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The Algebraist

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 6,740 ratings · 320 reviews

It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents livin...more

Paperback, 434 pages

Published June 1st 2006 by Night Shade Books (first published 2004)

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May 07, 2013 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: futuristik, z-iain-banks

a non-Culture sci-fi adventure from Banks, one whose intriguing major topic is the relativity of morality. the aliens are pretty much humans in alien form - not much attempt to convey a truly alien viewpoint. but it is all fascinating nonetheless, and many of the characters - alien and otherwise - are sympathetic or fearful creations. expansive world/universe-building, per usual. some real narrative surprises from beginning to end. the novel's Villain with a capital V is almost a parody, as if t...more

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Dec 25, 2009 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Richard by: SciFi & Fantasy Group 2009-12 SciFi Selection

Shelves: bookclub, scifi, scifi-space-opera

Meh.

Well, better than that — 3½ stars — but not as good as I'd hoped.

There were two major problems. The first I could almost forgive—as simply not being to my taste, the same way I don't enjoy the silliness of Terry Pratchett. The Algebraist tossed together rather high-concept themes (persecution of AIs, morally ambiguous revolution against a powerful hegemon, mass-death tragedy) and silliness bordering on stupidity. The major alien race is depicted as bumbling Woosters enjoying the life of a Gi...more Meh.

Well, better than that — 3½ stars — but not as good as I'd hoped.

There were two major problems. The first I could almost forgive—as simply not being to my taste, the same way I don't enjoy the silliness of Terry Pratchett. The Algebraist tossed together rather high-concept themes (persecution of AIs, morally ambiguous revolution against a powerful hegemon, mass-death tragedy) and silliness bordering on stupidity. The major alien race is depicted as bumbling Woosters enjoying the life of a Gilbert & Sullivan farce... except when it is convenient for one or more to suddenly turn into James Bond. The high and low concept was like a radicchio-marshmallow salad.

The other problem was simple carelessness. For example...

Our hero spends most of the novel inside his micro-spaceship. It is described as "about five metres long, four across the beam if you included the outboard manoeuvering nacells and a little under two metres in height." So, in its smallest dimension it is a bit bigger than a typical adult male. Yet much of the time Fessin is stuck inside this oversized coffin, he seems to be strolling the corridors of spaceships and otherwise moving naturally. Yet this is in the same text as careful depictions of how narrow wormholes are, and thus the reason for "needleships".

Another problem is the bewildering decision of Quercer & Janath. Why on earth did they take that risk? And the Voehn knew who they were? How, and why? And the megalomaniac psychopath really deserved either a novel of his own; his subplot was so obvious and dead-ended so casually it was a pity the author spent so much time on him. The occasionally eruptions of profanity and sex were bizarre discontinuities.

I have the sneaking suspicion that Banks was working out a really clever novel, using graph paper and plotting out relationships and plot arcs on butcher paper tacked to the wall when he realized he was putting too much effort into a non-Culture novel and shut it down. Then he came back some years later and stormed through it to get it out the door, but he had coincidentally just re-read and become inspired by Good Omens.

I'll read Consider Phlebas 'cause the Culture series deals with topics some friends think I'll find interesting, but I'm wary.
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Aug 23, 2012 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: summer-2012, sci-fi, tbr-busting-2012, fraudio, gardening, little-green-men, books-about-books-and-book-shops, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, washyourmouthout-language, satire, amusing, adventure, bullies, colonial-overlords, cults-societies-brotherhoods, epic-proportions, filthy-lucre, gorefest, lifestyles-deathstyles, philosophy, revenge, sciences, war

Walking mp3: Tjörn Reserve: http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/k...

Unabridged. (Clipper Audio) [Audio Cassette]
Geoffrey Annis (Narrator)
Publisher: W F Howes Ltd (2005)
ISBN-10: 1845053079
ISBN-13: 978-1845053079

There is an abridged version read by Anton Lesser out there however don't be tempted with that.

This loses a star because the baddy is such an obvious nasty with the name Archimandrite Luseferous of the Starveling Cult, happily though this is an exciting and busy storyline crammed full of...more

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Feb 17, 2008 Stevelvis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

THE ALGEBRAIST by IAIN M. BANKS -- An extremely rewarding though very complex read rating a 10 on all the scales of complexity due to writing style, amount of characters to follow, and the number and variation of cultures and species. The fast-paced action takes place on several planets all around the universe, includes one major character with quite a few other important characters including several totally alien species and several hierarchal structures involving religion and politics. It also...more THE ALGEBRAIST by IAIN M. BANKS -- An extremely rewarding though very complex read rating a 10 on all the scales of complexity due to writing style, amount of characters to follow, and the number and variation of cultures and species. The fast-paced action takes place on several planets all around the universe, includes one major character with quite a few other important characters including several totally alien species and several hierarchal structures involving religion and politics. It also includes a big emphasis on science and technology and a sense of humor. Amazingly entertaining but best for the Advanced SciFi reader. Of all the books on this list, this is the one I want to re-read the most due to its challenging epic nature.

THE ALGEBRAIST by Iain M. Banks

I understand why this book was nominated for the Hugo award for best novel, and I also understand why it didn't win. The author takes an action-packed wartime space drama and makes it more complicated with a writing style in which he starts chapters with dialog without telling you who is speaking until half a page later. He also uses the paid-by-the-word style of writing by using 5 or even 10 phrases to describe something totally unnecessary when 1 or 2 would have sufficed. There is complex technology and a complex military hierarchy, actually several complex military hierarchies between the galactic empire, a sadistic totalitarian upstart, an anarchistic group of rebels, and an ancient very alien species of beings who inhabit the giant gas planets similar to Jupiter. There's also room for love and back-stabbing.

That said, don't let me stop you from reading this book. In fact, I recommend it very much and will search out other books by the same author because I like a good challenging read. The characters are rich and the plotline is actually believable while some of the technology and alien beings are unlike any I've read in other books. The action is wild, non-stop, unpredictable, and even humorous with strange landscapes which range from one end of the galaxy to the other. At 430 pages in small print trade paperback it's a bigger read for the more accomplished reader, especially those familiar with speculative fiction.(less)

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Mar 08, 2013 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in October 2005.

Iain Banks latest is an addition to the growing list of his non-Culture science fiction, though it has the same flavour as those set in that universe. It is set far in the future, in a galaxy filled with many kinds of lifeforms. These are generally classified as either Quick (those who evolved mainly on rocky planets, including two kinds of humans) or Slow (those who live with much slower metabolisms who often developed in gas giants, which in...more Originally published on my blog here in October 2005.

Iain Banks latest is an addition to the growing list of his non-Culture science fiction, though it has the same flavour as those set in that universe. It is set far in the future, in a galaxy filled with many kinds of lifeforms. These are generally classified as either Quick (those who evolved mainly on rocky planets, including two kinds of humans) or Slow (those who live with much slower metabolisms who often developed in gas giants, which include the other major species we meet in The Algebraist, the Dwellers). The Dwellers are somewhat mysterious and incredibly long-lived beings (some individuals are older than entire races) who have a history dating back to very early in galactic history. They hardly communicate with members of other species, and those who are permitted to communicate with them, known as Seers, are often completely confused by what they are told, especially since the Dwellers are prone to jokes which mean that much of what they say can't be trusted. One persistent story which is widely disbelieved by the galaxy as a whole is that there is a key to a document known as the "Dweller List", which seems to describe a large number of portals (the instantaneous travel mechanism which makes Banks' galactic civilization possible), but which cannot be decoded.

The Dwellers seem to me to be the major conceptual link between The Algebraicist and the Culture novels. They take the insouciant, anarchic way of life of the Culture to an extreme. They are the highlights of the novel, the source of many humorous touches: they are the only aliens I have come across in the whole of the science fiction genre who are given convincing dialogue that is reminiscent of the tramps in Waiting for Godot.

The central character of the novel, Fassin Taak, is one of the most successful Seers, and it is he who brings back from one of his trips to the gas giant Nasqueron a work of literature which is later discovered to have a clue to the Dweller List hidden in an appendix. This is so important that it provokes an invasion of the planetary system by some really nasty villains, which in turn forces Taak to return to Nasqueron to try and persuade the Dwellers to give up the rest of the secret before the destruction of his home world.

The Algebraist is a fun novel, very enjoyable to read, though not really covering new ground for Banks despite the different setting. Indeed, it is now quite some time since Banks has produced anything as innovative as his early novels, and he is now apparently content to write polished variations on the themes that make up his mature style (perhaps this is something that can be said of most authors who have a career of any length). Maybe moving away from the Culture is an attempt to bring back some of the early originality, in which case it has not really succeeded. There are now of course many writers who have been influenced by Banks, particularly by his science fiction; The Algebraist reads in places almost like a novel by yet another admirer than by the man himself. Here we really have the novelist as craftsman rather than artist; very welcome, very satisfying, and only disappointing because the reader knows that Banks is capable of much more.

One very small point: when I studied mathematics, those who concentrated on algebra were known as "algebraicists" rather than "algebraists".(less)

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Dec 21, 2009 Ben Babcock rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: from-library, 2009-read, artificial-intelligence, science-fiction, space-opera, 2009-worst10, hugo-nominee

Warning: This review contains spoilers about the review. Continue reading only if you have already read this review or if you are unconcerned about ruining the ending of this review.

Open with a joke about the size and weight of this book making it good for a number of non-reading-related purposes. Go on to comment on the excessive amounts of esoteric terminology.

That's probably how most reviews of this book begin, and they're probably right in doing so. Of course, plenty of books are justified i...more

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May 28, 2008 Sandi rated it 1 of 5 stars

I keep hearing about what a great author Iain Banks is. This book was a book of the month last year for a reading group I belong to. I didn't like it. It had so much potential, but it was simultaneously underwritten and overwritten, if that's even possible. Probably my biggest beef with the book was the liberal use of the f-word. Now, I'm not a prude and God knows that the use of the f-word has become very commonplace. When my husband is watching Mafia movies, I always tell him that the over-use...more

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Dec 17, 2007 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

So Banks seems to ripen with age. Banks earlier titles were wrought with fanciful, min-blowing brain candy yet lacked a certain cerebral edge or literary finesse. I have to admit that he kind of stumbled slightly with Excession but certainly made his mark with the novel in various other ways. Consider Phlebas was a near masterpiece as was the Algebraist. Here, Banks gets a pretty good clip going and his writing even smacks of literature. That, plus set in amazing fantastical settings (futuristic...more So Banks seems to ripen with age. Banks earlier titles were wrought with fanciful, min-blowing brain candy yet lacked a certain cerebral edge or literary finesse. I have to admit that he kind of stumbled slightly with Excession but certainly made his mark with the novel in various other ways. Consider Phlebas was a near masterpiece as was the Algebraist. Here, Banks gets a pretty good clip going and his writing even smacks of literature. That, plus set in amazing fantastical settings (futuristic, of course) with round and complex characters with distinct voices, the novel was thoroughly entertaining. One thing I appreciate about Banks' style is his lack of apology for certain conventions owing to his expository writing methods. Iain Banks somehow gets away with telling while showing. Not only does it lend weight to the fantastic futures he envisions, the exposition in and of itself is fascinating stuff. Owing to the roundness of his characters, Banks makes them engaging and interesting. This is quite a feat since Banks likes to populate his worlds with incredibly thought out alien species unlike any human. I don't believe I've ever read a novel where a creature who consists of merely a sac of gas can quip violently funny tirades. The device he employs to achieve this is simple, Banks makes the assumption that any creature capable of interstellar commerce and practical civilzation building are most likely imbued with the same qualities. Sense of humor, compassion, a twinge of altruism - basically, human. This is a poetic license I am willing to grant in this case.

The story is drawn out and complex and I don't remember enough detail to accurately describe it here. Namely the names as such. It involves the sequestration of a young gentlemen to appeal to an ancient race of "Dwellers" who inhabit varius gas giant planets for their wisdom and aid to stave off an interstellar war.

The novel is active and spirited. Well-written and certainly a bar-raiser for the SF genre. Highly recommended.(less)

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Jul 03, 2010 Peter Dunn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Jun 28, 2008 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy, scottish

It took me a good hundred or so pages to get into this novel. One of the problems, I suppose, with space opera is that when you are creating a galactic culture complete with dozens of races and hierarchies and political structures each with its resistance movements, it requires a lot of exposition. So the first quarter of the book can feel quite bogged down as, for instance, each line of dialog is separated by several bulky paragraphs explaining in gregarious detail the various layers of context...more

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Jan 04, 2008 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: scifi fans, anarchists

Shelves: fucking-classic-science-fiction

Probably my least favorite of Iain Banks' scifi novels. The writing is uneven, and in need of editing. There are just too many of those short Point Of View chapters from people about to die. Tom Clancy does it a lot, Iain, don't be like Tom Clancy.

On the plus side, most of the book involves wandering through a anarchist society, made possible by abundance, and long arguments about how any anarchist society could work.

There's an interesting contrast between the protagonist's dangerous but free t...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Peter Tillman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Banks returns to widescreen space-opera in this non-Culture standalone, featuring the galaxy-spanning multispecies, oxygen-breathing Mercatoria empire and its interactions with the more-numerous gas-giant Dwellers, who seem to have colonized most of the jovians in the Milky Way. And they're old. Really, really Old. Plus, exploding spaceships!

The Mercatoria power-structure is rococo Raj-in-Space -- there's a fabulous court scene straight out of Victoria and Albert's coronation in India, featuring...more Banks returns to widescreen space-opera in this non-Culture standalone, featuring the galaxy-spanning multispecies, oxygen-breathing Mercatoria empire and its interactions with the more-numerous gas-giant Dwellers, who seem to have colonized most of the jovians in the Milky Way. And they're old. Really, really Old. Plus, exploding spaceships!

The Mercatoria power-structure is rococo Raj-in-Space -- there's a fabulous court scene straight out of Victoria and Albert's coronation in India, featuring the Heirchon Ormilla, the Peregals Tlipelyn and Emoerte, First Secretary Heuypzlagger, and many, many more comic-opera-dressed reps of the Ascendancy, Omnocracy, Navarchy etc etc. Egalitarian Democracy in Space it's not, but looks positively enlightened compared to the Archimandrite Luseferous, warrior-priest of the Starveling Cult of Leseum9, who is Bad. Really, really Bad. And Luseferous is coming to get Ulubis, the detached Mercatorial system which recently lost its wormhole to Enemy Action....

The Algebraist macguffin started out seriously straining my WSOD, but the Dwellers, giant gas-dwelling ammonite-analogs who channel John Cleese (when they're not emulating soccer hooligans), and their party-hearty 'kudo' (= wuffie, reputation) culture, won me right over. OK, they're not particularly Alien-alien, but what the hey? A human Deep-delver is sent to Nasqueron to find an ancient Dweller document, written in alien algebra and revealing a Deep, Dark Dweller Secret. Luseferous got wind of it, too, and Mercatoria Central knows that he knows, and is sending a big-a$$ fleet to fend him off...

Will the Fleet arrive in time? Will the Secret be found? It's all good fun, seriously over-the-top Banks Light, one silly space-chase after another, with hardly a sag up to the near-inevitable Banks Downer Ending (tm), which is even more gratuitous than usual here. And Algebraist needed some blue-pencil work to cut some of the fat... Grump, grump. Lotsa fun, but could have been better with just a bit more work.

Algebraist has gotten a mixed reception, here and elsewhere. I agree with other's comments that Banks isn't breaking new ground here, but so what? He's clearly having fun, and still writing rings around most of his competition. Algebraist is a close comparable to Walter Jon William's recent "Praxis" space-operas: good fun, even if not the author's best work.(less)

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Jul 29, 2012 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

'The Algebraist' suffers from the same problem as a lot of Banks' recent novels: length. The story being told here is not especially complex and he has managed before to create a believable and fascinating world in far fewer words (take a look at 'The Player of Games' or 'Feersum Endjinn', for example). While I love his prose, pushing through 'The Algebraist' was difficult at the best of times. The best word to describe it would be 'sprawling', and while it does a great job at creating a wide an...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Jacqie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Well, this was another Iain Banks book that I couldn't finish. I loved the first stuff I read by him-Inversions, Consider Phlebas, Look to Windward, and I thought Player of Games was fine. What has changed? Is it me?

Perhaps. Perhaps the magic of the incredible settings that Ian Banks imagines has worn off for me, and I want more from the books. In some of the past books, characters have been satisfying as well. Not in this one. We have a protagonist that I wasn't even sure was going to be the pr...more

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Mar 31, 2011 Shawn Davies rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whilst the Culture hangs over all Iain M Banks writings, this is a departure to a fully realised place in time and space that lets Banks create and historically delineate another Space Opera reality and he does is spectacularly well.

The Dwellers have to be one of my favourite creations, insouciant aliens in a galaxy teeming with interstellar life, civilisations, empires and technology. In the midst of this crowded galaxy our hero Fassin Taak must seek the secret of the Dwellers, but his is reall...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Detail-oriented grand-sweep SF aficionados

Recommended to Alan by: Previous work

It's all a bit too much, isn't it? I mean, every page—sometimes every paragraph on every page—of The Algebraist throws in the names of new planets, principalities and vast empires; lost races and common aliens of endlessly inventive forms, habitats and abilities; unheard-of technologies, world-sized starships and robots smaller than grains of sand, automated castles, weapons of both mass and intimate destruction... clans, clades and clubs; cross-generational romance... bizarre medicines and food...more It's all a bit too much, isn't it? I mean, every page—sometimes every paragraph on every page—of The Algebraist throws in the names of new planets, principalities and vast empires; lost races and common aliens of endlessly inventive forms, habitats and abilities; unheard-of technologies, world-sized starships and robots smaller than grains of sand, automated castles, weapons of both mass and intimate destruction... clans, clades and clubs; cross-generational romance... bizarre medicines and foods and drugs and sensations... it's exhausting! And, perversely, this very flood of specificity seems to have made this particular book less memorable, at least for me; I recognized bits here and there, but the plot as a whole (and, for a long time, even the Big Reveal) rather evaded me on second reading.

This very overwhelming, mind-blanking quality (as if I were a Banks character myself—they're always getting their memories tampered with, at least in this book) prevents me from being as enthusiastic about this book as I might otherwise be. For it is a great and sweeping tale, a science fiction mystery with a mathematical bent (as one might guess from the title), a space opera whose conflicts range from the grandest to the most intimate scale.

Fassin Taak is at the center of it all. A Slow Seer whose expertise is in communicating with the Dwellers—a whimsical gas-giant native species whose individual members measure their lifespans in billions of years. The Dwellers whom Fassin Taak studies live within the turbulent atmosphere of Nasqueron, the largest such gas giant in the Ulubis system. Fassin's home is on 'glantine, one of Nasqueron's more habitable moons, where he is a member of Sept Bantrabal, one of the more successful groups of Seers. (See how complicated this is getting already? And we're really not even scratching the surface!)

The Dwellers seem like capricious, frivolous dilettantes—there's some debate about whether they're civilized at all, despite their longevity and obvious intelligence—to the humans and other "Quick" species who slow their metabolisms and Delve into the atmosphere of Nasqueron to interview and study them (when they're allowed to). The Dwellers' long history and inquisitive nature leads them to collect an immense amount of information that is of historical and sometimes even scientific interest. But... the Dwellers are also rotten catalogers—all of their various collected libraries are a hodgepodge of unindexed, disorganized records. The Seers try to tease a few threads of order from the chaos.

That's really all Fassin Taak wants to do. But he's due to be yanked out of his complacent, contemplative work for Sept Bantrabal... because Fassin is also a citizen of the Mercatoria, the star-spanning Human civilization (well, mostly Human) which has successfully eradicated rogue AIs (artificial intelligences who came close to subjugating humanity) and connected hundreds of Earthlike planets in a faster-than-light network of Arteria, the paired wormholes through which interstellar travel is essentially instantaneous. Wormhole networks are easily disrupted, though—one of the reasons why Ulubis is such a Galactic backwater is that its own wormhole connection to the rest of the Galaxy was destroyed a few centuries earlier, necessitating a replacement be sent from the nearest connected star system by the Mercatorian Engineers who are the only ones allowed to create and maintain these particular bits of critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile... the self-styled Archimandrite Luseferous, an Evil Genius in the classical mode (inventive methods of torture; giant leeches in the dungeon; an obsession with ranked battle cruisers and other such ostentatious military toys) has cast his eye on the isolated Ulubis system as the next—the one hundred and eighteenth, to be exact—to join his Starveling Cult. His fleet is on its slow way towards Ulubis too...

And why all of this interest in what really is, on a Galactic scale, the equivalent of a sleepy little college town? Well, that's the thing that ties all of these elements together. Supposedly, somewhere in all of that vast collection of data the Dwellers hold dear might be a clue to the Dweller List... which might be a trick, or a myth, or it might just be a comprehensive list of a few million wormholes that the Mercatoria and other Quick civilizations could use. If they could just find them.

The Dweller List is the deceptively simple McGuffin that drives Banks' ornate engine of plot. And in the end, I enjoyed the drive Banks took me on using that engine—twice. So... not such a bad ride after all.(less)

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Jul 12, 2009 Jonathanstray Stray rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Algebraist – Iain M. Banks

In my younger years, I consumed a lot of science fiction. I read Clarke, Asimov, Card, Herbert, all the classic masters and a lot of the lesser lights besides. Somewhere in the late nineties I discovered Iain M. Banks, first stumbling into the epic Against A Dark Background. Being used to rigorously researched treatises that exploited, oh, relativistic mass change or the Coriolis force on a rotating orbital habitat as plot points, I thought, hey, Banks isn't really...more The Algebraist – Iain M. Banks

In my younger years, I consumed a lot of science fiction. I read Clarke, Asimov, Card, Herbert, all the classic masters and a lot of the lesser lights besides. Somewhere in the late nineties I discovered Iain M. Banks, first stumbling into the epic Against A Dark Background. Being used to rigorously researched treatises that exploited, oh, relativistic mass change or the Coriolis force on a rotating orbital habitat as plot points, I thought, hey, Banks isn't really writing science fiction. It's more like fantasy set in space, but damn, what an imaginative read!

These days, I don't need rigorous physics to be enthralled by a book. It is ironic then that Banks' latest SF novel – he also writes earthbound drama under the name Iain Banks, no M. – is "harder" than his previous work. Essentially, it's a study of galactic empire under the constraints of slower-than-light space travel. Without the aid of human-emplaced wormholes, the vast distances between star systems can only be bridged by hundreds or thousands of years of travel at near light speed. Wormholes are therefore the key imperial resource, much as water or roads have been the center of contention in earthbound empires.

What makes this story interesting – apart from lots of cool alien species and space hardware – is the sheer scale of it. The plot begins when the remote system of Ulubis is disconnected from the empire by the destruction of its only portal (by, admittedly, the relativistic mass of a near light-speed missile.) As the nearest connected star system is over 200 light years away, nothing will be heard from the rest of the galactic civilization for at least that time, and ships bearing a new wormhole will be even further delayed. Meanwhile, the scholar Fassin Taak accidentally learns an ancient secret from the race of Dwellers who live within the atmosphere of the system's gas giant. This venerable race, reckoned to be over ten billion years old, inhabits over 90% of the gas giants of the galaxy. They live and think on a different time scale, and indeed single individuals can survive for billions of years. They only occasionally stoop to conversing with the galaxy's younger, quicker living races, and it is during one of these slow-time exchanges that Fassin learns that the Dwellers might be concealing a giant wormhole network of their own. This intelligence leaks out, and suddenly a wide array of both imperial and unaligned forces converge on Ulubis at slower-than-light speeds in a game of strategy played over centuries.

So it's all politics and technology over time and space scales that we humans don't normally get to think about. As usual with Banks, there is also a great deal of discussion and insight into culture and civilization as whole; not just a technologist but a confirmed anarchist, Banks speculates better than anyone else on the possible structure of widely distributed post-scarcity societies. The is most strikingly seen in the contrast between the dominant galactic empire within which most humans live, and the much older, much less hierarchical Dweller society where key even functions are essentially elective. The Dweller military, for example, is really just a club of enthusiasts who enjoy tactics and hardware, and autonomously decide when and where to employ their force on the basis of strategic considerations and/or amusement value.

So yes, I enjoyed it. At times I couldn't put it down. It is, essentially, a space opera, but like the best SF it considers very human questions. In this case, it allows us to look at the structure of our own societies by studying the interactions of civilizations within a much broader context than our own. Perspective is a truly wonderful thing, especially when it's set within a good yarn.
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Apr 08, 2013 Andrewcharles420 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An otherwise backwoods system of an interconnected galaxy is one of few locations where an ancient, widespread, reclusive species, the [gas-giant] Dwellers, communes with outsiders. One of the outsiders is accidentally given information from the Dwellers concerning an ancient transportation network that could change the nature of the galaxy, and suddenly this lonely system is the focus of huge interests, from the central government/military and various rebel/enemy groups to internal factions of...more An otherwise backwoods system of an interconnected galaxy is one of few locations where an ancient, widespread, reclusive species, the [gas-giant] Dwellers, communes with outsiders. One of the outsiders is accidentally given information from the Dwellers concerning an ancient transportation network that could change the nature of the galaxy, and suddenly this lonely system is the focus of huge interests, from the central government/military and various rebel/enemy groups to internal factions of the otherwise typically peaceful Dwellers.

There was not as much math as the title suggested (though really this isn't much of a surprise). The math there was I didn't appreciate--much ado is made over the fact that the output of an important equation is zero, as if this means the whole operation was for nothing. My problem with this is that zero is not necessarily a meaningless answer to an equation, and in fact is often quite mathematically important (stability of equations, null-spaces of transforms and vector spaces, etc). The science (incl. techno-babble) was good though! I liked the way wormholes are approached, and the internally consistent idea that they must be in gravitationally neutral areas. Outside of the wormholes, faster than light communication was prohibited. Time-dilation was a concern. Space battles used sensible weapons: lasers, x-ray beams, slower than light smart projectiles (missiles), near-light speed dumb projectiles. A minor detail I was confused by was the timeline of the story--we are living in this story's history, but how far in the future didn't always mesh up with my ideas of the history of humans or the universe. (This is mentioned a time or two in the story with the clever idea that aliens came to Earth in our past, abducted some humans from Egypt and China (and more), and seeded the galaxy with humans, among others.)

There were a couple aspects of the story I didn't care for--the more cohesive governments (mercatoria and starvelings) practiced brutal, despotic, unconscionable acts, which were occasionally detailed in the story. Perhaps these could be powerfully alluded to in a movie, where the scenes, brief relative to the full story, would be immediately followed by something less horrible, and the images replaced with... anything else. But in a story--and especially a long one that necessitates breaks in the reading--these images stuck for a long time in my mind and broke the flow of the story. Perhaps this was a literary technique of making the highs appear higher by making the story's lows go quite low. I didn't need that in the story. I can imagine awful enough details without having them spelled out before me, and I'm already enough disposed against militarism and power-hungry bureaucracies not to need further evidence to not trust them.

I noticed no racism or even alien-ism in the book, though AIs were typically discriminated against. Women were always present, but not central to much of the story, and who they had sex with was almost always mentioned. The Dwellers hunted their children for sport... though this conceit was more likely just to add to the Dwellers 'otherness' and to contrast with their potentially billion-year lifetimes.

I really liked the Dweller culture and personalities. I also liked the way the full-galaxy society operated (or rather, that it could exist culturally and commercially, though not with any interest in their current power structures/modes of operation). I would be interested in more stories of the Dwellers, the non-warring AIs, and the hopeful Beyonder reforms to the Mercatoria.

I was motivated to read this book after hearing accolades of the author after his unfortunate announcement of medical difficulty. This book was chosen because of the title (I like math), and because it was not in a series (which is too big a commitment for the first read of an author--I painfully learned this lesson with Game of Thrones).
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Mar 08, 2011 Matthew Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

I tried to read this three times. The first two times, I got bogged down a hundred pages or so in. This one's a slow starter; a bit too slow, I think. Banks does this.

The plot starts rolling so slowly, like a great freight train starting off, so imperceptible you scarcely notice it, and slowly picks up to an ambling sort of pace, and it's obvious you're going somewhere, but it doesn't really seem all that important, and you don't really think much of it, and it slowly picks up speed, comfortabl...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Henry rated it 3 of 5 stars

An exuberant pan-galactic gargle blaster of a novel in which the fate of Ulubis, a star-system long sundered from the rest of the Galaxy by the destruction of its wormhole portal, is threatened by the forces of the piratical Beyonders and the horridly camp Archimandrite Lusiferous, an unfortunate series of events that the musclebound Galactic hegemony seems powerless to stop. Only Fassin Taak, a 'Slow Seer' who 'delves' into the society of the Dwellers, can help. But what of the Dwellers? These...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Alexander rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit that I almost lost the will to live at around the halfway mark of this book, and came close to giving up. I'm glad I didn't.

I loved the whole concept of space travel, and the planning subsequent military manoeuvres, taking anything from weeks to years to play themselves out. It reminded me somewhat of Joe Haldeman's 'Forever Wars', and was more enjoyable than the tradition instant warp travel normally used.

One of the book's main villains was so over the top, baroque, and intense...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Shabbeer Hassan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Phew....That's the only word i can say after finishing the book...No, no dont think this book is unreadable, its in every way a mini epic...You have a protagonist, unsure about himself, thrust to seek greatness...You have antagonists here who want t take that same....And the rest in between is the story....

So you ask why did i say phew!!! Well, the story is no doubt interesting, a pan-galactic no doubt but there are parts in the book you simply wish weren't there....Lets start with the name itse...more

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Apr 04, 2013 T.L. Evans rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Algebraist is not a Culture book, but is one of my favorite books by Banks. At times I even think its better than Use of Weapons (which is my favorite). Set in a gas giant, and in a sci-fi world that is closer to hard science than any I've seen Banks write to date, it is filled with wonderful descriptions, fantastic aliens, great characterizations, and brilliant prose. I truly enjoyed the book both as an adventure tale and as a thoughtful examination of identity and our view of the other. Ev...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read

Shelves: calibre

SUMMARY: It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointl...more

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Jun 24, 2012 A.R. Davis rated it 4 of 5 stars

6/23/12 The Algebraist, Iain M. Banks, 2004. Every nook and cranny of the galaxy is full of life, but this story deals mostly with a human scholar of Dwellers, the life forms that populate gas giants. His quest is to search for a possibly mythical text, The Algebraist, which is “all about mathematics, navigation as a metaphor, duty, love, longing, honour, long voyages home ... that sort of stuff.” Banks’ writing style is as dense and detailed as befits such a complex universe. His sentences exte...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars

I give this book a low rating because it pales in comparison with his other scifi, specifically the Culture books.

Taking in pieces, the writing is Iain (M) Banks usual mixture of laconic-yet-powerful descriptions, elegant yet Byzantine world-making, and breathless plots.

But as a whole, the book doesn't hang together. It felt to me as if his head was exploding with ideas and that he struggled to fit them in the space allowed. And that is my problem with these books.

To avoid spoilers, I will say...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Michelle Diener rated it 5 of 5 stars

From the cover to the last page, I loved this book. It isn't one of Banks's Culture books (which I LOVE, especially Use of Weapons) but once again he manages to pull off a story on a grand scale, yet makes you feel involved in the details. This makes the twist at the end all the more effective - it caught me totally by surprise and made for such a satisfying ending.

Set in 4034 AD it centres on Fassin Taak, a researcher studying, with their kind permission, the inhabitants of a gas planet called...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Jim McDonnell rated it 2 of 5 stars

About 30% in, I'm ambiguous at best about this book so far. It's reading like a cross between China Mieville and Stephen Baxter, ie the uncontrolled vomiting forth of strange words and names combined with a labyrinthine and rather dull plot. I'm hoping it will turn around in the next two-thirds.

[Update] OK, finished the book this morning and I'm still underwhelmed by it. It improved slightly as I read through it, and as the spewing out of new names, places and details gave way to the flimsy stor...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Robert Laird rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'd have to say this is one of the best stories I've read that's involved a "wild goose chase." It was not just fascinating how the final result wasn't, and at the very same time, was what they were looking for, but the machinations required to get to that point were nothing short of spectacular. The story and characters were wildly imaginative, in depth, and almost completely believable. I can't imagine anyone coming up with a galaxy that is anything more thoroughly, convincingly, but fantastic...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Kathy Turner rated it 3 of 5 stars

'The Algerbraist' is a slow read for the first hundred pages for the set up; then a good read as you get into the story; then even better as it speeds to the end; and then a great read as you are driven back to work out: Eh wait a minute how does HG get there? Then a laugh - and still a puzzle.
I get the distinct feeling that Iain Banks is constructing a story time line that is as devious and playful as the Dwellers themselves; and a mirror of the possibilities of wormholes. But I'm still puzzli...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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Quotes from The Algebraist

“Any theory which causes solipsism to seem just as likely an explanation for the phenomena it seeks to describe ought to be held in the utmost suspicion.” — 5 people liked it

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