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Use of Weapons (Culture #3)

4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 · rating details · 11,279 ratings · 488 reviews

The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.

The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.

The...more

Paperback, 411 pages

Published March 26th 1992 by Orbit (first published 1990)

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May 18, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, audiobooks, culture, sci-fi-fantasy

Prologue

Stars were barely visible through the tiny oval. The reader looked up from his novel, blinked. Checked his watch -- still hours to go. His wife sat slumped next to him, still asleep. Some people could sleep on planes. Some people couldn't.

"What are you reading?" asked the man on the reader's left.

The reader checked himself before the sigh escaped him. He hated it when people talked to him on planes. Especially when he was trying to read. Especially when he was reading a book with a space...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Hanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, shelf-a-ton-14, space-opera

So this book introduced me to one of my new favorite drones: Skaffen-Amtiskaw. Still not quite as brilliant as Marvin the depressed robot from The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but close.

But first things first, let me take you on the rollercoaster that this book was for me:
Part 1: Oo, so cool. Fabulous drone. He's funny too. Love the ship! A crew member with a cold in scifi, how refreshing!
Part 2: Huh? Huh? How? What's the link? Huh? Don't get it. Don’t-get-it. Where? How? Uch, am...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Jonathan Cullen rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who always wanted to rent out an entire hotel floor

Fantastic. After I finish most books, I head to the book shelf and flip through the three or four books that I had in my mind as I was getting to the end of the last one. Not this time. As soon as I turned the last page, I gave this one some significant thought. I take this opportunity to also remind you that this is a science fiction novel.

I prefer, if at all possible, to avoid writing reviews with spoilers. In this case, this is going to be a challenge because much of what is wicked about Use...more Fantastic. After I finish most books, I head to the book shelf and flip through the three or four books that I had in my mind as I was getting to the end of the last one. Not this time. As soon as I turned the last page, I gave this one some significant thought. I take this opportunity to also remind you that this is a science fiction novel.

I prefer, if at all possible, to avoid writing reviews with spoilers. In this case, this is going to be a challenge because much of what is wicked about Use of Weapons meets the spoiler test. Nevertheless...

There are some that claim that Iain Banks' Culture novels can be read out of order because while they all take place in the same Universe, they concern different characters and stories. While that may true, I tend to tackle such things in order. I hope it adds to my appreciation of both the author's development and any subtle early clues in that "universe". I'm glad I did so in the Culture series. Consider Phlebas is an excellent introduction by way of an enemy of the Culture and Player of Games is a story centered around a member of the Culture. Enter Cheradenine Zekalwe, a Culture agent and the protagonist in Use of Weapons.

Zekalwe is a badass. That much it clear from the start. He's also the most interesting character in the Culture series to date. He is not a member of the Culture (whatever that really means) but does their dirty work...for a price. From his present and past we learn about suffering, guilt, and attempts at redemption. We also learn of deceit.

The structure of the novel is part of its intrigue. In one forward moving storyline, we learn of Zekalwe's current "job" for his Culture employers. The second storyline moves backwards in time and explores his motivations, his relationship with the Culture and how he gets the hell beaten out of him repeatedly. The retrograde stories have a decidedly dream-like and dark quality. As with the previous two novels, we get cool glimpses into the Culture, technology, weapons, space travel and a whole GSV full of moral ambiguity.

Make no mistake: this is a dark story - Banks' penchant for torture and pain is wel-established. Yet somehow I laughed out loud on several occassions. Iain Banks can flip that switch and that's one of the reasons I love his writing.

For me it's a 4.5. Highly recommended.(less)

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Apr 20, 2008 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Probably Bank's best science fiction novel and one of his best works generally. Cheradinine Zakalwe, Diziet Sma and Skaffen Amiskaw are, together, his most interesting group of characters.

The structure of this novel makes it worthy of note on its own. Written in interwoven chapters, it is made up of two alternating narrative streams - one indicated by Arabic numerals and the other by Roman ones. One moves forward chronologically, while the other moves in the opposite direction; yet both are abo...more

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Aug 28, 2008 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sci-fi fans

Recommended to Anne by: Eleanor

Shelves: fiction, sff

Use of Weapons was the August 2008 pick for my sci-fi book club, and I enjoyed it immensely. It's a dense and challenging book to get through. The scattered timeline and the dreamlike quality of many passages put off some readers. Frustratingly, Banks leaves out what would have been the most revealing and emotionally fraught scenes. He provides us only with beginnings and middles, always cutting to black right after the climax, never giving us a resolution. But all of those apparent flaws are de...more Use of Weapons was the August 2008 pick for my sci-fi book club, and I enjoyed it immensely. It's a dense and challenging book to get through. The scattered timeline and the dreamlike quality of many passages put off some readers. Frustratingly, Banks leaves out what would have been the most revealing and emotionally fraught scenes. He provides us only with beginnings and middles, always cutting to black right after the climax, never giving us a resolution. But all of those apparent flaws are deliberate literary techniques, and I think that Banks uses them to great effect.

In my reading, Use of Weapons is a meditation on situational ethics, their use, and their cost. The book's title refers both to the way in which the main character, Cheradinine Zakalwe, ruthlessly uses every available weapon to win his wars, and to the way in which the Culture uses Zakalwe himself. As a weapon, Zakalwe will destroy whatever he is aimed at and he has no apparent morality beyond the morality of the purpose to which he is set. But he is haunted my memories of some unforgivable act which, at the time, he thought was necessary.

Zakalwe works for the Culture in order to redeem himself, fighting wars that will supposedly make the universe a better place. The Culture is an ancient, interstellar civilization that is governed by computers. They attempt to guide the fate of less developed societies in order to make them "more civilized", but the connection between Zakalwe's actions and the Culture's goals is never explored. Likewise, the reader is never given any sense of the goal which drove Zakalwe to commit his great crime. All of the action in the book is a means to an end that is never specified. We are left wondering whether any end could be good enough to justify Zakalwe's actions-- or whether he is truly beyond redemption.

The novel's central dilemma is thus a paradox: if the reader believes that the end justifies the means, then nothing Zakalwe did in pursuit of a moral goal could be immoral and, thus, he does not require redemption. But if the end does not justify the means, then Zakalwe can never be redeemed by fighting the Culture's wars.

I thought this was a thought-provoking and beautifully written book, but it's definitely not for everyone. I'd recommend it to anyone who has the patience to read it.(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Psychophant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: far-future, reviewed

I reread this book lately after reading Matter, by the same author, partly to compare that book, that I had not enjoyed, with this one, with a somewhat similar story, that I had loved in the past.

The narrative itself is gimmicky, but it is a working gimmick. There are alternating chapters, ones that tell a straightforward space opera story, and the second set (using Roman numerals to differentiate themselves from the first) in antichronological order, showing episodes in the past of the main cha...more

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Sep 12, 2007 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of John Scalzi

Shelves: britishsci-fi

The thing I continue to love about Iain Banks is that he never underestimates the intelligence of his readers. Maybe this is more common in British authors, but his novels are crisp, witty, and require the reader's attention. He expect us to be an active part of the process. Not easy, but always engaging.

As with many science-fiction authors, Banks has created a "universe" that he returns to in several of his novels. This is a "Culture" novel. The Culture is a very advanced civilization, presumab...more

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Dec 27, 2011 notgettingenough added it

Shelves: science-fiction

i BUT 7 So, in the end – not ‘the end’ but about 150 pages in, since that is my designated end, and why not in a book that starts where it does? – what is it about this writing ‘technique’? I still think it is true that having more than one story gadding about in different directions is a way of getting away with not having a story that is sufficient to fill up a novel. But at the same time, I’m starting to wonder if it is a way of letting pseudo-intellectuals who profess horror – or at least bo...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Apatt rated it 3 of 5 stars

My second Culture book. Iain M. Banks is probably the most popular author of space opera still working today, and I love Consider Phlebas, I found it gripping from beginning to end. Use of Weapons is often named—in forums and such—as the best book in this series (nine volumes published so far). With so many odds stacked in its favor what could go wrong? A portentous rhetorical question if ever there was one!

This is an interesting story about the life of the central character - Cheradenine Zakalw...more My second Culture book. Iain M. Banks is probably the most popular author of space opera still working today, and I love Consider Phlebas, I found it gripping from beginning to end. Use of Weapons is often named—in forums and such—as the best book in this series (nine volumes published so far). With so many odds stacked in its favor what could go wrong? A portentous rhetorical question if ever there was one!

This is an interesting story about the life of the central character - Cheradenine Zakalwe (cool name), his trials and tribulations and his deep dark secrets. Some parts of it are quite humorous, especially anything scene involving a snarky drone (a robot to you Culture n00bs), my favorite jovial part is a scene about an "Injured Party" (that is so fudged up!). Most of the book is darker than the ace of spades though. What raises Banks above most sf authors is his literate prose style, many evocative passages here for the discerning readers. His character development skill is also second to none, even though the major characters are not necessarily likable, they are still fascinating and believable.

Unfortunately I find this book too clever by half, almost literally by half! The problem for me is the book's unusual structure, two alternating time lines, one moving conventionally forward and a flashback timeline that move backward (in chapter sequence that is, not people walking backward and spooning soup from their mouths into bowls). If you are going to read this book it is worth noting that the forward moving "present day" chapter numbers are shown in words (one, two etc.), the strangely backward flashback chapter numbers are in reverse order roman numerals (XIII, XII etc.). Forewarned is forearmed and I don't see how knowing this could possibly spoil the book for you. For me the book tend to grind to halt on the "flashback" chapters as their relation to previously read chapters only become apparent if you make the mental effort to rearrange the sequence in your head. For me it is too much exertion and plays hell with the sense of continuity. The most "relaxing" way to read this book is to not try to understand how each "roman numeral" chapters connect to the previous chapters you have read, just read them as you would read independent short stories, bearing in mind that the connection will become clear by the end of the book.

For me (I really want to stress the for me part) this book needs to be read twice for full appreciation, unfortunately while I quite like the book I am not so enamored of it that I would actually do that. I can almost rate this book at four stars, but I think 3.8 stars sounds about right. Given the prevailing consensus of opinion there is a very good chance that you will like it more than I do though, I can be a bit of a philistine sometime!(less)

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Feb 27, 2013 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: culture-the, science-fiction, waterstones-sffh-list, i-own-a-copy, read-in-2013, read-in-teenties, 4-stars, reviewed

Continuing my efforts to read the Culture series, from the beginning, in the correct order, I've reached the third book in the series – Use of Weapons . In this novel, Iain M. Banks brings us the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe, a sometime agent for Special Circumstances as part of their ongoing efforts to interfere in the development of alien cultures. Because if there's one thing the Culture believes in, it's that all other cultures should be just like their own. Zakalwe is tired of playing his p...more Continuing my efforts to read the Culture series, from the beginning, in the correct order, I've reached the third book in the series – Use of Weapons . In this novel, Iain M. Banks brings us the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe, a sometime agent for Special Circumstances as part of their ongoing efforts to interfere in the development of alien cultures. Because if there's one thing the Culture believes in, it's that all other cultures should be just like their own. Zakalwe is tired of playing his part though and has gone into hiding. So his original recruiter, Diziet Sma, and the drone, Skaffen-Amtiskaw, have to find him and talk him into taking one last job. He proves surprisingly easy to talk into it, but his price is the same as before – he wants an opportunity to speak to a certain woman from his past. Somebody, we assume, that he believes he has wronged, but wants some kind of forgiveness, or closure, from.

Intertwined with this story, is a parallel one. While the main narrative moves forward chronologically, the alternate chapters provide flashbacks into Zakalwe's past. These flashback chapters count down as the main narrative chapters count up. This certainly implies that the flashbacks are stepping further and further back into Zakalwe's past, and indeed, by and large they seem to. There are a few flashbacks that felt like they were slightly misordered, but each flashback provides more of a picture of Zakalwe's past and character. As well as, more importantly, an insight into who the woman he wants to meet is, their relationship, and what he thinks she may blame him for.

Zakalwe's relationship with Special Circumstances seems odd, for an organisation whose whole reason for existence is sticking its nose in other civilisation's business, it seems strange that they know next to nothing about Zakalwe's background – not even what his home planet is. Not much of a hiring policy. Obviously, this lack of knowledge is a key plot device for the story, if Special Circumstances knew then what we know by the end of the book maybe they wouldn't have hired him at all. Certainly my least favourite of the culture novels in the series so far – although at 4-stars that's hardly a slap in the face – if feels a little awkward in places, and sometimes that the story is slightly forced to make the plot go the way Banks wanted. More confusing than the previous two, it seemed in places to almost be trying to be clever for the sake of it; maybe the final ending is the ultimate show-off of the book? I did really like it, but I kinda felt that Banks could have done even better.(less)

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Oct 08, 2012 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. Which is strange really, as the first time I tried to read it I put it down half way through. You see, I really struggled with its structure, I just couldn’t hold all of it in my head at once. I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I knew what the structure was like and thought I could deal with it, having watched Memento (which is one of my favourite films).

For my second attempt, I decided to read three chapters going forward and then three chapte...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Evilynn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, sf

I've read a couple of Banks novels before (The Wasp Factory, The Algebraist) and had been underwhelmed by both. Not that they were bad, exactly, just not as great as everyone seemed to think they were/seemed to think I should find them. Maybe because I had my expectations lowered a little, or maybe because it seems to be the one book most people like, I actually found Use of Weapons to be a solid 4. I found the structure interesting, although I found Zakalwe's backstory more engaging than the cu...more

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Aug 22, 2008 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror-disguised-as-literature

Bank’s Culture always reminds me of Moorcock’s decadent but strangely innocent future in Dancers at the End of Time and the sections in this book featuring it confirm this thought, but a lot of this book reminds me of another Moorcock creation. The Jerry Cornelius stories where the main character dies and is reanimated in a new world where the only constant is war. But where those books are more experimental, this book for all its difficult structure holds together as a novel. People expecting a...more

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Aug 24, 2008 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Culture novels by Scottish science fiction writer Iain M. Banks are stand alone stories taking place within the titular universe, an egalitarian interplanetary utopia in which capitalism, disease, and (to an extent) even death no longer pose a problem to humanity. Although each book has a different storyline with a separate set of characters, it is often recommended that The Player of Games or Consider Phlebas be read before the more complex Use of Weapons. Having read the former earlier thi...more

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Jul 09, 2007 Zachary rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: secret agents

Shelves: 2007

Most of the earlier Banks novels are out-of-print in the US. I wanted to read them at some point, but I wasn't sure how to make that happen without paying steep overseas shipping rates. Fox told me about inter-library loans, so while I was deep in Look to Windward, I put in requests for two of the OOP Culture books, thinking that it would take a few weeks to get them. Nope, they showed up in no time. So, I've had to plow through both to get them back before they're due. (No renewels on loan book...more

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Aug 24, 2008 Felonious rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: sci-fi readers who don't need to be spoon fed.

Recommended to Felonious by: Reviews of Banks on Goodreads

Shelves: favorites, topshelf

This was easily one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. The story was so bizarre yet some how very familiar(guess the more things change the more they stay the same). Banks is a brilliant writer who can weave a story together better than anyone i have read before. However I would not recommend this book to just anyone. It took me awhile to get a grasp on the story. It's told going from chapter one-fourteen while being interwoven with a story line going from XIII-I, so it becomes mor...more

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May 22, 2013 Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars

Ian Banks is one of the most overrated authors in science fiction.

Allow me to qualify that. He is not a *bad* writer. (This book is just about interesting enough to complete.) It's very sad that he is currently dying of cancer. I guess it's good that he attracts fans of the literary genre to read sci-fi. But the god-like reverence with which he is praised is entirely unjustified.

I had read Consider Phlebas years ago and dismissed Banks as uninteresting. The recent news of his impending death bro...more Ian Banks is one of the most overrated authors in science fiction.

Allow me to qualify that. He is not a *bad* writer. (This book is just about interesting enough to complete.) It's very sad that he is currently dying of cancer. I guess it's good that he attracts fans of the literary genre to read sci-fi. But the god-like reverence with which he is praised is entirely unjustified.

I had read Consider Phlebas years ago and dismissed Banks as uninteresting. The recent news of his impending death brought out a lot of fans online, and many admitted that Phlebas was not great, but the majority recommended Use of Weapons as their favourite Culture book.

Maybe the Culture was pretty groundbreaking in the 80s. It's hard to judge now. It doesn't feature any ideas that would excite a hard sci-fi fan in 2013. The focus is on the characters rather than any technology, but only the protagonist's character is actually interesting, and even that is achieved mostly by the cheap method of making him a cypher who is slowly revealed by flashback sequences throughout the book. Some of these stories within a story are good, but there is also a huge amount of waffle that could have been cut by a good editor.

Really the only reason to plough through the boring narrative to the end is to get the flashbacks for the full revelation of the protagonist's past. But it makes me suspect most of the preceding dull story was invented just as filler to provide the final twist. I guess Banks is making the point that all wars are the same and blur together, and it doesn't really matter which side wins. But a book where all the plots are the same and the outcomes don't matter is not interesting to read! Even the final revelation is unsatisfying - we finally get a complete list of the events of his life, but we still don't know his motivation or understand exactly why he did any of those things. We can guess - I suppose 'literary' readers like to read between the lines and speculate so they can feel clever - but I think that is the author's job.(less)

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Mar 06, 2013 Meg Jayanth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: awesome-protagonist, epic-worldbuilding, scifi, politics

Damn. Well, obviously this is one of my favourite Culture books, possibly lagging just behind Player of Games - but that's partly because Use of Weapons is at times excoriating and difficult to read. Which is no bad thing. Both Player of Games and Use of Weapons are meditations on the interventionism and colonialism of the Culture, and the power dynamics inherent in any exchange between civilisations vastly separated in terms of scientific and technological advancement.

Zakalwe plays games with...more Damn. Well, obviously this is one of my favourite Culture books, possibly lagging just behind Player of Games - but that's partly because Use of Weapons is at times excoriating and difficult to read. Which is no bad thing. Both Player of Games and Use of Weapons are meditations on the interventionism and colonialism of the Culture, and the power dynamics inherent in any exchange between civilisations vastly separated in terms of scientific and technological advancement.

Zakalwe plays games with the rules and conditions of "less advanced" societies as an agent of the Culture in Use of Weapons - and is also himself an outsider, allowing him to represent but also remain separate from the wipe-clean body of the Culture. In Player of Games the alien civilisation is a game which Gurgeh plays (and wins). Though of course, the betrayals and politicking and manipulation - both structural/institutional, and personal - go so much deeper. Use of Weapons is great at breaking down those binaries & associations critically dangerous but so easy to use as shorthand: civilisation/brutality, freedom/ideology etc.

The Culture is seemingly a future extreme of a particular strain of sexually and socially progressive, do as thou wilt liberalism. And at least within the Culture that idea can be maintained, but Use of Weapons is about the steel structures that hold up the crinolines, the borderlands where social, political, cultural norms have to be not only defined - already an uncomfortable prospect - but also enforced. Moral relativism's end, but also a brilliant examination of moral compromise on an institutional scale, and the complexities of maintaining and exercising power at all levels.

Use of Weapons probably addresses the "politics" of the Culture more directly than any of the other novels, and that's partly because Zakalwe is the most thoroughly intriguing character in Banks' universe. Closely followed by Horza the shapechanger from Consider Phlebas. Again, he is an outsider to the Culture. Zakalwe's a mercenary brought into the Culture - to a point, whereas Horza places himself directly in opposition by signing up as a spy for the Idirans, who are at war with the Culture.

Both Zakalwe and Horza come into contact with the sharp end of the Culture, the bit of itself that is the enforcing arm of a society which doesn't believe in enforcing arms. Special Circumstances/Dirty Tricks. (Which could easily be the tagline for both Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas.)

This is probably a fine novel to get into the Culture with, though honestly the first three books (Consider, Player of Games, Use of Weapons) can be recommended without reservation.

In some ways I've always considered the later Culture novel Inversions to be something of a corollary to Use of Weapons - not directly, but they're good to read together I think. Both have an alternating protagonist structure, and explore civilisations that are not the Culture, but from very different vantage points.

If you haven't read it, and you enjoy science fiction, or excellent stories, or meditations on society/culture/"humanity" (in the loosest possible sense, I suppose I actually mean "meditations on what it means to be sentient and capable of acting in the universe") then you should put Use of Weapons on your bookshelf posthaste.(less)

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Jan 06, 2013 Fuzzy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 30, 2012 Lucy_k_p rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: awesome, epic, science-fiction, suspense

Another absolutely fantastic book by Iain M. Banks.

The world(s) building is detailed, and you can get utterly lost in them. They feel real, as if they carry on going even when the book finishes.

Zakalwe is complicated, contradictory and remains a mystery till almost the last page. He's not exactly likeable, but he can be charismatic.

Diziet is competent and strong. I did think it was disappointing she faded out of the novel after the first third, as I would like to have seen much more of her.

The p...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Philipp rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've now read the first three culture books and I will not go on reading the rest - the Culture-universe is an escapist setting, which is technologically so advanced that it's basically a bunch of magicians living together.

I think Banks knew this in writing; which is the reason why 99% of the first three books are about interaction with characters outside of the Culture. Reading about the omnipotent Gods living in their tech-bubble inside the Culture would become boring very fast.

Why it's boring...more

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Jan 15, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

In yet another grand masterpiece of space opera science fiction that is set in his "Culture" universe, Iain M. Banks has created a truly spellbinding literary ménage a trios in "Use of Weapons", portraying the twists and turns amongst the relationships between the man Cheradenine Zakalwe, the woman Diziet Sma, and the robotic drone Skaffen-Amiskaw. Banks takes us all on an electrifying journey through the lives of all three characters, told with the ample grace of his sterling literary prose. Th...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Nick rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was hard to get through. The author uses pronouns -- he, she, it and not names in order to obscure the identity of characters throughout the book. I found this device confusing and not particularly rewarding. The reason for the mystery is finally revealed in a twist ending that saved the book for me. In between the confusion and twist ending are some meandering chapters that follow the protagonist from world to world where he does the bidding of the mysterious Culture. I only found a c...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Benjamin rated it 4 of 5 stars

The psychic war Zakalwe fights against himself in the flashbacks was far more interesting than the mission that takes up half of the book. Also, I would have liked to read more of the Culture justifying not only it's a grey-area morality but also the hierarchy the machines live under. Lastly, although the author acknowledged and excused it, the different societies the Culture meddles with are all fairly similar. The galaxy is filled with places just like Earth in various points along a fairly st...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Hired guns and otherwise

Recommended to Alan by: Other work

A man called Cheradenine Zakalwe kills a king, and subsequently the beautiful and aristocratic agent Diziet Sma and her trusty sidekick the drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw must go to find him—and without further ado, we're thrust into the action. Or something like that. And the action doesn't really stop, either. Banks is not really known primarily as a writer of adventure fiction, but that's what Use of Weapons is... full of action, adventure, exotic scenery and dramatic confrontations, heroic deeds set...more A man called Cheradenine Zakalwe kills a king, and subsequently the beautiful and aristocratic agent Diziet Sma and her trusty sidekick the drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw must go to find him—and without further ado, we're thrust into the action. Or something like that. And the action doesn't really stop, either. Banks is not really known primarily as a writer of adventure fiction, but that's what Use of Weapons is... full of action, adventure, exotic scenery and dramatic confrontations, heroic deeds set against an expansive, star-cluttered backdrop. Weapons exist to be used, after all, and Use of Weapons obeys the maxim of Chekhov's gun as well as the dictate of its title—they're just about all used by the end of the book.

Use of Weapons is a Culture novel, set in Banks' popular and complex far-future milieu alongside such works as Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games... although, like most of his Culture novels, it's actually set almost entirely in a more primitive region of the galaxy, an Open Cluster of some half-million worlds where aircraft still land on wheels, for goodness' sake, and where the Culture's Special Circumstances branch has an easier time staying out of sight while it engages in some serious meddling.

That's where Zakalwe comes in. He's originally from somewhere in the Cluster, but was picked up—rescued, really—by Sma while in extremis some decades earlier, and trained as a Special Circumstances agent himself. The dance between Sma and Zakalwe is a major part of the book; those two have some significant history between them.

Zakalwe's training doesn't mean he can't be harmed—and he goes through some serious harm in the course of this book—but his Culture-inculcated skills do give him an advantage over pretty much anyone he's going to meet. And Zakalwe's experience with the Open Cluster's small-c culture gives him an advantage that few Culture agents could match. So when it comes time to mount a retrieval operation for an old politician that Zakalwe used to know... he's pretty much the only choice the Culture has.

This is only scratching the surface of what goes on in Use of Weapons—one of my biggest problems with Banks' Culture novels, actually, is that there's so much going on that it's easy to get lost in all of the intrigues, plot twists and sheer amounts of detail that he's throwing at you. But really, if that's the worst thing I can think of about this book... I've got to admit, that's pretty good.(less)

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Jul 11, 2011 Lobdozer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Use of Weapons is the story of Zakalwe, a mercenary in service to the highly advanced and (mostly) benevolent Culture. His job is to dethrone tyrants and to prevent wars. Or to influence their outcome if said wars can't be prevented.
Zakalwe claims to have chosen this life in order to "fight the good fight". As the novel progresses we slowly find out more and more about why this is so important to him.

I found Use of Weapons an entertaining enough read, if not necessarily a particularly engrossi...more

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May 27, 2011 Forrest rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cbriii

I’ve been a fan of Ian M. Banks since I read The Algebraist almost 5 years ago. Mr. Banks has a witty take on the vast expanses of space and almost all of his books strike an excellent balance between smart humor and the serious issues he experiments with. At the core of his Bibliography are The Culture Novels, a collection of lightly related stories set in the super advanced galactic civilization known as the Culture. The Culture is a hyper egalitarian, post-sustenance society that is run by va...more I’ve been a fan of Ian M. Banks since I read The Algebraist almost 5 years ago. Mr. Banks has a witty take on the vast expanses of space and almost all of his books strike an excellent balance between smart humor and the serious issues he experiments with. At the core of his Bibliography are The Culture Novels, a collection of lightly related stories set in the super advanced galactic civilization known as the Culture. The Culture is a hyper egalitarian, post-sustenance society that is run by vastly intelligent machine Minds. The humans of this society are free to do literally whatever they wish, whenever they want, but many chose to work alongside the Minds toward the betterment of not only themselves, but interstellar life everywhere.

To that end, the Culture operates a small (very relatively speaking) division called Special Circumstances, a task force dedicated to meddling in the affairs of other developing space powers with the morally ambiguous goal of making them more like the Culture. Use of Weapons focuses on three members of this group.

I suppose the right of main character goes to Zakalwe, but the organization of the story doesn’t make that immediately apparent. Use of Weapons is actually two separate stories told in alternating chapters. The present day chapters follow Diziet Sma and her Drone companion Skaffen-Amtiskaw as they track down an AWOL Zakalwe and try to get him to carry out one last mission. The counterpoint chapters spin out Zakalwe’s past in reverse order, starting with the last mission he finished before he went AWOL. The story is unusually dark for a Culture Novel, which normally are pretty hopeful, even under extreme circumstances. Weapons actually reads like a thriller, rather than a sci-fi epic.

Zakalwe is a definite heroic rogue. He’s not a member of the Culture, just some muscle they hired to take on especially tricky situations. His missions never seem to go exactly as planned, which seems to be as much is fault as it is the ridiculous missions’ he is given. For his final act, Sma sends him hunting for an aging politico who he worked with years ago. The meat and potatoes of the present-time plot are filled with exciting action sequences and some interesting debates about the virtues of Culture interventions. That plot clips along rather well. The counterpoint chapters are much harder to follow and read like survivors accounts of wars (which some of them are) or third person descriptions of paroled convicts. Zakalwe clearly has some incredibly dark things in his past, revolving around a place called Staberinde and a man called Chairmaker.

Weapons is the first book I’ve read in a long time that executes its climactic plot twist well. It’s not that you didn’t see a twist coming, but that you really didn’t expect that twist to so completely alters the subtext of the rest of the novel. It’s almost beautifully simple.

Despite the high tension of the main story, Weapons also weaves in some fantastic humorous moments, from the book-spanning Gravitas running gag, to the incredibly dry one liners delivered by Skaffen-Amtiskaw, the book is filled with brief comedic moments that take the edge off the horror stories of the counterpoint chapters and the intense action of the present-time story.

My only real complaint is the narrator’s odd tendency to jump from person to person in the middle of chapters. The book uses a third person approach with the narrator focusing on a single character at a time, but in portions of the chapters the focus character isn’t even one of the three protagonists. There are also a few jarring moments where the focus jumps without the benefit of a paragraph break and seemingly without a good reason.

The Culture Novels as a whole are an exceptional collection of books, and Use of Weapons is a worthy addition to the canon. It isn’t the best Culture book but it does try new things and is successful. It’s also fairly light on the heavy sci-fi technobabble, making it a great entry point to the established universe. And its just a solid novel with well drawn characters and a strong story. Science fiction or not, Use of Weapons is a great read.(less)

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Feb 28, 2011 Christian Kitchen rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's Frosted Mini-Wheats.

Years ago, in the time before kids, we found ourselves in a hotel bar on the very edge of Scotland. After a few games of pool with the barmaid, whose unintelligibly thick accent had made me wonder at the quantity of Scotch I was drinking, I moved to the bar to settle the matter. There's not much I remember about the rest of that evening. The notable exceptions were an argument with the hotel manager about Iraq (I remember his avid insistence that it was all obviously abo...more It's Frosted Mini-Wheats.

Years ago, in the time before kids, we found ourselves in a hotel bar on the very edge of Scotland. After a few games of pool with the barmaid, whose unintelligibly thick accent had made me wonder at the quantity of Scotch I was drinking, I moved to the bar to settle the matter. There's not much I remember about the rest of that evening. The notable exceptions were an argument with the hotel manager about Iraq (I remember his avid insistence that it was all obviously about oil and that the oil really belonged to "the West") and the recommendation of Iain M. Banks as an author worth reading. This latter bit came from the bartender who had much to say about the foolishness of both war and his manager.

It wasn't until we were heading up to the mountains for a week last year that I stumbled upon that memory and picked up a copy of Banks' novel, Consider Phlebas. Reading that book, I remembered how good science fiction could be. I mean not just in a summer blockbuster movie kind of way, the way that Avatar or Transformers can scratch that piew piew laser/big spaceship/green alien kind of itch despite the absence of an actual story. No, I mean as a true world building exercise in which whole philosophies and cultures become defined, challenged and destroyed. Where the questions raised aren't necessarily explicit and science actually has some sort of direct bearing on what is under consideration.

Use of Weapons is good science fiction (as was Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, the first two books in Banks' Culture series). It is well constructed, coherent, and well written. It has an interesting narrative structure in which the chapters alternate between a story moving forward in time and a story moving backward. And it explores questions of ideology and what happens to ethical principles after technology has fundamentally altered the basis from which we derive them.

Use of Weapons is good science fiction, which also means I would be foolish to try and tell you what it's 'about.' Because in a very real sense, Use of Weapons is about spaceships and plasma cannons and immortality and interplanetary struggle. But it's also about the extent to which we are justified in acculturating others, what it means to be human when we no longer can die, the boundary between terror and war and a dozen other ideas that are available only in the full context of its story.

Ultimately, Use of Weapons (and I would argue all science fiction) is Frosted Mini-Wheats. Because I don't always want a bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch—though I know it's good for me. Nope, though only some substance is going to keep me flying right, sometimes the kid in me wants interstellar spaceships to fill his appetite. (3.5/5)(less)

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Jun 28, 2009 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Once the reprints of Iain Bank's Culture novels started coming out I decided to give "Consider Phlebas" a try. I don't think I've run across an author that can write action sequences that way Banks can where it is just so vivid in your mind that it's like you're watching a movie. It is just a bang-up adventure novel. I planned to move on to the second culture novel, "Player of Games" but my local book store was out of that title at the time so I picked up "Use of Weapons".

Now I'm not a big fan...more

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May 10, 2009 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: beach-bound readers

In a fair world, Iain M. Banks would be getting all the credit: The wildly popular Halo series (and Marathon, before them) seems to be heavily influenced by The Culture Universe. Free-spirited transhuman AI's bop around the cosmos, vast conspiracies unwind with unimaginable patience. Suns blow up sometimes. Ringworlds ('Orbitals') play a crucial role.

It sounds like an adolescent fantasy about unlimited power- until the rather sophisticated discussions about cultural interchange and the use of fo...more

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About Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, li...more Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1992. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He currently lives in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.

In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He relates his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.

His latest book is a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.

Author Iain M. Banks has revealed in April 2013 that he has late stage cancer and is unlikely to live for more than a year.

The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel "The Quarry", due to be published later this year, would be his last.(less)

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“I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.” — 22 people liked it

“But it was pointless, it was stupid; he thought about thoughtless things. If I were a seabird . . . but how could you be a seabird? If you were a seabird your brain would be tiny and stupid and you would love half-rotted fish guts and tweaking the eyes out of little grazing animals; you would know no poetry and you could never appreciate flying as fully as the human on the ground yearning to be you.
If you wanted to be a seabird you deserved to be one.” — 4 people liked it

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