Consider Phlebas (Culture)

Pretty solid book. I generally enjoyed it, but man the last 1/4 of the book is insanely slow. And one of the characters is completely disconnected and not really needed (but her parts are generally short). Really looking forward to the next couple as I heard they are the meat of the series.

I really enjoyed Consider Phlebas, which seems to have much depth in the diversity and richness of its universe. It explores fascinating and surprisingly plausible ideas like alternative (non-humanoid) life forms, sentient superintelligent machines, and even completely different platforms for life like orbitals. This all might be old hat by now but for when it was written in 1987 its scope of physics, exobiology and futurism is visionary. Yet amongst Banks' detailed and technical universe the author can still imagine and describe beauty, in all its various forms, in beautiful prose. A great read.

As an avid reader in a variety of genres including history and science fiction, I am always on the lookout for a good series. This book was recommended to me as the most logical start to the Culture series. The plot is seemingly unoriginal sci-fi commentary on the War on Terror (post-scarcity, anarchistic, utopian human society goes to war against an expansionistic religious society), but it is somewhat prescient in that it was first published in 1987. Don't expect a lot of technical descriptions of the technology. Very character driven, with view points changing by chapter, and a somewhat surprising ending. Reading this encouraged me to continue reading through the entire series.

***Hmm,” Aviger said. Without looking up, he asked, “What were they called?”
“Hmm,” Xoxarle rumbled. “Their name...” The Idiran pondered. “...I believe they were called the...the Fanch.”
“Never heard of them,” Aviger said.
“No, you wouldn’t have,” Xoxarle purred. “We annihilated them.***

My favourite of the Culture novels, Consider Phlebas is a standalone novel requiring nothing but an inquiring mind and a taste for the weird.

A great war has erupted between two ideologically opposed civilizations - but our concern is with the mission of a shapeshifting humanoid and a fanatical soldier both attempting to acquire a stranded AI on an off-limits planet.

What I enjoyed about Consider Phlebas was the interplay of opposing ideologies, the shifting scenes of conflict, the clever dialogue and plotting (from the opening rescue scene to the main characters' final confrontation)

Don't miss the bittersweet melancholic epilogue!

After reading Excession and Player of Games, I figured I probably ought to read the first Culture book. I almost wish I hadn't.

The book starts off with a bang in which we are introduced to the theme and the protagonist's ultimate goal, but said protagonist then gets thrown into a disconnected series of misadventures for more than half of the book. During this time his mission and the larger plot are scarcely mentioned. Some of these diversions were enjoyable to read, but by and large they had no relation to the rest of the novel.

When the story finally returns in force to the point of it all, it only gets marginally better. Most of the important events seem to happen by accident, as if Banks was having trouble finding a plausible way to get the ending that he wanted.

I think the book would have been much better as a novella and one or two unrelated short stories. It's only message seems to be that war is messy, which I didn't need to read a novel to find out.

The one nice thing that I can say is that the use of imagery is superb.

It gets very interesting how the human society evolves in an expanded space and across the galaxy, the reliance on technicalities is profound but sometimes a little too complex and move the story too slow. The war approach is classic when hostilities arise between races. It's a must read.

Thoroughly enjoyed this installment in the series. 8/10, somewhat complex, impressionistic at times, thin plot in others. But a fun read and a hell of a ride!

Buyer beware: Kindle device limit placed on this title by the publisher is super lame. 0/10, do not want. Bad experience for paying customers in a world where you could just be a jerk and download a PDF from somewhere.

Very entertaining. As a start to Banks' Culture series, I feel like I have a good foundation to work from. The characters are equal parts entertainment and believability, especially considering that most of them are not exactly "human". I'll be diving further into the Culture series for sure.

My first exposure to the Vulture series. Think a much darker version of Known Space with a bit less science. Nothing mind blowing but an entertaining read. WARNING: if you need a definite hero, skip this book.

15 years after first reading Phlebas (and still having no idea what the title refers to. Edit: googled it, just no idea of the relevance) going back and rereading Banks' books is as about as good as it's going to be anymore. And I'm finding a lot to enjoy for the first time.

meh.. actually, the only reason I bought it is the odd names of the landing barges for spacex came from this set of novels. based on the preview I probably wouldn't have, but I did because the ship names were pretty unusual.

alas, I felt the book didn't live up to the hype. I did finish it (which was in question several times) but I did skip a lot of pages, a lot of places. There is only so much needs to be said about a particular topic, and then it becomes clear the author is 'droning on' to add to the page count.

like I say, 2 out of 5 for me. I won't buy the other books in the series.

Science Fiction at its best, with a massive amount of imagination and always a bit tongue-in-cheek, Banks' stuff is always fun. The Culture series is a high point for Sci Fi from the last few decades.

Fantastic book. It's main protagonist provides an interesting perspective into the Culture, as a committed opponent who nevertheless admires them to some extent. I am very excited to read the rest of this series!

The Culture is a genetically enhanced human/machine federation with trillions of genefixed sentients living long and luxurious lives on artificial orbitals, rings and rocks throughout the galaxy. They have miraculous tech and their super-intelligent machines, called "minds" run all the routine tasks and work as partners with humans.
However, they have a powerful adversary, a race of giant three-legged soldiers who are also technically advanced, quite intelligent and who adhere to a hierarchy and a system of order which is the very opposite of the Culture. The clash between them is destined to go on for decades - 800 billions will die. Stars will go nova and wipe out whole planetary populations.
The story ranges from the individual perspectives of key characters in this war to the general progress of the war tactics and resources. This is not shoot-'em-up space opera. The characters are fascinating, unpredictable yet engaging. The events are staggering in their scope and the individuals involved frame this perspective well. There is no lack of clever ideas and new tech here. It's true SF on a grand scale.
Ian Banks' writing is lucid and interesting. He has earned his stripes as a top author.

Great premise, but the author needs some work... too much "tell, then show, then tell again" instead of letting readers adventure and learn on their own. It's good, just would have been shorter without extra verbage.

Sometimes I find Banks a little difficult to get through. I feel this book moved along really well. I did see the 'twist' coming, but it did not spoil the ending, speaking of the ending, it seemed to come rather abruptly. A lot of build up to the last few pages and then BAM! It's over.

A grand adventure full of well drawn characters and scenes of a future very possible yet improbable. Late to the Culture, it is well worth beginning and continuing. Don't let the size fool you. The number of pages flows by as the story twists and turns from beginning to end. A marvelous read!

Best part is a discussion between the main character and an AI about the legal standing of artificial sentience. Also, the book discusses the puprose of humanity in a universe full of super-human machine intelligence.

Weary of formulaic tales? -space battles against impossible odds that succeed anyway? -characters using armored suits that ignore laser hits and still maintain their sensor systems? Read this for the struggle of Bora Horza Gobuchul when assigned to secure an advanced AI.
Although the first chapter drops us into Gobuchul's life immediately, and it is not clear what side of a conflict he is on, you will quickly find this is way past typical Earth-vs-invaders epics. As fleets of ships rampage through the universe, able to smash planets and space stations, solitary agents quietly slip. Banks does not go into detail, or means of propulsion, save that ships use warp drive to go FTL, fusion engines to enter planetary atmospheres and lasers for defense. For example, warships enter a previously demilitarized area:
' Gridfire struck the Orbital. Horza paused and watched the screen as it lit up suddenly, flashing once over its whole surface until the sensors coped with the sudden increase in brilliance and compensated. For some reason Horza had thought the Culture would just splash the gridfire all over the massive Orbital and then spatter the remains with CAM, but they didn't do that; instead a single narrow line of blinding white light appeared right across the breadth of the day side of the Orbital, a thin fiery blade of silent destruction which was instantly surrounded by the duller but still perfectly white cover of clouds. That line of light was part of the grid itself, the fabric of pure energy which lay underneath the entire universe, separating this one from the slightly younger, slightly smaller anti matter universe beneath. The Culture, like the Idirans, could now partially control that awesome power, at least sufficiently to use it for the purposes of destruction.... ' (p. 255)
The fascinating part is realizing that Gobuchul, or his opposite number, Perosteck Balveda, do not show much loyalty to their sides, instead playing the cards fates deals them and bandy whenever they encounter each other. In fact, these agents battle on the borders of their respective empires, mostly away from any support. So they scheme, steal, kill and generally commit mayhem before journeying to an ancient lifeless planet.
The linkage to 'The Waste Land', by T.S.Elliot, is strong, and you will find themes of death, reversal of fortunes, and emotions of comrades on this journey. Banks draws stark pictures of peoples on worlds in conflict and forbidding scenes of destruction. It makes a strong anti-war statement.

The book holds my attention well- the Culture is an enjoyable world to imagine. Mr. Banks writes repeatedly about how the Culture interacts with the civilizations at its fringes. I have no problem giving the book a 4 for the enjoyment the read provides. No spoilers from me.

This is the first book in the Culture series. The Culture is a future galactic civilization that has conquered need, and seeks a purpose. What makes this novel (and I suspect, the entire series of loosely-connected books) remarkable, is the depth of thought lavished on that civilization. There are layers and layers, sometimes with more detail in a page than lesser writers have in entire novels.

Additionally, Banks can write like nobody's business. I don't usually read SF for the descriptions, but here the language many times grabs control of your mind, and you are *there*. There's strange locales, incredible high-tech (especially considering this first book dates to the early '80's), multiple civilizations, intelligent robots, all-powerful AI's, and a ton of swash-buckling edge-of-your seat adventure. Oh, yes, and a galaxy-spanning hot war that makes Star Wars look like wet firecrackers.

So why not five stars? Because the main character just didn't satisfy me. He's not likable enough, he hasn't got enough of a defined purpose. It's as if Banks had this grand (and it *is* grand) concept, and the protagonist was secondary. I hope other Culture novels give us lead characters that we can care for more. In a civilization of that scale, one person rarely matters, but it's when people *do* matter that stories get interesting.

I started with Player of Games first, I think you could read either one first. Good book, a few parts a little drawn out, overall interesting read that gets you into the world being created.

I would recommend for anyone looking to pick up another sci-fi series.

I started with Player of Games first, I think you could read either one first. Good book, a few parts a little drawn out, overall interesting read that gets you into the world being created.

I would recommend for anyone looking to pick up another sci-fi series.

I'd heard good things about the Culture series. I love the Transhumanist Sci-Fi genre in general. This book didn't disappoint. I'm not sure it's for everyone, but if you like sci-fi set in the far future that explores possible future visions of society and what it means to be human, then give this a read. I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.

An amazing Space Opera, with great characters and gripping story. At times it may steal a bit too much from other classics. I feel Niven echoing through a lot of the pages. Some sections involving Culture agents weaken the overall flow. However, a great read for scifi and SpOp fans a like.

I like the universe. The writing is way above average for the genre. What I don't like in this book is the creative ordering of the chapters. If I put the book down for a few days, I'd come back to the book totally lost and have to re-read sections to get my context back.

This book basically has two parts: Before, and after the main character arrives at the destination presaged in the early chapters of the book.

These two parts very nearly read like two separate books. The first part is somewhat interesting. He introduces the interesting science fiction ideas (though few are truly unique), and creates some conflicts between characters, etc. But once the character reaches his destination, it's a boring slog of action scene after action scene with what were _supposed_ to be allies - and no real interesting story or character drama. Yeah, a couple of bad/neutral personalities are rescued. But, nothing really grand - other than battle scenes.

In fact, even though the first half reads a touch more interestingly, I'd say the entire book is more a narrative of action and place than a well woven character / story novel. The author spends a lot of time describing the scenery. When that scenery is technology - a'la huge floating, artificially-constructed inhabited platforms in space - it's kind of interesting. Except that even then, the descriptions are REALLY long, and get tedious. And the sections / things that aren't technology are frankly pretty tedious.

For example, when a space (/air) craft on one of these inhabited-platforms-in-space slams into a floating iceberg, we're subjected to page after page of description of how the main character is running towards the stern of the craft (away from the collision at the front end). We read about him running down corridors and seeing windows in doors showing rooms he explored just a few minutes ago. We have him running along catwalks, then dropping to the next catwalk below as the first one collapses. Then, of course, there's the requisite jump to a rescue craft where he has to hang on by his fingertips. If you've gotten tired reading my paragraph here, then don't read this book; it's full of page after page of this type of action narrative.

I kept imagining that some short version of this book would be a screenplay for a Bruce Willis space action movie. But even then, there wasn't enough interesting drama to the overall story plot to make it a blockbuster movie.

Oh, and the end is a total anticlimax. Maybe from some art-y type perspective, it's interesting; but from a reader perspective, it's like he got tired of writing, so wrote this end to get the book off to the publisher.

But then, in retrospect, the book is a bit of a letdown overall. Better to spend your time reading something from Charles Stross or Neal Stephenson.

Oh, and like another review, I'm giving this two stars because one star means "Bad." This book isn't bad; it's just pretty well not good.

Superbly entertaining! Definitely worth the time, fast action and well-paced, great vision, creatively interesting characters(although not as well fleshed out as I would've liked) and a natural flow to the story but refreshingly without the typical predictable finish. Will absolutely pick up another Banks novel!

About halfway through this book it was feeling really draggy, and I was really disengaged from the main character (the side characters are very good, but you don't hear nearly enough about them; the main character is a loser who the author keeps saying is important, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why). So, in order to decide whether to finish the book I went on the store to read reviews and see what other readers thought about it--and I saw lots of 5 stars and mention of a huge surprise at the end that really makes you rethink the whole book. So I went ahead and slogged through to the end of the book.

Upon finishing the book first reaction was--what book are these 5-star reviews reading? It is a perfectly adequate book, but absolutely nothing special. The structure is plodding, including a style of purposefully confusing flashbacks every other chapter that keep the story from sustaining any sort of flow. As for the supposedly shocking ending, it seemed pretty obvious way before the end--it is the sort of contrived surprise that was used on every episode of Twilight Zone.

I like Iain Banks, and I have greatly enjoyed other Culture novels, but this one was nothing special.

Iain Banks always rates very highly when people list their favorite science fiction authors and/or books. My first book by Banks was The Player of Games which I read last summer (and enjoyed). When this book showed up as a free Kindle book, I grabbed it and read it. It is the first in the Culture universe, and gives quite a lot of background, at the cost of a well-plotted story unfortunately. Not that the story is bad... it just gets a bit tedious at times. As my title says, I'm starting to see why so many love Iain Banks' science fiction. I expect, as I read more of the Culture novels, to become a greater fan.