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Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)

Iain M. Banks

Why we're reading this: #83 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...

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[close] #83 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...

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May 28, 2018 GONZA rated it it was ok

Shelves: posseduto

It took me ages to read this book, seriously, I had no idea space operas would be so long and boring even if I had great expectations, or maybe due to the fact that I had great expectations. this book brags on and on and on, a story that would have taken more or less 200 pages to be told, is double long and triple boring. Enough Iain M. banks for me.

Ci ho messo una vita intera a leggere questo libro, davvero, non avevo idea che le "space operas" potessero essere così noiose e lunghe soprattutto, ...more

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Sep 09, 2021 Brandon rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks is a novel full of exciting potential with big ideas and galaxy spanning concepts that, ultimately, fails to live up to expectations and leaves one feeling disappointed. In the far future, war dominates the galaxy between the utopian civilization known as the Culture and the war-like alien species called the Idirans. A Culture Mind, one of the AI machines that decides Culture policy, escapes the clutches of an Idiran battle fleet and hides on the planet of Scha Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks is a novel full of exciting potential with big ideas and galaxy spanning concepts that, ultimately, fails to live up to expectations and leaves one feeling disappointed. In the far future, war dominates the galaxy between the utopian civilization known as the Culture and the war-like alien species called the Idirans. A Culture Mind, one of the AI machines that decides Culture policy, escapes the clutches of an Idiran battle fleet and hides on the planet of Schar’s World. We follow the shapeshifter Horza as he is sent by the Idirans to find and capture the mind.

This novel introduces a ton of interesting concepts and vast mind-boggling ideas such as the Orbitals and GSVs. Orbitals are huge artificial ring structures built on the scale of planets, inspired by the Ringworld novels, and later seen in the Halo video games series. GSVs, or General Systems Vehicles, are incredibly large spaceships kilometers long. The Culture itself is also incredibly interesting. It is a vast governmental entity of humans and machines. The Culture has created essentially a utopia where AI primarily keeps things running, and humans are free to do whatever they choose.

Unfortunately, Consider Phlebas spends much of its time following the story of the anti-hero Horza as he attempts to travel to Schar’s World and capture the AI Mind. Rather than further exploring the concepts introduced in world-building, we are left with Horza and a band of unlikable mercenaries. Too much time is spent on overlong action scenes that contribute very little entertainment. The beginning 150 pages and the final 100 pages are ruined by bad action scenes that go on and on and on.

The middle of the book does have really good chapters. There is a chapter called The Eaters that is wild, and was really interesting to read. A section of the book also takes place on a Megaship and a chase scene through a GSV that was really fun.

I wish Banks had spent more time on developing interesting characters and more time on the awesome concepts, but instead we get dull action pieces. This is supposedly the worst Culture novel, and the others are much better. Maybe I’ll try another in the future, but I wouldn’t recommend Consider Phlebas . ...more

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