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written by degbert on 22/04/2009

Good Points
An amazing book; fantastically written, very readable, highly engaging, extremely vivid

Bad Points
Inevitably things will drag in places and one or two of the scenes lack the power or comprehension of the others; using the marketing blurb on the back cover, such is the space opera that there will be quieter moments

General Comments


Banks is known for his split personality, with Iain Banks writing general fiction, whereas his alter ego Iain M. Banks is sci-fi. This distinction is well-documented and Banks is celebrated for being able to ' bridge the gap 'apparently effortlessly between the two genres. But, wait a second, who said these genres are mutually exclusive? Who decided you couldn ' t write both? I don ' t subscribe to that view of the world, and I can ' t imagine Huxley, Orwell or Bradbury agreeing that all they could do is sci-fi. Those guys weren ' t just writing about what the future might look like: they wrote about human feelings, relationships, and the human condition. Sure, a few ' new ideas 'in terms of technology got mentioned, but the power of so many of the sci-fi classics (Brave New World, The Wanting Seed, Fahrenheit 451, 1984) is or was simply the power with which the author depicted the emotional state of the main character(s) in such a compelling, vivid and powerful way. OK there were bits to understand about the world they were creating, but that was little more than the backdrop you ' d see in any novel. Using the view that sci-fi authors can ' t write regular stuff or vice versa seems nonsensical.



What convinced me about this is the effortlessness with which Banks appears to churn out belters in both ' categories '(if that is indeed what they are). And the way in which he does this is to use a refreshing, beguiling, complex and highly playful style which transcends the genre in question. Look back at some of his fiction for comparison, and if you look at just two examples, The Bridge and Walking on Glass, you will find fiction that takes the reader far beyond the here-and-now, far outside one ' s regular comfort zone of daily conscious thought, and into realms often untouched, corners of the mind unexplored, emotional conditions all but incomprehensible: almost a dreamscape in many senses. And yet these are hailed (huge critical praise for both, in fact) as masterly creations of straight fiction. And so they are. But they are so much more than that. In the case of the former, much of the narrative is set in a world yet to be born.



Banks also has produced more standard fare: Whit, The Business and his recent Steep Approach to Garbadale are examples of this. So I ' m not saying all his stuff breaks all definitions of the genre he ' s supposed to be writing, I ' m not calling him a literary maverick. What I ' m saying is we shouldn ' t put too much stock in categorization; brains with power such as those possessed by Banks simply cut across such grains, perhaps delighting in fact in being difficult to pigeon-hole for the convenience of the publishing houses and retailers. Good for him. I ' ve not doubt some of the greats down the years have fought the same intellectual battle in defense of their art.



Anyway, to Banks so called sci-fi (or fantasy) work, Consider Phlebas. It is my first foray into the Culture Novel series (one familiar form with the genre is that there is a series of books and there is some kind of order to them and you really ought to read them all; but I think the hidden point here is that it is also a cheap marketing trick). The best part of 500 pages of tiny text centers on the journey of one Horza, as a mercenary embroiled in the galaxy-wide war, and events that unfold in what starts as a series of curious circumstances, and evolves into a personal odyssey for an intrepid yet accidental hero, and one who appears to be on borrowed time right from the start.

One finds Horza ' s circumstances painful and exhilarating in equal measure, his approach to them very believable, his reactions understandable, and therefore his ultimate destiny significant. His interactions with human and other characters are equally and deliciously embellished and constructed.

Important elements introduced in to the book include the concept of the Culture, a brilliantly composed utopian (or in the case of the narrative position, taken from Horza ' s personal perspective " dystopian) view, and its nemesis " and Horza ' s employers - the Idirans. Their war is the backdrop for the book " and it is perhaps Horza ' s flea to the elephant ' s hide of the galactic war that really captures the scale that this tale is attempting to cover. The fact that the Culture is being examined from a contrary perspective lends so much weight to the narrative, and allows Banks to really probe the nature of what utopia really means.



Elsewhere, Banks introduces (and in some senses this does explain the length of the book) a number of attributes and characteristics of the universe in question. Plausible, interesting, in most cases necessary, yes; but laborious and complex also. It warrants the effort, but it is an effort.



Furthermore, some of these introduced elements were difficult to comprehend at first: I found myself struggling conceptually with the Mind, almost throughout: Function, form, raison d ' etre, purpose, was all perhaps as vague and ectosplasmic as the Mind itself, and indeed as how Banks might have playfully intended. But it made parts of the book, and I ' m afraid this includes the conclusion, more opaque than it needed to be; to such an extent in fact, that it affected my overall satisfaction. But I remember that impishness elsewhere in Banks 'work, where he draws you in nearly the whole way and manages to leave you hanging on at the death, the final chord of the opera left unresolved, so to speak. Not a bad thing per se, but just infuriating to those of us who like things being just so when the final curtain falls.



That said, there are parts to this book and perhaps no more so than in ' The Eaters ', where the depiction, description, and events are so dramatic, so realistic, so believable, that you are absolutely utterly there, at the scene, witnessing, seeing, smelling, tasting. Frightening and frightfully clever. Banks is not quite peerless in his ability to do this, but he ' s certainly a master at this craft. This book is full of them, full of moments of real impact, real inspiration.



I don ' t know what Space Opera (the book ' s preamble proudly announces it as such) means, and therefore I don ' t know that this book is one. But it ' s a very good novel. It also, I suppose, happens to be sci-fi. Mark Wilson of About.com wrote ' Like all drama, science fiction explores the human condition, but it can look at it from unexpected angles '. I think Banks does this anyway, no matter what genre he ' s writing. For me, he didn ' t need the M.