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A review by sashkello
The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
2.0
A rather hectic collection of short stories, most of which might just as well do without any references to Culture. Some feel like random chapters from other books or starts of some longer works which were never finished. Few have full story arc, but rather feel like ideas haphazardly written down on the margins of Culture novels.
Road of Skulls - rather engaging start and great atmosphere, but abruptly ends before you really get into it, feels like exercise in creative writing rather than a finished story.
2.5/5
A Gift from the Culture - again, too short and without much substance. Dialogues and character's inner struggles are tedious and feel forced.
2/5
Odd Attachment - a very short joke story about a sentient plant... Quite an obvious idea which I felt like I've seen somewhere before, and honestly it didn't amuse me.
1/5
Descendant - this one is probably the only story I really enjoyed. A Culture man in a suit is trying to find his way through a lifeless desert back to the base. That's pretty much it, the simplest idea out of all the stories, and yet it worked. Felt like a discarded flashback chapter from "Use Of Weapons".
4/5
Cleaning Up - another humorous story about an alien disposal ship flinging rubbish at Earth instead of Sun. This one is mildly amusing, with bits of absurdist humor sprinkled around. But, I felt like the story was just going nowhere beyond the initial idea itself...
3/5
Piece - a non-sci-fi piece. Going on and on about religious close-mindedness. Was a bit hard to read, nothing deep or new here. Very basic idea, spread over not so many pages, and yet felt too long. Twist reminds of some of O Henry's worst works.
1/5
The State Of The Art - this one takes up the bulk of space in the collection, being by far the longest story (feels like a short novel). Culture comes across the 70's Earth and starts exploring in order to decide how to proceed. Sma (Use Of Weapons) is the main narrator, but honestly the character didn't feel like her at all and could have been anyone. Writing style here is extremely inconsistent, switching from rather nice dreamy prose channeling the atmosphere of different cities in the 70's to extremely tedious prolonged monologues and dialogues which reiterate same points about Culture and human society morals, over and over, and go nowhere. There is a really dragged-out side-story about a bored character who has to stay on-board, trying to annoy everyone, which is just overwhelmingly dull and absolutely unnecessary. The story kind of picks up towards the end, and the final is decent, even though not unexpected...
2.5/5
Scratch - I guess this is some kind of literary experiment, maybe I'm not smart enough to understand what this is... Mostly just a jumble of half-sentences and repeating phrases. It's split into little portions, only one of which has normal sentence structure, but it doesn't really help. I have no idea what this all means, maybe it's just my lack of intellect...
1/5
Road of Skulls - rather engaging start and great atmosphere, but abruptly ends before you really get into it, feels like exercise in creative writing rather than a finished story.
2.5/5
A Gift from the Culture - again, too short and without much substance. Dialogues and character's inner struggles are tedious and feel forced.
2/5
Odd Attachment - a very short joke story about a sentient plant... Quite an obvious idea which I felt like I've seen somewhere before, and honestly it didn't amuse me.
1/5
Descendant - this one is probably the only story I really enjoyed. A Culture man in a suit is trying to find his way through a lifeless desert back to the base. That's pretty much it, the simplest idea out of all the stories, and yet it worked. Felt like a discarded flashback chapter from "Use Of Weapons".
4/5
Cleaning Up - another humorous story about an alien disposal ship flinging rubbish at Earth instead of Sun. This one is mildly amusing, with bits of absurdist humor sprinkled around. But, I felt like the story was just going nowhere beyond the initial idea itself...
3/5
Piece - a non-sci-fi piece. Going on and on about religious close-mindedness. Was a bit hard to read, nothing deep or new here. Very basic idea, spread over not so many pages, and yet felt too long. Twist reminds of some of O Henry's worst works.
1/5
The State Of The Art - this one takes up the bulk of space in the collection, being by far the longest story (feels like a short novel). Culture comes across the 70's Earth and starts exploring in order to decide how to proceed. Sma (Use Of Weapons) is the main narrator, but honestly the character didn't feel like her at all and could have been anyone. Writing style here is extremely inconsistent, switching from rather nice dreamy prose channeling the atmosphere of different cities in the 70's to extremely tedious prolonged monologues and dialogues which reiterate same points about Culture and human society morals, over and over, and go nowhere. There is a really dragged-out side-story about a bored character who has to stay on-board, trying to annoy everyone, which is just overwhelmingly dull and absolutely unnecessary. The story kind of picks up towards the end, and the final is decent, even though not unexpected...
2.5/5
Scratch - I guess this is some kind of literary experiment, maybe I'm not smart enough to understand what this is... Mostly just a jumble of half-sentences and repeating phrases. It's split into little portions, only one of which has normal sentence structure, but it doesn't really help. I have no idea what this all means, maybe it's just my lack of intellect...
1/5