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Jun 25, 2011

Manny rated it:

Many discerning readers, even ones who like SF, will reflexively sneer if you say the dreaded words "space opera". One need only think of E.E. Doc Smith, for a long time the unquestioned king of this particular sub-genre. I read Galactic Patrol when I was at primary school; like innumerable other geeky nine year olds, I adored it, and particularly loved the "Helmuth speaking for Boskone" tagline. I also remember how, aged 12 or 13, I picked it up to see if the magic was still More...

30 comments like (35 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Joel rated it:

This is the second Culture book I read but the first one Iain M. Banks wrote. One of us did something wrong, because I liked The Player of Games a lot more, and yet my reasons for not liking Consider Phlebas are almost all about what the book isn't.

It isn't about the Culture, for one thing. Sort of. Not really. The other books in the series are from the perspective of a citizen of the Culture, which is difficult to define succinctly so I will just say, imagine if you lived in a univers More...

19 comments like (22 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Richard rated it:

Two stars is about right.

Voltaire said something like "the best is the enemy of the good" (okay, he actually said le mieux est l'ennemi du bien). But what is really annoying is that the coulda-been-good is more disappointing than the meh.

Banks clearly has a great deal of imagination. If he was able to discipline himself, he'd have some four-star stuff going on here, easily — maybe better.

But he fritters away his energy on irrelevant grotesquerries, l More...

12 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jul 14, 2011

mark rated it:

Consider Iain M. Banks. an unsentimental, often ruthless writer. his characters are provided robust emotional lives and richly detailed backgrounds...all the better to punish the reader when those characters meet their often bleak fates. his narratives are ornate affairs, elaborately designed, full of small & meaningful moments as well as huge, wide-scale world-building...all the better to deliver a sucker punch directly to the reader's gut when those narratives turn out to be ironic, predetermi More...

9 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

The opening scene to Iain M. Banks' opening novel in the Culture universe is one of my favourites in sci-fi. How would an ultra-sophisticated artificial intelligence escape certain death at the hands of an enemy? What moves would it make? What sacrifices?

The very next scene, in which we meet our protagonist Horza, is a huge win. Remember when we met Aragorn in Lord of the Rings? There was practically a drum roll. Yeah, well there's none of that here. Horza is being slowly put to deat More...

2 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

Keely rated it:

Welcome to another edition of 'Notable Genre Author Fails to Impress Some Guy on the Internet', I'll be your host: some guy.

Like so many highly-lauded authors featured here, Banks has been haunting my shelf for quite some time now. Countless are the times I have passed this book before bed, letting my eyes linger longingly on the spine, relishing the notion that I will actually read this book, some day. There have even been those occasions where I thumbed it down, peering at the cov More...

15 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Michael rated it:

People love their Iain Banks, and I respect that, though I've yet to read something of his that impresses me much. Of course, I've read only two books, and both seemed like slow, ponderous exercises.

This novel, for example, was recommend as "thinking man's sf adventure." Hey, that's appealing. But this didn't strike me as that sort of book. Instead, it was slow-going, and lacked the giddy joy of invention and play that to my mind the best science fiction always has. I gritted More...

11 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Brad rated it:

I'm not really sure what to say about Consider Phlebas. It was, quite fittingly, the first Culture book I read, though it was my fourth Banks book (preceded by The Wasp Factory, Dead Air, & The Bridge respectively). And now it is the third Banks book I've reread (The Wasp Factory twice, and Use of Weapons once).

I like it very much, so I feel a little sad that many friends I respect don't love it as much as I and a good deal of them just think it is mostly okay.

I love that More...

13 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Mark rated it:

I usually like Iain Banks' sf novels, but this is simply a bad book.

It is partly an action novel, with the plot roughly "go to planet X and retrieve an advanced piece of technology." There are a few very exciting action sequences. The major problem is that after setting up the plot by page 4, we have a diversion of about 300 pages before returning to the plot. ??? The vast majority of the in-between chapters feel like a bunch of half-realized short story ideas jammed tog More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Ian rated it:

I read all of Iain Banks' Culture books in order in which they were written, beginning with Consider Phlebas and ending with the latest, Surface Detail, from 2008 through 2010. Consider Phlebas being the first Culture book Banks wrote, it was the first I read back in the Spring of 2008. I liked it. One might even say I liked it a lot. But I didn't love it. Not yet.

I just re-read Consider Phlebas and I can tell you it’s a whole different book when you have the entire collection u More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Greg rated it:

This review is totally phoned in.

This is the second of his books that I've read in the past week or so. The other one I didn't write about but it was called The Game Player, and it was better than this one. It was kind of like Herman Hesse's Glass Bead Game, but kind of cooler with mutilations and stuff like that. Like HH's book though neither author ever really got down to describing what such a complex game would really be like, which I would be interested to know about, but oh w More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Jamie rated it:

A frustrating book, perhaps just not my cup of tea. The writing did not click with me - I can't put my finger on it, but I kept being pulled out of the story because the writing felt bland and awkward. Considering the popularity of this series, I'm obviously in the minority in feeling this way.

I think that if I had enjoyed Banks's writing style, I wouldn't have objected to the slow pacing or the meandering storyline, but as it stands I thought most of the book was dull. The story se More...

10 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Felicia rated it:

I can't really say much, other than Iain Banks has become my #1 favorite Sci-Fi author. I love the way he fleshes out flawed, believable characters in a Space Opera setting. I'm always surprised by his writing, and that keeps me coming back for more. If you're not into the genre, but want to give it a try, pick up this book. You will not regret it!

7 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Tim rated it:

I came to this with great expectations because it is written by a 'literary figure', albeit that it is an early work (1987) and only the first in a series of 11 science fiction 'culture novels'.

Those expectations were too high but it has to be said that Iain M. Banks (aka Iain Banks) writes infinitely better on a technical level than the vast majority of science fiction writers. There are moments where his talent for precise description make the novel almost filmic.

Th More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Bonnie rated it:

Actually any Iain Banks book is worth its weight in gold as far as I am concerned. He is a master storyteller and an outstanding scientist. Interesting ideas wrapped up in believable characters with believable feelings and goals placed in believable settings.

Good science fiction is VERY hard to find. It takes an author that is not only good at telling a story but, especially in books like Banks writes (that are based on future science as well as current astrophysics), someone w More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Kelly rated it:

I'm not sure what to say here. I'm left thinking, "hunh." I started out not caring about any of the characters and by the end that had only changed slightly. The main character has a complex concept of morality that could be defined as highly moral but more so "sociopath." It started out as kind of a ridiculous space opera and ended up being quite depressing. I don't know if I'll read any more of his books or not. I loved Whit but the other two I've read were so so. I must th More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2011

Jon rated it:

2.5 stars

My first attempt to read Consider Phlebas began a couple of years ago. I made it to the fifth chapter and abandoned the book. This past June, the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club selected Consider Phlebas as the science fiction group read. The discussion leader provided two avenues for discourse: by topic or by chapter. I opted for the chapter course, hoping that by only absorbing one chapter per day I might actually finish the novel. Some chapters made better lunch reading More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Michael David Cobb rated it:

The worst thing you could do is read Consider Phlebas back pages first. Once upon a time I used to take the first and last sentences or first and last words as a brief synopsis of every book. It kinda works for the Bible. "In Amen". But to do so for Iain M. Banks celebrated sci-fi would almost obviate the great adventures contained therein.

Consider Phlebas is a space opera, something of a cowboy story with a trick ending, an amoral tale of the actions of civiliz More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Deborah rated it:

A stunning introduction to a powerful series. Banks renders even space opera utterly believable due to his realistic, expertly observed dialogue. If he has one great strength as a writer it's that. You are thrown headlong into the high dudgeon and poltical machinations of a fascinating, advanced civilization known only as "The Culture". Rather than waste precious time and precious attention span with tedious back story and set-up we are simply there, in the thick of it. Watching how pe More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

korty rated it:

I read this one back when I first started reading the harder SF as opposed to the more surrealist stuff I was reading before then. The funny thing is, I didn't realize until a few years later that he also wrote a very dark and twisted novel called the Wasp Factory I had read and loved a few years earlier. Could it be because that book was written by contemporary novelist Iain Banks instead of SF author Iain M Banks? Anyway, CP is a wild, unapologetically exuberant space opera adventure, right More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Adam rated it:

A grim space adventures, enlivened by Bank’s gothic carnival of an imagination, that reminds a little of Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, and maybe Moorcock’s Dancers At the End of Time. A decadent end of all things feeling; with bizarre games (ones where real lives are at stake), cannibal cults, odd characters, bleak set pieces weighted with time, and a roguish trickster main character (to say the least, as chilling and ruthless as a Bester or Vance character). Nonstop whit and invention steer you throu More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Ben rated it:

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Kathi rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Gaijinmama rated it:

This book was really good in most respects. I loved the characters, particularly the drone who reminded me of Marvin from
Hitchhiker's Guide. Banks' descriptions are brilliant, too.
That said, the gore and violence are over-the-top. Definitely not for most young readers, in fact many adults might have a problem
getting through certain scenes. I did, and I have a very strong tolerance for fictional violence (can't watch the news on TV, though...now
THAT stuff is too scary!!)
More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Simeon rated it:

I read this after reddit's scifi book survey results.

And by favorites. I didn't expect The Culture Series to score so high, or be so loved. After the first few hundred pages though, I can see the appeal.

The writing style's great, and the whole story is cinematic. The reason I didn't give it more stars is that the main characters are, well, not exactly likable or clever. The story sets up the universe for the rest of the saga. I wish it had been written from another perspe More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Stephen rated it:

4.0 stars. This book is chalk full of some big ideas and I really enjoyed the set up of the Culture civilization as well as how it is viewed by those outside it. In addiiton to big ideas, the book has some really intersting characters (the Eaters come to mind) and I thought the Game of Damage was original and well thought out. I will certainly read other books in teh series.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2011

David rated it:

I started reading the Culture series based on a friend's recommendation, and I am glad I followed his advice to start with Player of Games instead of diving in with Consider Phelbas. I did like the first book in the Culture series, but Player of Games is a better introduction to Banks' well-developed post-scarcity society.

Phelbas' strongest point is that it's a first-hand account of the Culture-Idiran War, which is discussed several times in other Culture books but in an off-hand way More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Elvet rated it:

So now I have a sense of what a 'space opera' is. I enjoyed the ride, and that's really what it was like. I think I actually held my breath at the end sequence. Banks keeps the pace going with shorter and shorter POV segments. I'm definitely going to read more of his Culture books.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Tina rated it:

Having finished the novel I now understand the reference to T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" in both the title and the epigraph, though while I was reading it I was under the impression it was just a massive space opera. A lot happened in this book and I never knew just what was going to happen next, which is what kept me reading, as there were quite a few dry stretches. When the action starts though, it is is fantastic! The last quarter of the book is excellent.
Character-wise, the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

Frank rated it:

Consider Phlebas is Banks' first novel set in the conflict between Culture and the Idirans. This novel is primarily about Bora Horza Gobuchul (among friends we call him Horza), one man mercenary and his personal fight for survival and fulfilling a contract.
What really fascinated me when I started to reading this book was the absence of the background story. (Actually it really annoyed me at the beginning) Usually I like to get more information about the character and a background story, bu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

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