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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
I got almost 200 pages in and found myself not caring about the main character, the issues, the concepts or pretty much anything. I don't often give up on a book, but...
This is the first book in the Culture world of [author: Ian M. Banks], and as such is pretty rough. The Culture is a post-scarcity society high-tech society run by benevolent AI. For interesting stories in a world like that, you have three choices. Write harlequin romances, conveniently invent a temporary scarcity (Star Trek does this all the time), or find the people that don't fit in. In this case, we follow the story of a man that has chosen to fight in a war against The Culture and his mission to retrieve a lost weapon that could prolong the struggle. The story largely devolves into a series of vignettes and MacGuffins that tell us little about the slippery protagonist and even less about his compatriots. In fact, I would claim that the best part of the book are the short appendices where the author describes his conception of the motivation and results of the war that frames the story. Having said all that, I tore through this book rather quickly and did enjoy reading it, probably more for its space-opera nature than any interesting plot point, character, or philosophy.
Remember the TV show “24”? Where Jack Bauer would go from disaster to disaster, kicking ass, nearly getting killed every hour or so, but pulling a rabbit out of his hat every episode?
This book is like that, except everyone around the main character, Horza, gets chewed up. Spoiler alert: don’t be Horza’s friend.
It was a good story, but the whole thing seemed a bit like a “railroad,” events heading to a destination and damn the torpedoes.
I read this in conjunction with the audible audiobook. The reader was okay, but he used lots of rather annoying accents and pronounced “slept” like “slipped” and “harem” as “haREEM.” I got used to it after a while, and once most of the minor characters were killed off it got easier.
I might try another Culture novel, but it won’t be soon.
This book is like that, except everyone around the main character, Horza, gets chewed up. Spoiler alert: don’t be Horza’s friend.
It was a good story, but the whole thing seemed a bit like a “railroad,” events heading to a destination and damn the torpedoes.
I read this in conjunction with the audible audiobook. The reader was okay, but he used lots of rather annoying accents and pronounced “slept” like “slipped” and “harem” as “haREEM.” I got used to it after a while, and once most of the minor characters were killed off it got easier.
I might try another Culture novel, but it won’t be soon.
I had a lot more enthusiasm at the beginning of this book than at the end of it. There was some humor, and some interesting ideas in there but... I guess I'm ultimately not sure what I read? what he was trying to accomplish with this novel? If you like lots of action and infodumps then perhaps this is right up your alley. (But for me the action just felt like multi-page not-so-suspenseful suspense-building? redundant chases? and accidents-in-waiting?)
ALSO: so much symbolism w/r/t/ all the ginormous things either crashing into each other or else being destroyed.
See also:
• http://io9.com/5481558/20-great-infodumps-from-science-fiction-novels
• http://io9.com/361597/the-twenty-science-fiction-novels-that-will-change-your-life
ALSO: so much symbolism w/r/t/ all the ginormous things either crashing into each other or else being destroyed.
See also:
• http://io9.com/5481558/20-great-infodumps-from-science-fiction-novels
• http://io9.com/361597/the-twenty-science-fiction-novels-that-will-change-your-life
adventurous
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Definitely some imaginative ideas here, but I had trouble relating to most (all?) of the characters.
Wow, this was not good. Really slow, story and really most of it is unnecessary. Nothing that happens means a thing. Maybe that's the point. This seems like perhaps it's a morality play or is a segment of a larger story, but as a stand-alone it's not worth the time at all.
medium-paced
Banks is able to create an interesting world in the first of his Culture novels but the action scenes, which make up the majority of the book, leave the reader somewhat bored. The reader never grows to appreciate the plight or characteristics of the protagonist and, while there are some interesting discourses on the development and fundamentals of intergalactic civilisations, the majority of the book is reduced to shoot outs at different locations.
