Reviews

Funnily enough The State of the Art was one of my least favourite from this anthology. I was not a massive fan of Diziert in Use of Weapons either. Best story is the one where the guy is in the sentient suit.

andrew_j_r's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Having decided to work my way through the Iain M. Banks books I have reached the fourth book, which is a collection of shorter stories (although one does fill half the book).
There are a couple of things worth mentioning. The first is that three of the eight stories are Culture tales, and these are easily the most interesting.
Secondly, the longest story (which shares the title of the book) answers a question that had been at the back of my mind since I started reading the books: how does good old planet Earth fit into the Culture series? This answers it, although I suspect that it is only part of the answer as I have no idea what period of time the Culture series covers, are the stories pretty much contemporary with each other or could they be set thousands of years apart? I guess more may be expanded upon on future stories.
Also we have the first reoccurring character in Diziet Sma. I wonder if there will be any more.
So, the good stuff was good. The final tale, thankfully less then ten pages long, was frankly baffling.
So not the best read, but worth it for the questions it answers.

zmull's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Worth read for the title story alone. Sums up the appeal of Scottish Socialist SF when a character sneers at 1970s capitalists that their future is "bright, bright red." Sweet.

taylort1997's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny hopeful informative

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

joebeal's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

trid1977's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

A collection of short stories. Some of the stories just suddenly stop, without some sort of conclusion, but I think that's the point. They're more like tales of a day in the life.... Many of the stories had some sort of humorous and un-expected twist. I often had to re-read passages - not because it was poorly writeen, but rather I wanted to be certain I knew what was happening before moving on.

spitzig's review against another edition

Go to review page

I've been a little disappointed by the Culture books since Player of Games. It was such a different type of plot.
This was a collection of short stories. Hit or miss.

More...