Iain M. Banks, Excession

Skillful interweaving of several complex story strands. Enormously vivid and fertile imagination. Had to read it twice! not exactly a bad point. One of the best "hard SF" books I have ever come across - and I have ready many hundreds of them.

Iain M. Banks, Excession - Basically, this was my first encounter with Iain Banks's Culture. As such, a lot in the book was taken for granted that made little sense at first to me. What is a mind? Why are ships talking? etc. However, I went on to read the other Culture books, so read this with an open mind. What at first appears a complaint is merely indicative of the sheer scope and scale of Banks's creation. The complexity and originality of the Culture is a rarity, perhaps even a one off in sf literature. Many authors have created worlds and universes but this breaks the mold to an extent that it all but re-defines the genre. Nowhere else have I encountered a book whose main protagonists are so far removed from humanity. It is a testament to the author's ability that he makes Minds engaging, turning alien and remote into intriguing. Much sci-fi makes use of charcters/aliens/demi-gods that are similar to humanity but in some way at a higher level. In "Excession," such beings are central to the book, a highly refreshing reversal with humans being bit players. Even the diverse, many-layered plot serves, rather than simply to confuse, to emphasise the scale of the events in question. All in all a great read, although I would recommend that first-time readers plump for "Consider Phlebas" as an introduction to the Culture.