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A review by zmull
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
4.0
Most of the earlier Banks novels are out-of-print in the US. I wanted to read them at some point, but I wasn't sure how to make that happen without paying steep overseas shipping rates. Fox told me about inter-library loans, so while I was deep in Look to Windward, I put in requests for two of the OOP Culture books, thinking that it would take a few weeks to get them. Nope, they showed up in no time. So, I've had to plow through both to get them back before they're due. (No renewels on loan books.)
A lot of the Banks sites on the internet list Use of Weapons as both his best Culture novel and as Banks' personal favorite of the bunch. Of course, most of them seem to have quit updating in 2000, therefore leaving out a number of later books. For me, this one doesn't hold a candle to Look to Windward. There are some neat style elements. Each alternating chapter focuses on two different story threads, one moving forward in time, the other moving backward. Windward had a similar fractured narrative, but wasn't as structured with it. In Weapons, the structure (and necessities of the plot) make every backward chapter feel like a short story shoehorned into the main novel.
Use of Weapons is mostly about war and a search for redemption in war's aftermath. Windward's character were all mourning and in pain, but it was handled with a more deft touch. Weapons hero is screwed up, but in a melodramatic way.
A usual sign of a good SF book is whether or not you would recommend it to a non-SF reader. Use of Weapons doesn't pass that test.
A lot of the Banks sites on the internet list Use of Weapons as both his best Culture novel and as Banks' personal favorite of the bunch. Of course, most of them seem to have quit updating in 2000, therefore leaving out a number of later books. For me, this one doesn't hold a candle to Look to Windward. There are some neat style elements. Each alternating chapter focuses on two different story threads, one moving forward in time, the other moving backward. Windward had a similar fractured narrative, but wasn't as structured with it. In Weapons, the structure (and necessities of the plot) make every backward chapter feel like a short story shoehorned into the main novel.
Use of Weapons is mostly about war and a search for redemption in war's aftermath. Windward's character were all mourning and in pain, but it was handled with a more deft touch. Weapons hero is screwed up, but in a melodramatic way.
A usual sign of a good SF book is whether or not you would recommend it to a non-SF reader. Use of Weapons doesn't pass that test.