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Exzession (Culture #5)

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 7,431 ratings · 299 reviews

Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared.

Now it is back.

Published (first published 1996)

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Aug 09, 2012 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: z-iain-banks, rain-man-reviews, futuristik

ATTENTION CULTURE SHOPPERS

this weekend's special is an Outside Context Problem! this amazing special is so unique, most shoppers will only encounter it once - in a millenium! please look for the infinity symbol tagged on our specially-marked OCP items.

on aisle 1, back by popular demand, we are excited to present faction upon faction of Culture Minds, as embodied physically by their glorious Mind Ships!!! shoppers, we have read your suggestions and we respond! you will find very few examples of t...more ATTENTION CULTURE SHOPPERS

this weekend's special is an Outside Context Problem! this amazing special is so unique, most shoppers will only encounter it once - in a millenium! please look for the infinity symbol tagged on our specially-marked OCP items.

on aisle 1, back by popular demand, we are excited to present faction upon faction of Culture Minds, as embodied physically by their glorious Mind Ships!!! shoppers, we have read your suggestions and we respond! you will find very few examples of those sad, silly creatures known commonly as "Cultured humans" throughout our festive OCP sale weekend. and that's not all... we proudly announce the debut of two marvelous new Mind Ships! at the front of aisle 1, the lovely and amazing Sleeper Service - necro-artist and secret agent! and lurking in the rear, unlisted on any official Culture registry... the remarkable Grey Area - avenger of genocides, torturer of torturers! ignore his nickname "Meatfucker" at your very own and very personalized peril!

on aisles 2 through 11, our hallmark OCP product The Excession continues to be available in ever-widening sizes and ever-changing formats. whether it be a black swan event, an unreadable black body sphere, a transport system for higher powers, or an ageless conundrum appearing since before the dawn of time, the Excession is tailor-made and custom-fit for thrilling contemplation of the infinite and - perhaps - cosmic oblivion!

on aisle 12-A we are excited to feature an exciting, one-time only Super Special... Warships! buy one, get 80,000 free! literally!!

we would also like to direct your attention to aisle 12-B... to our brand new line of society, The Affront! this bold new community brings a fresh and energetic perspective to many fronts: the gender war, the race war, the male-on-male war, and of course the timeless war between galaxies! you'll laugh at the barbaric shenanigans of this socioopathic "civilization" 'til your sides literally split open, entrails spilling and flying willy-nilly! BUY NOW - we guarantee you will soon find our special Affront products to be disappearing fast.

___________________

and now for the review: i liked it. the writing was especially witty in this one; the concepts were typically grandiose. sadly, a rather deflating ending. and a feeling of, i dunno... thinness, somehow? just not a whole lot to think about after putting this one down - a rare thing for one of my favorite authors. but i did love how this Culture novel was all about the fascinating Mind Ships and their various factions - so many of them, i had to write a list to keep track. i love the Culture Minds. besides, who needs humans anyway? wouldn't you rather read about Mind Ships?(less)

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Feb 23, 2012 Simeon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, sci-fi

I love these books, but if you don't, I would totally commiserate. The series' uniqueness is both awesome and offputting; the sort of stuff you wish people would write, but then you find excuses not to read.

You know how ordinary books tend to be enjoyable, but leave you pretty much where you began? Well, the Culture is the exact opposite. Reading these novels is rarely the funnest thing you could be doing, but when you're done, it's a whole bloody paradigm shift; perspective and ideas towards p...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Apatt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Culture series is one of the most beloved among today's sf readers, possibly the most beloved but I don't have any hard figures to back it up so I'll leave that hyperbole out for now. Certainly some entries in the series are more popular than others, based on the average ratings and online discussions The Player of Games and Use of Weapons are generally held in high regard, Inversions and Matter less so. As for Excession, it is one of the more popular ones, top 4 I think, and I can see why....more

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Apr 04, 2013 Bruce Freedancer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After struggling through Use of Weapons a few pages at a time, determined not to let it beat me, this book was a breath of fresh air. I love SF and Banks is surely one of the best there has ever been, and even better, he is still actively writing. I am trying to read through his collection of "culture" themed books roughly in their chronological order, meaning this is still one of his earlier works.

This book made me laugh out loud on many occasions in pure delight of the staggering and almost b...more After struggling through Use of Weapons a few pages at a time, determined not to let it beat me, this book was a breath of fresh air. I love SF and Banks is surely one of the best there has ever been, and even better, he is still actively writing. I am trying to read through his collection of "culture" themed books roughly in their chronological order, meaning this is still one of his earlier works.

This book made me laugh out loud on many occasions in pure delight of the staggering and almost brutally honest imagination of the author. What made this book different from others I have read from Banks was the focus on "Minds" -a term used for the massive intellects that form the basis of the "culture galactic society"

How these minds struggled to cope with an "out of context" situation where their technological superiority was flip/flopped into a situation where they were confronted with an apparent entity vastly superior to them was a fascinating case study into how humanity itself might behave when confronted with a similar situation.

Banks successfully crafted "minds" that were essentially inter-stellar space-faring craft that I genuinely came to care about as very 3-dimensional characters. Given the magnitude of their intellects and power they became in many respects grand warlords or humanitarians on a cosmic scale.

I feel a sense of gratitude towards the author for taking me on such a thrilling and thought-provoking ride and I am already hungry for more. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in SF as a vehicle for exploring humanity at both the micro and macro scale.

Hours after writing this review I learnt Banks has terminal cancer. Ironic as all hell considering I'd just made the statement he was still actively writing. Apparently he has one final book coming out and it will be his last. I have a hollow feeling in my stomach, as if someone just reached their hand down my throat and pulled some of my internal organs out. Which is to say, this just feels so wrong.

I was about to research the next book of his I was going to read. I will still do that but it will be with a very heavy heart..(less)

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May 16, 2012 Gemma Thomson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, own, the-culture

I would be hard-pressed to call this my favourite 'Culture' book, but it is a 'Culture' book nevertheless and thus presents us with a universe just as likeable. Taking a different format to the norm, the book actually deals just as much with its cast of Minds and ships as the humans wrapped up in proceedings. We could perhaps have done without so many, mind you, as it is hard enough to follow names like those of the various Culture ships. In a cast of what may be a dozen ships, trying to remembe...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera

I've been reading books from Banks for just over a year now, and Excession was my fourth dip into the Culture, his ultimate Utopia. Previously, I've been impressed by both Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, whilst also being left underwhelmed by Matter.

I found Excession to veer towards Matter rather than the standards of either of the others. Like Matter, it has an ensemble cast of characters, grandiose ideas not present in the earlier books and cunning, subtle plot-lines and shifts. Cert...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Manny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, parody-homage, story-review

/1324089739734 SILLYINTRO 289534953457 MOREOFTHISTHANYOUNEED 826563495 ANOTHERRANDOMDIGITSEQUENCE 290735723 OHPLEASEGETTOTHEPOINT/

- Hello? This is Kinda Disappointed, do you read me?

- Hello Disappointed, this is Still Plenty of Good Bits. I'm another superintelligent AI entity...

- Well of course you are, Bits! Let's skip the background and assume the reader knows all about the Culture universe. So, what did you think of "Excession"?

- Um, not too bad, considering the obvious problems. I mean, how...more

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Feb 19, 2010 Psychophant rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: far-future, reviewed

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

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Jan 17, 2008 Carl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasysci-fi

I happened to see a review of this book which didn't praise it unconditionally, but still made it sound interesting, so I picked it up, since I hadn't been reading anything by new authors for a while. While I'm tempted to step out of my field and start talking about the problems with sci-fi scenarios dealing with artificially created intelligence and the need for embodiment to shape intelligence, etc, I'll just admit that I don't actually know the first thing about computers, and that this book...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: calibre

SUMMARY: Iain M. Banks is a true original, an author whose brilliant speculative fiction has transported us into worlds of unbounded imagination and inimitable revelatory power. Now he takes us on the ultimate trip: to the edge of possibility and to the heart of a cosmic puzzle....Diplomat Byr Genar-Hofoen has been selected by the Culture to undertake a delicate and dangerous mission. The Department of Special Circumstances--the Culture's espionage and dirty tricks section--has sent him off to i...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Michael David Cobb rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excession is Iain Banks' clunkiest book so far. It is certainly enjoyable as it introduces us to Infinite Fun, but it just had too many distractions and too many characters, with far too many of them Minds whose personalities and loyalties simply didn't make quite enough sense through 400 pages. It might have helped if I had the full sized paperback, but I had the airport sized one and.. it just got tedious. It could not have felt like a page-turner otherwise.

On the whole however, Excession is a...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Christine Mizzi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Banks at his sci-fi perfection at its best! The extensive details (which at first seemed a bit daunting until all the "neural lace" as Banks himself writes, started making sense) were so vivid and specific, that I wanted to close my eyes and imagine further... Banks' culture novels also show hisknowledge on modern science and astrophysics. At times I'd be reading things which I happened to have just watched on Discovery Science!
I also liked the way Banks weaves in human emotions and relationship...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Prashanth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Woo hoo.. that read was a rocking journey. How could I not read Banks till now? Once I picked up this book, I could not put it down and all through I could not avoid comparing this more contemporary sci fi with its older compadres.

Culture is clearly mankind's ultimate goal - scientifically advanced (well, you can call it that at level 8 civ), benevolent, and machines (Minds) running the show! Although the story line is not too complicated, it does keep one on the tenterhooks. What makes the jour...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Zach rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I skipped The State of the Art to read this fifth book in the Culture series, since the former is a collection of short stories. After having been burned by the likes of The Martians, I decided not to sully my opinion of the series so early on.

The titular Excession is another name for what the Culture calls an Outside Context Problem (OCP), which is an encounter with an alien civilization so much more advanced than your own that you have no way of conceptualizing their technology within your cul...more I skipped The State of the Art to read this fifth book in the Culture series, since the former is a collection of short stories. After having been burned by the likes of The Martians, I decided not to sully my opinion of the series so early on.

The titular Excession is another name for what the Culture calls an Outside Context Problem (OCP), which is an encounter with an alien civilization so much more advanced than your own that you have no way of conceptualizing their technology within your culture's (Culture's) framework. For indigenous tribals of the Americas and elsewhere, the arrival of Europeans with their gigantic ships, metal armor, and artillery represented such a Problem; for the Culture, the Excession, which is able to tap into the universal Energy Grid in both directions and which may be able to travel inter-dimensionally, is an OCP. No, you're not expected to understand what an Energy Grid is, even after Banks goes to great lengths to explain it in analogous terms, but it basically is the substrate of reality against which faster-than-light engines push.

Unique to this entry of the Culture series, Excession is mostly about the hyper-intelligent Minds which operate/are the ships on which so much of the Culture's daily life occurs. What's great about Banks's portrayals of these Artificial Intelligences (a term at which they naturally bristle) is that they are people, with all the personality quirks, vanities, and emotional concerns one would expect from people. We learn about so-called Eccentric ships, Minds who have cast off the shared values of the Culture in order to pursue their own idiosyncratic interests. One such, a ship named Grey Area, spends most of its time using its effector fields to read the minds of humanoids and punishing or rewarding them based its judgment (a practice which is almost unspeakably taboo within the Culture). We learn more about why the Minds place such a premium on the happiness of the human inhabitants inside them -- it's basically social pressure from other Minds, with statistics such as human resident turnover rate informing a Mind's social status. And we learn what they do in their copious spare time, which is exploring the meta-mathematical realms of Infinite Fun. Yes, there is the strong implication that the smarter you are, the more enjoyable you find mathematics.

As an aside, the names the ship Minds choose for themselves is a constant source of joy. For example: The Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival; Serious Callers Only; and the warship Frank Exchange of Views.

These ships and others discover the Excession hanging in space, tempting them with its almost unspeakable technological powers, and furious scheming as to how to best exploit it ensues. This is the basic plot arc, although there are probably too many sub-plots hanging off it.

And that's the problem. This started off as a five-star book, especially as I was reading the most entertaining of these subplots, dealing with a Culture diplomat's interaction with an alien race known as the Affront who are hilariously offensive enough to live up to their name. As things progressed, I found myself sometimes struggling to follow the other subplots or to comprehend how they might fit into the larger picture. By the end of the book, the chapters become so short and swap contexts so frequently that I became impatient for the story to reach a resolution.

As other reviewers have noted, there is far and away enough good bits to make the so-so parts worth getting through, even to largely bury them. But I'm noticing a frustrating trend with Banks, which is that, even as I greatly enjoy his novels, I get irritated that they aren't as good as they should be, as they so obviously have the capacity to be. I guess that's a good problem to have with an author.(less)

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Jan 01, 2012 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Spacecraft with Minds of their own, and those who like reading about same

Recommended to Alan by: A body of work; Daniel

What sort of gift can you get for the Culture that has everything?

That is, how on Earth (or, rather, off) do you make Utopia interesting, when all society's ills have been resolved, and all misery is at worst optional?

That is the central conundrum with which Iain M. Banks has been grappling in all of his Culture novels, and Excession is perhaps his most explicit examination of that question to date, even though it came out 'way back in 1996. An "excession," in Banks' parlance, is something that...more What sort of gift can you get for the Culture that has everything?

That is, how on Earth (or, rather, off) do you make Utopia interesting, when all society's ills have been resolved, and all misery is at worst optional?

That is the central conundrum with which Iain M. Banks has been grappling in all of his Culture novels, and Excession is perhaps his most explicit examination of that question to date, even though it came out 'way back in 1996. An "excession," in Banks' parlance, is something that comes from outside the star-spanning Culture's comfortable context—something excessive, beyond the pale. Something which may be beyond even the Culture's considerable ability to manage.

As the novel opens, it's been hundreds of years since the Culture has been confronted with anything even marginally threatening, and when a ship run by the Zetetic Elench (a somewhat heterodox offshoot of the Culture) comes across a star that appears to be older than the universe itself, the news causes a typically chaotic reaction. Various elements of the Culture (and other Galactic small-c cultures) prepare for contact, for cooptation, and... for war. Just in case.

The outcome is by no means certain, and the working-out of it is one of the significant strengths of this complicated novel. The thing I liked most about Excession in retrospect, though, wasn't the grand sweep of its space battles, nor was it the sheer scale of the universe Banks has constructed, though I liked those too. Nor was it the witty banter between Minds and meat—there was in fact not as much of such banter as I'd have liked. The novel did at times seem a little too dry to me—a little too much told, and not enough shown. It wasn't even the Laumeresque aliens known as the Affronters, though they were often played for laughs, and quite effectively too.

No, the parts of this book I most appreciated in the end were the parts where Banks points out that even in the midst of a cornucopia of physical plenty, where death itself is an arbitrary and personal choice rather than an inevitability, human beings would in fact and quite beyond all reason find ways to be miserable. This shows up in small ways, contrasting vividly with the stellar-scale explosions and tremendous accelerations involved: Dajeil Gelian's lonely, expectant vigil, and Gestra Ishmethit's self-imposed exile on the asteroid Pittance, for two such individuals.

Very few authors can mingle the universal and the personal as well as Banks; I think it's important to acknowledge that, quite apart from the whiz-bang pyrotechnics, there's actually some depth here too, some introspection which could easily be missed amid all the flash. Banks has constructed a universe where, despite all of the gigantic technical achievements he depicts, the panoply of Galactic history, human beings still matter.

Banks is always at or near the top of my to-read list, and this book is, in the end, no exception.(less)

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Sep 22, 2011 Arthur rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who have read at least once Culture novel and are on the fence about reading another one.

So far this one is hands down the best Culture novel. If you've been at all interested in checking one out, this could be it. If you think you might check out more than one, it may behoove you to start with an earlier book just to get the baseline that Excession does such a great job of shattering, but if it's just to be one, let it be Excession (and maybe a wikipedia article or two for background). It relies on some Culture series in-jokes, or anyway benefits greatly from an understanding of th...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Banks fans

Recommended to Erik by: John Elkin

Shelves: sf

Taking a break from reading dry-as-dust books for journal review, I asked a friend for fiction recommendations and was given two of Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels: Look to Windward and this one, Excession.

I'd read two Culture novels and several short stories set in that far-future context prior to this, beginning with Use of Weapons and The Algebraist. I have found myself appreciating each one more than the last, presumably as the result of coming to feel ever more at home in the Culture.

This...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Renée rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, suspense

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I would consider giving it five stars if it didn't change narrator voice quite so often.
I found the constant switching distracting to my overall immersion into the story.

I did enjoy the Mind perspectives as they seem to be the most curious and interesting characters of the other books for me.

However, I vehemently disliked the Affront's bioengineering machinations. They were alien creatures with alien ideals and were actually very interesting as a race. But in true Banks fashion there had to be s...more

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Mar 19, 2010 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

God damn do I love a good space opera! My hat is off to Iain M. Banks for the Culture series. I read my first Culture novel a while back when my good buddy Jesse gave me "Consider Phlebas" (the first novel in the Culture series) and I read it and it was good. But this book, the fourth in the series (I think), is just incredible. It's one of those books with a million characters that you can't keep track of doing a hundred things that don't have any real impact on the actual plot but is just awes...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Jeremy 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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Mar 02, 2012 Julien rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

WOW. I'm still reeling from how good this book was. This is the fourth Culture series novel I've read (skipping The State of the Art) by the venerable Ian M. Banks, and it unarguably surpassed the others in terms of content, writing style, and sheer imagination on a grand scale.

Certain portions of this book, and even certain paragraphs, made me literally gasp. Banks describes technologies and ideologies in his imagined future with a lucidity that amazes. In particular, the first three pages of a...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Silvio Curtis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Culture has never before run into a civilization with more technology than it, except the ones that have left the ordinary universe entirely and don't interfere with it much. In Excession, they notice an artifact that is far beyond anything they could produce, and it scares them a lot. Other civilizations are curious, and the less civilized are aggressively greedy. The result is enough plotting and counterplotting to make me dizzy.

Banks' fascination with the morbidly grotesque is relatively...more

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May 30, 2011 Forrest rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cbriii

The more I read of Banks, the more I am in awe of his ability to write in many different styles. Even within the brackets of his ever expanding Culture setting, the individual stories range from traditional epic Sci-Fi to thriller to detective story. Excession reads like a love story welded to a political conspiracy and is remarkably un-centered on any particular character or plot. Rather, the narrative is like a tapestry that being woven as you watch; dozens of divergent threads coming together...more The more I read of Banks, the more I am in awe of his ability to write in many different styles. Even within the brackets of his ever expanding Culture setting, the individual stories range from traditional epic Sci-Fi to thriller to detective story. Excession reads like a love story welded to a political conspiracy and is remarkably un-centered on any particular character or plot. Rather, the narrative is like a tapestry that being woven as you watch; dozens of divergent threads coming together to produce the final scene.

The rear-cover summary is misleading, as Byr Genar-Hofoen barely qualifies as a protagonist, let alone the main character. Unlike most of the Culture novels, most of the action in Excession takes place with the Minds, the incredibly intelligent thinking engines that run the Culture on both the macro (interstellar politics) and the micro (individual ships and habitats) levels. These somewhat inscrutable figures appear in other books, but only as either nebulous political pressure, or as a single ship who is entangled with the protagonist. Excession offers a look into the conversations, backroom deals and outright conspiracies that comprise the Culture’s politics. Significant portions of the book are set aside to explain the complex social structure that exists between the Minds and the various things that drive them.

The plot is a sequence of misdirects and MacGuffins and conspiracies that make it very hard to talk about without spoiling things. There are at least three primary narratives to follow, Genar-Hofoen’s mission to steal the soul of a dead captain, the story of the Excession event, as related by the Mind, Fate Amenable to Change, and the several layered conspiracy within the Culture and more particularly, the group of Minds called the Interesting Times Gang who have been tasked with monitoring and dealing with Outside Context Problems.

The Excession itself is probably the most interesting single concept in the entire novel. The word Excession was coined by the Culture to describe events of an excessive nature, and in this case, the Excession is an object from outside the universe. In Culture jargon, an Outside Context Problem is a situation which the society in question is wholly unequipped to even comprehend. Banks’ uses and analogy of a tribe of primitive natives on an island who have lived in peace for generations at a stable technological level, suddenly being invaded by metal-plated monsters from a far off land with magical sticks that bark fire. OCPs are frequently terminal for the society involved, as it either adapts and changes shape, or is killed off. These problems are all the more terrifying for the Culture, as they are damn near the pinnacle of civilization for their galaxy. The concept itself has more merit than the plot of the novel gives it.

For long-time fans of Banks’ Culture, Excession comes as a wonderful glimpse behind the scenes to the powers-that-be that orchestrate the events of the rest of the continuity. For those less familiar with the setting, the extra details, coupled with a large cast and non-chronological narrative lines are probably overwhelming. The book is also packed with Banks’ in-jokes and running gags. Banks’ is a brilliantly witty author and his sense of humor is a great addition to the continuity in general, but the self-referential humor is unhelpful to new readers. There is no right order to read the Culture novels in, but Excession probably not a good starting point. Nevertheless, it is an excellent novel and a worthy entry into the cannon of Banks’ magnificent Culture. (less)

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Jul 26, 2012 Kio rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-english

Another interesting book of the Culture series. It's got a bit of action but is more about... maneuvering, I think. We see new elements of Banks' universe here which continues to fascinate me and, as usual, his characterization is top notch. A couple things feel slightly contradictory with previous books but I guess you can put that down to time differences between them (or, as some point out, it appears Banks doesn't concern himself with cohesion overmuch between novels).

The story can be pretty...more

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Sep 02, 2011 Samee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After years of guiltily ignoring Iain M. Banks, I finally picked up one of his Culture novels at a friend's house. I had to give that one back after reading about 30 pages, but the bug had bitten me, so I tracked down the cheapest of his novels I could find (whatever happened to the $6.99 trade paperback, publishers???) and ate it right up. Banks writes brainy scifi (and 'regular' fiction) with generous helpings of nonlinearity and unusual plot structures. The Culture as Banks presents it here i...more

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Aug 09, 2007 Spencer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As somebody's already commented, "not even half as clever as it thinks it is." Irritatingly one dimensional characters and very little actual plot. The concept of conspiracy and internal politics among the very powerful AI "minds" that run The Culture is mildly interesting. Unfortunately, every time I picked this up to read I couldn't help but imagine Banks sitting in front of his word processor and rubbing his hands together in self-satisfaction.

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Dec 15, 2011 Ken Bateman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first Iain M. Banks book I read. I find it tremendously difficult to explain how much I like his Culture novels. The people, the names, the ships, the drones, the technology, the violence, the decisions, the exercise of power, the history. I feel like Banks deeply understands the way high technology can go.

I first watched Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs in college. All I knew about it was that it was a violent heist movie and the ticket price was $2. Somewhat interesting people ta...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I do love the Culture books and this is no exception. Big ideas as usual, plenty of drug bowls and transhumanist good times, spacecraft and general weirdness to entertain. It's character driven, but most of the characters are the ships themselves, their avatars, drones and, every now and again, a human. The non-culture races are typically tentacled fiends and yet sort of sympathetic.

This is interesting in that much of the action involves dialogue between a cabal of scheming ships minds. The huma...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Stuart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A "Culture" novel by Iain M Banks, so as usual a good read. This book has many of the usual Culture ingredients - the story from many different points of view, hints at a large conspiracy that will only be revealed at the end, descriptions of interesting worlds that we may never visit agin and so on. All wrapped up in a unifying event, in this case, the appearance of an alien artifact that is called an Excession. The artifact seems to be able to completely destroy exploratory spaceships, but und...more

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Aug 10, 2010 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

I'm torn on this one. I keep vascilating between three and four stars. I liked the complexity of the novel (this one had more going on in it than any of the other Culture novels I've read), but at times it was a bit too much -- I couldn't keep all of the characters and plot lines straight. I loved the interaction of the Minds, and all of their clever names (my favorite: the military ship named Killing Time), but this became a bit too much as well. All of the clever names started to run together...more

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by Peter F. Hamilton

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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“An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilisations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop.” — 12 people liked it

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