nwhyte 's review for:

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

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A really fun story of space opera. Our hero has the job of communicating with the inhabitants of his local gas giant, who live life at a much slower pace than we humans do. They may (or may not) be the guardians of an ancent mystery, which explains why a crazed religious warlord is about to invade their solar system. This is not the Culture in which most of Banks' sf has been set, but perhaps the same universe at an earlier stage of its history. (Though probably not.) It's funny and fascinating, but the solution to the mystery itself is not totally convincing and I felt the bad guys were a bit one-dimensional, and in particular it was less hard work than some of Banks' writing - usually a good thing but I felt it was a bit flat.