A boring story in a fascinating world

JDN 2456450 EDT 20:40

A review of Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

The bad: The characters are flat and uninteresting, and often die unceremoniously, sometimes before we even get to know them. The plot is linear and centers around a ‘mystery’ that was never that mysterious, and doesn’t even get resolved. The prose is needlessly flowery and often includes long digressions into quasi-poetic forms that are clearly meant to be confusing, often with no good reason to be confusing. The text often re...