Take a photo of a barcode or cover
There are a few horrific elements in the story, and many of them involve poo. Body horror elements include the depiction of a monstrous human who is fat and bald and gender indeterminate, which is going to be a hard limit for some readers.
The tech is cool, the sci-fi is relatively unsexist for 1987 (but yes it's there, and often as a sign that a person is a jerk). The aliens are people and the humans are alien. Most of the characters, while occasionally sympathetic, are not very nice people. There is some poetic recursion in the tale that makes parts of it feel poignant.
This was a nostalgia re-read for me. I almost don't want to read the third book of this series because I remember loving it and I don't know if it will hold up.
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
This book is a subversion of the Space Opera genre, by turning everything to 11 and having the main character be unlikeable, selfish, and unimportant.
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War
Minor: Sexual content
Graphic: Cannibalism
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Drug use
Graphic: Body shaming, Torture, Cannibalism, Murder, War
Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fatphobia, Xenophobia, Excrement
Minor: Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Sexual content, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Pregnancy, Alcohol
This is Space Opera. This is violent. This is a long rambling science fiction novel. This was very new territory when it was written. If you are impatient with an interrogative bent this is probably not the book to start with and maybe not the series for you.
Banks is giving Space Opera, Banks is giving atmosphere, Banks is giving adventure, Banks is giving nuance. In spades.
Also plowing new ground. This is a new genre/sub genre, AI. AI/humanoid symbiosis.
This is the first book written in the culture series and is written from an outsider’s perspective, that of Horza, a spy from a race of shapeshifters, don’t consider this a spoiler as it’s in the first chapter where you meet the main character, hired by the Iridians to move against the Culture.
I feel as though the author Ian M. Banks is sneaking up on the main subject matter of the series, that of a prodigiously long lived, very successful (certainly by 21st century humans POV) integrated AI/humanoid society/symbiosis of, the Culture. Horza is an interesting, resourceful, intelligent and sensitive person, as sensitive as he can be as a hired gun, aware of and encountering many instances of flaws in different societies
As someone who works in the AI field I enjoy these books enormously.
As I said before this is the first book written and readers will learn more about the Culture in subsequent novels.
Graphic: Cannibalism, Car accident, Colonisation
Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, War
Minor: Gore, Sexual content
Moderate: Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder