Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
This book has wonderful world building and a great vision of a super-science based galactic anarchist society called 'The Culture'. Basically, I want to live in the Culture. I especially like the culture humans ability to have really cool peak experience drug trips at will due to neurological modifications. That sounds nice. As it stands, I will have to make do with imagining that my Prius is an example of Culture technology. If only I could take it to the photosphere of a star and hide out there for a while.
Its the idea of the Culture that makes this book memorable. The characters are OK, and the plot is OK. Banks does aliens really well. Idiran dialog is very well done indeed, and the Changer's psychology also seems interesting, and someone filled with a kind of existential dread and a fear of the loss of identity that is very cool.
The story is a straight forward, rollick some, adventurerous space opera. There are a lot of fire fights, explosions, and large things colliding into one another. There are some great exotic, wonderous events and locales.
Its the idea of the Culture that makes this book memorable. The characters are OK, and the plot is OK. Banks does aliens really well. Idiran dialog is very well done indeed, and the Changer's psychology also seems interesting, and someone filled with a kind of existential dread and a fear of the loss of identity that is very cool.
The story is a straight forward, rollick some, adventurerous space opera. There are a lot of fire fights, explosions, and large things colliding into one another. There are some great exotic, wonderous events and locales.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The first half of this was sooo good and then it just wasn’t! I hate that!
In the first Culture novel you might expect good techno-utopian philosophy, but this book is mostly dumb macho action scenes that drag on and on toward predictable conclusions. I found myself skipping through page after page of numbing destruction and tedious hair-breadth escapes trying to find a story. If you're not a teenage boy, I recommend skipping this one and starting with the second book in the Culture series, The Player Of Games.
The best thing about this book is that the technologies are imaginative, ambitious, and described with great writing: "The stars around it wobbled and brightened in the lens effect of an imperfectly adjusted warp motor in cancel mode."
The best thing about this book is that the technologies are imaginative, ambitious, and described with great writing: "The stars around it wobbled and brightened in the lens effect of an imperfectly adjusted warp motor in cancel mode."
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No