Outside of a Dog

Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

Glorious Exploits (2024, Holt & Company, Henry)

On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what …

Charming

4 stars

Charming and original. I want to see more fiction like this!

Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Annihilation (Paperback, 2014, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature …

Masterful, visceral, ethereal

5 stars

Hard to describe without spoiling. It has a propulsive style that belies the almost physical senses the words and the text evokes. Wholly original.

Ben Harris-Roxas started reading Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature …

A re-read. The first time I read this I was in a deep depression so I recall almost nothing. As a result everything I’ve read so far is familiar and unfamiliar, and deepens the unnerving nature of the text.

Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Matter by Iain M. Banks

In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a …

Long, hard to get into

2 stars

My failure to connect with this on rereading may be more about changes to me, and perhaps changes to reading itself in the intervening years. It seemed unnecessarily drawn out and kind of… dull? I hasten to reiterate that I think this reflects on on me than the author or the work. I struggle with books that resemble shaggy dog stories or don’t seem to really be about anything other than the plot. That means there are many narrative forms that are artful that I now feel… alienated from perhaps?

If I have a chance to revisit this again in my life I think my view will change.

Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks

Look to Windward (Paperback, 2001, Orbit)

It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war.

It led to …

Huge themes, muddled

4 stars

This should clearly be understood as a companion to Consider Phlebas. That book devotes so much time to world-building, it doesn’t fully explore the characters’ motivations. In contrast Look to Windward is all about the characters.

It’s a novel about regret, trauma, and revenge, and it does it well. I didn’t care for the revelations at the end of the book. It’s a crutch that Banks relies on in almost all Culture novels – the Minds knew all and manipulated everyone all along! That’s not quite what was going on here, but it is in part.

Banks’ concern for the impact of war on those who fight it is clear. This is a compassionate book. This coda was hidden and only revealed at the end, which, to me, is a sign of an author who doesn’t fully trust or respect their readers. We need “the prestige”, to borrow that magician’s …

This should clearly be understood as a companion to Consider Phlebas. That book devotes so much time to world-building, it doesn’t fully explore the characters’ motivations. In contrast Look to Windward is all about the characters.

It’s a novel about regret, trauma, and revenge, and it does it well. I didn’t care for the revelations at the end of the book. It’s a crutch that Banks relies on in almost all Culture novels – the Minds knew all and manipulated everyone all along! That’s not quite what was going on here, but it is in part.

Banks’ concern for the impact of war on those who fight it is clear. This is a compassionate book. This coda was hidden and only revealed at the end, which, to me, is a sign of an author who doesn’t fully trust or respect their readers. We need “the prestige”, to borrow that magician’s phrase.

This project of re-reading the Culture novels has been interesting. It makes me realise that Banks was a good writer but not a great one. I wonder how long his works will endure and be read.

Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Excession by Iain M. Banks

Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, …

Surprisingly thin

3 stars

Rereading books is an interesting exercise. Books are unchanging. They remind us of their original qualities; what drew us to them. They can never change with us.

Excession is the first Culture novel where Banks gives us much insight into the Minds and the Culture itself. I remember loving this book in the ‘90s, it felt so fresh and original.

Now it seems more like a shaggy dog story. It never gets to the point, if there is a point, and the characters are single-note vehicles for plot alone. I was really disappointed.