleet, the Dwellers joyfully betting on the spectacle. Hilarious and gripping stuff.
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Feb 28, 2009 00:36
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:35 |
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Posting one more time to mention how much I love the names of the Culture ships. The Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival Ethics Gradient Meatfucker Steely Glint Problem Child Fate Amenable to Change
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Feb 28, 2009 00:45
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I just finished Look to Windward and while it was the usual stellar Banks fare, once again there was no real satisfaction for me in the ending. The entire book was building towards a climax that was simply nullified by the Culture who had had a secret agent working for them the whole time. This book also lacked the action scenes that I fell in love with in Phlebas and Algebraist. Still a great read, but Banks has yet to deliver me an ending I've been satisfied with. My favourite parts of Look to Windward have to be the stuff in the airspheres with the dirigible behemothaurs. I love that kind of study of utterly bizarre alien lifeforms and it really left me wanting more.
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Mar 10, 2009 21:03
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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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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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Dan Didio posted:Honestly I picked up the Algerbraist in an airport and struggled to read through the first chapter. When I finally managed to push through a couple more it was just incredibly boring, incredibly wierd and didn't really pull me in or engage me in anyway. A lot of the minor details and stuff in the dialogue was really jarring as well and nothing really seemed to mesh together. That's understandable, I personally loved that feeling of being lost in a strange universe with completely hosed up aliens and having no clue what was going on, but everyone's different. Consider Phlebas is really his best book to start with, it's just non stop action from start to finish and establishes the universe of the Culture which most of Banks' books are a part of but the Algebraist is *not*.
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Jul 13, 2009 22:15
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While we're on the topic of Horza, I love the chapter where he gets stranded on the cannibal island. That poo poo read like a Stephen King short story and made an amazing interlude between action setpieces. It was also fantastic when he sweet-talked the Culture escape shuttle into letting him dick around inside it until he figured out where its brain was and shot it with a cannon.
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Jul 15, 2009 04:51
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syphon posted:I actually really liked Matter, although it seemed to get mixed reviews here on SA. I fwiggin' loved Matter to the bitter end.
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Feb 24, 2010 02:03
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Great covers! Matter is my favourite of them. The battleship on the front of Use of Weapons reminds me of a Rorschach test inkblot, which suits the story.
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May 9, 2011 02:00
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Shelvocke posted:Not that the humans are the stars anyway; the most interesting characters seem to be the wittily violent SC drones and ships. I really like the one ship in Hydrogen Sonata that goes up against a whole fleet using just its effectors to gently caress with their engines and weapon targeting, making them target their allies and themselves. And then it gets blown away and, though its Mind-state is saved and transmitted to other Culture ships, feels so much regret that it doesn't ever want to be a ship again.
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Sep 9, 2013 03:36
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:35 |
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So this website makes space ships based on names MEATFUCKER: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=MEATFUCKER Ethics Gradient is very asymmetrical: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Ethics+Gradient Clear Air Turbulence: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Clear+Air+Turbulence Cargo Cult is built like a bulldog: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Cargo+Cult Gunboat Diplomat has a really cool design: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Gunboat+Diplomat Kiss the Blade (Affront) is loving badass: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Kiss+the+Blade And we can't forget... http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=M...Oceans+Of+Wrath edit: Obliterating Angel is too cool to not post: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Obliterating+Angel Lasting Damage is kinda neat too. Turpitude fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Nov 3, 2013 |
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Nov 3, 2013 18:40
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