Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed The State of the Art by Iain Banks
The first ever collection of Iain Banks’s short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, …
Disappointing within the context of the Culture series
2 stars
Content warning Non-plot description of a story’s setting
Given the bulk of the volume is the novella The State Of The Art I’ll focus on that. The conceit of the Culture contacting Earth ruins many of the other Culture novels for me and deprives them of their power. It makes it clear how Banks wants both the Culture and the politics of the ‘70s and ‘80s to be understood. I wish I hadn’t read this to be honest, and I kind of wish it didn’t exist because it serves mostly to diminish his other work.
I acknowledge this is very much focused on my own view and experience, but isn’t that what reading is?