Reviews

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

fantasticraccoon's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

iskanderjonesiv's review

4.0

It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.

The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilisation. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars.

Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of - part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony - Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer - a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known.

As complex, turbulent, flamboyant and spectacular as the gas giant on which it is set, the new science fiction novel from Iain M. Banks is space opera on a truly epic scale.

**

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Banks (Look to Windward) pulls out all the stops in this gloriously over-the-top, state-of-the-art space opera, a Hugo nominee in its British edition. In a galaxy teeming with intelligent life-forms and dominated by the intensely hierarchical society known as the Mercatoria, the Ulubis system has been cut off from the rest of civilization for over a century as its citizens impatiently await the arrival of a starship carrying an artificial wormhole to replace one destroyed in a previous war. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer, an anthropologist who studies the Dwellers, the ancient, enigmatic species that inhabits gas giants throughout the galaxy, including Nasqueron in the Ulubis system. Fassin's research contains clues to the existence of a secret wormhole network, one operated by the Dwellers and free from the repressive control of the Mercatoria. Unfortunately, the monstrous ruler of a nearby star system has also learned of this discovery, as has the Mercatoria itself. Now two enormous battle fleets converge on Ulubis, and Fassin must undertake a quest deep into Nasqueron to uncover the Dwellers' secret. This is an enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events.

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Review

'There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness' The Times, 'Confirms Banks as the standard by which the rest of SF is judged' The Guardian, 'Explosive' Sunday Times, 'Gripping, touching and funny' T.L.S., 'A wild imagination' Mail on Sunday, 'Captivating' Time Out, 'Spectacular ... the field needs his energy' The Scotsman, 'One of the very best just got even better' Starburst, 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson

hank's review against another edition

4.0

Over a month to read! I loved this book, I found the universe intriguing, the Ulubis solar system fascinating and the few races we learned about equally interesting. The time of year and writing style contributed to the slowness of my read. Bank's writing is dense without much punctuation which forced me to slow down a bit.

Alien secrets, societies attempting to remain in control and relevant, roaming around gas giants, looney alien characters, AIs. A perfect sci-fi novel. The Dweller's treatment of their children was equally horrifying and hysterical. I honestly didn't know which side Aun Liss was going to land on until the very end. Definitely re-readable, I felt there was much I missed and would have enjoyed. The novel really is packed with fun items to think about. 4 stars instead of 5 because it was difficult to get through parts. Bank's doesn't need to stuff THAT much into every sentence.

stephenmeansme's review

3.0

I have yet to encounter a "bad" Iain M. Banks book, or even a "meh" book, but I'm a bit disappointed to give this a 3.5-rounded-down rating.

There's a lot to like about THE ALGEBRAIST. Banks builds a galaxy that's very different to the one of the Culture novels - indeed it's sort of like what you might imagine a galaxy *without* the Culture could be like. (Though in this galaxy the only FTL comes from artificial wormholes, rather than subspace travel as in the Culture.) The themes are good. The nonhuman aliens are interesting in their description... but that's also where my dissatisfaction starts.

Banks describes some really wacky looking sentient life: everything from talking tumbleweeds to bat-people to multiple kinds of gas-giant dwellers (and Dwellers) of different physical description, all the way to sentient clouds of stellar gas. That's super cool - but they mostly talk like various kinds of humans. The major characters definitely have character, that's not an issue, but I wasn't always reminded of their alienness as I was, e.g., in A FIRE UPON THE DEEP. It's not as big a deal in the Culture novels where the main characters are mostly humanoid, human-scale, or else Culture Minds.

The other thing was that the setting of much of the book made immersion a bit difficult. We spend a lot of time on the gas giant Nasqueron, with the Dwellers, and our POV character is a human ensconced in a "gascraft" - so, to visualize, everything is at something bigger than human scale, and adapted to a world where there's essentially nothing but sky. That's pretty cool, but also pretty hard to imagine in the details. It doesn't help that the Dwellers are described in pretty weird terms, so it's not always obvious what it means when one shows up wearing a bath robe, for example.

Finally, while the solution to the big mystery was neat, it was maybe a little *too* neat, with most of the problems literally handwaved away as "just engineering," and certain backstory elements similarly dismissed in certain black-and-white terms. I would have been comfortable with more gray. I don't think there was a sequel to follow up with how the galaxy was changed by the revelations from this story, and Banks is now sadly passed.

So, 3.5 stars rounded down. It's a fine story, but I don't know if I would recommend it over any Culture novel (even CONSIDER PHLEBAS).

HUNDRED BOOK CHALLENGE #3

theaurochs's review

4.0

Iain Banks, especially when writing with the M. donned, was a true master in the expression of futility. The vast majority of their sci-fi writing is infused with this existentialist vibe that nothing we do could possibly matter in the grand scheme of things, and The Algebraist is no different. In a lot of ways it feels almost like a distillation of a lot of Banks’s other works, although ultimately I don’t think it’s the best of the bunch. It shows humans as the tiny and insignificant little things that we are, and firmly puts us in our rightful place in the universe. Like a good little existentialist though it does not fall into a pit of despair at this revelation, but swims along on the galactic currents to tell us an engaging tale; and shows us an intriguing group of characters that embrace life on their own terms, forging their own meanings out of whatever they can. It also does a good job of showing you Banks’s social commentary and political views without beating you over the head with them; they are woven in to the explorations of the strange and wonderful cultures (lower case c, unfortunately) that we explore through the course of the book.

Despite the protagonist being one human Fassin Taak, the book primarily focuses on the elusive “Dwellers”; large and ponderous creatures that live in gas giants throughout the known galaxy. As far as the rest of the galactic community can recall, they’ve always been around, and they themselves make extraordinary claims of longevity. That’s not to mention the claims and rumours of mega-hi-tech stuff that they either have, used to have or are capable of making; this despite the fact that they seem perfectly content to while away their lives racing sailcraft through the atmospheres of their gas giant homes, or engaging in historical-re-enactment level skirmishes. They are also extremely reclusive, with only around a dozen Dweller planets in the galaxy opening themselves to visitors from the outside, and the Dwellers themselves rarely if ever leave their home planets. When a document is found, claiming to contain information about a secret wormhole network separate from the one controlled by the current galactic government, several parties scramble for Fassin Taak’s home system and the Dweller planet Nasqueron; setting off a sizable war in the process.

A lot of the joy of this book for me comes from the Dwellers themselves; these cantankerous, slightly pompous and almost buffoonish floating gas-bags whose interests just refuse to align with those of the rest of the galaxy. Fassin is a seer and one of the few contacts between said Dwellers and the rest of the galactic civilizations; they are soon thrust into the gas giant Nasqueron in search of details about this supposed List of secret wormholes. We follow their journey from clue to clue and along the way meet a whole bunch of fantastic oddball Dwellers and just generally spend a lot of time exploring the world. The pacing of the plot could leave something to be desired, as this large section of the book after Fassin has begun their journey does feel a bit like we’re just going from one event to another as an excuse to have exposition dumped on us. For the vast majority of writers, this would be a much bigger issue; but Banks’s wit, sharp prose and sheer inventiveness make it still a thoroughly engaging read.

In the face of civilizations orders of magnitude older than humanity’s planet, let alone species, we also get to see how people make their way through the ennui; Camus’s Don Quixotes inventing their own meaning. Fassin throws themself into academia and self-improvement in that direction; one of their old school-friends Saluus devotes their life to amassing riches, another devotes themselves to military service. The major (obvious) antagonist attempts to garner power through intimidation, threats, blackmail and pure cruelty. It does feel like a study in how to find meaning; and we see how these various approaches shape our different characters, and how it works out for them ultimately. The Dwellers too are interesting looks at existing in the face of something overwhelming, although on a very different end of the scale.

Towards the end the speed of action does ramp up, and we are treated to some very effective depictions of the horrors of war, which only serves to reinforce the futility of it all.

An interesting world with lots of unique, diverse alien cultures and worlds to explore, which we do in Banks’s almost unparalleled writing style. There’s also the fairly classic “quest” plot, a look at intercultural exchanges and relations, and some varied and fascinating human characters. It’s a fascinating sci-fi puzzle with a satisfying solution. It is Banks though, so be warned that there are some scenes that may feel gratuitous- either in violence (one very early scene depicts some truly grisly torture) or in exposition. You could accuse Banks of self-indulgence and you probably wouldn’t be wrong; they were always perfectly happy to divert from the plot to discuss the politics, religion or evolution of any of the alien species that we encounter. It’s just that it’s done with such panache, you can’t help but love it anyway. The book is also a look at the dangers of monopoly and the ways in which bad-faith actors can manipulate otherwise fair-seeming systems. It’s also arguably a polemic about why public transport systems should be nationalised? So that’s fun. It doesn’t quite have the glee of the Culture books, but being one of the less-good Iain M. Banks books still makes it one of the finer sci-fis around.

spindleshanks22's review against another edition

3.0

3.5

rocketiza's review against another edition

4.0

Even though he does a lot of faffing about I still enjoy Banks Space epics.

downby1's review against another edition

3.0

The opportunity to experience Banks outside the excellent Culture universe made me eager to pick up The Algebraist. However, the book quickly wore away that eagerness. Banks frequently leads with a slow start and pulls together diverse stories and sub-plots. It is clear both were attempted in The Algebraist, but Banks did not carry it off as well in this instance. The antagonist was over the top and cartoonish (worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Cobra Commander or Dr. Claw without the whimsy); the subplots (especially the strange love-triangle/youthful rebellion saga explored through Sal and Taince) were truncated, incoherent, and almost entirely divorced from the main narrative; and the allegorical exploration of those struggling against authoritarianism and near-fundamentalist segregation (targeted on AIs) was shallow. It is altogether fortunate the primary narrative (focusing on Fassin and the Dwellers) spends so much time away from these as it is impossible to imagine additional exposure to the flat industrialist/soldier pair of Sal and Taince or the baroque (to borrow Banks' adjective), monolithic Mercatoria would've left a better impression.

Ultimately, it is the Dwellers and their society that make the entire experience endurable. Their reality of a civilization so post-scarcity it has ceased to be any sort of conventional socio-political structure is fascinating, and I admit taking a guilty pleasure in reading about a society of ne'er-do-welling librarians, amateur scholars, influence peddlers, and hedonists. If they were not the focus of so much of the book, I can't imagine I would've finished it. They are certainly the only way this book could be pulled into the three start range.

linguisticali's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

3.0

I generally feel that books don't need to be 24 hours long and this was no exception. Lots going on without much emotional engagement with the characters. 

tatdine's review against another edition

3.0

My husband and I were presented with this book by a stranger at a bookstore. The man approached my husband, handed him the book and said, “I think you’ll want to try this one.” We bought it. If the book was terrible, we reasoned, at least the story of how we came to have it would be neat.
I didn’t know anything about this author or the book before diving in. Overall, I found the book enjoyable. I found that there were long portions of the book that dragged and felt forced. Banks tends to go on long explanations that seem entirely unnecessary for the progression of the plot. Some of the explanations may have been better handled in an appendix rather than the body of the novel.
Many of the characters seems to blur together. Scenes cut at times that made it difficult to piece together what happened.
The end of the book does have a neat payoff; however, I’m not entire certain it was worth it in the end.