Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. It is the first in a series of novels about an interstellar post-scarcity society called the Culture. The novel revolves around the Idiran–Culture War, and Banks plays on that theme by presenting various microcosms of that conflict. Its protagonist Bora Horza Gobuchul is an enemy of the Culture. Consider Phlebas is Banks's first published science fiction novel and takes its title from a line in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. A subsequent Culture novel, Look to Windward (2000), whose title comes from the previous line of the same poem, can be considered a loose follow-up.
This is the second Banks I’ve read and I thought they were both terrific. Unlike some epic, galaxy-spanning space operas, this was pacey, smoothly written with great characters and loads of action and adventure.
No real world building even though the world we get a glimpse of is fascinating. We are left wanting and not in a good way. A lot of it was, well, meaningless. We want this book to be more. We actually need it to be more. That it doesn't even com close is what is so depressing. That said, we are eager to read the next recommended book in the series to hopefully see if he does give us more, in a good way.
Content warning Mild spoilers
I appreciate the basic concept of the book to show the effects of a big war on various situations, how people get dragged into it (or worse) against their will. It also shows the costs. The appendix that lists the facts about the war of which the book only covers the beginning is quite sobering. This was my second time reading it and it sure reads differently now in the light of a very real war raging nearby.
Banks introduces a lot of quite imaginative concepts in this book. The Culture, their Minds, huge ships with funny names, Orbitals, Megaships, Damage, a bunker system with huge trains and formidable weapons of various kinds. Almost all of the episodes in the book kould be their own book. The main problem is that the protagonist we keep following around isn't very sympathetic. On the contrary. Same goes for the rest of the pirates we spend most of the book with. So, it's difficult to be invested in what happens to them. This isn't helped by them dying in stupid ways almost immediately. That does get a bit repetitive after a while. The final showdown in the bunker system was very captivating the second time around, too. The way gender is depicted in this book isn't very progressive, weirdly enough. It's a solid, somewhat traditional sci-fi book.
I remember seeing this in a book shop with a shiny silver highlight on the cover, and recognisng the name of the author of "The Wasp Factory", which I had read and really enjoyed. But what was he doing in the SF section, and what was the "M" all about? I guessed correctly that here was an author living a double life in so-called literature AND my home base of genre fiction, especially SF. And I found his SF was far superior to his realistic fiction or whatever you call that rubbish :-).
On early readings I didn't quite absorb the brilliant creation of Banks' future utopia the Culture, partly because this first novel highlights a character who has turned against this pan-galactic anarchist society, and worked for a religious extremist society sworn to destroy it. It's like Banks wanted to stress-test his perfect society by portraying one of its …
I remember seeing this in a book shop with a shiny silver highlight on the cover, and recognisng the name of the author of "The Wasp Factory", which I had read and really enjoyed. But what was he doing in the SF section, and what was the "M" all about? I guessed correctly that here was an author living a double life in so-called literature AND my home base of genre fiction, especially SF. And I found his SF was far superior to his realistic fiction or whatever you call that rubbish :-).
On early readings I didn't quite absorb the brilliant creation of Banks' future utopia the Culture, partly because this first novel highlights a character who has turned against this pan-galactic anarchist society, and worked for a religious extremist society sworn to destroy it. It's like Banks wanted to stress-test his perfect society by portraying one of its apostates first up.
Anyway, it's a great book, as the horrible Idirans and the Culture operatives race to rescue a stranded "mind" one of the super-powerful artificial intelligences which are at the core of the Culture.
