Culture Fans? (Iain M Banks)

[tarifa]

Read em all, loved em all (read em all more than once!)

[iansales]

Originally Posted by Dave

I'd like him to write more SF. He has probably written as much on the 'Culture' as he can though.

He has a new Culture book out next year, Matter.

[disrepdog]

And you can hear him reading a extract from it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwPYw615Ud4

It's due out Feb 2008

[John Lee]

Being new to Banks and devouring most of his culture and other SF novels pretty quickly. I must say that “the Algebrist” is my favorite. For the simple reason that I founds humans (as protagonists) that you could care about. In the culture novels (and it did take a while for this to dawn on me) people are not that important and frankly someone extraneous.

The AI's are much more interesting and seem to have a purpose as opposed to the Humans. I am not sure why the AI's even have the humans around. They serve no purpose.

Banks is as stunning talent of a writer. In fact he has reignited my love for SF. I just like some of his other SF novels versus the culture series, this is due to more more fully fleshed out human characters.

[Coolhand]

Well, I've just finished my first ever Iain M Banks Novel: Use of Weapons.

It's very inventive (I love the starship that downloads its mind into a furry avatar and wanders around asking for cuddles) and Banks has a skillful command of the English language. He's obviously got a nice dark sense of humour as well.

I'm not certain I can say I loved the book, though. It seemed a little rambling to be honest. I really enjoyed bits of it, found myself bored by other parts, and was unconvinced by the final twist. It seemed like it came out of nowhere just for shock value, and seemed very inconsistant with the behaviour and personality Zakalawie had previously demonstrated.

I would guess from reading Use Of Weapons that Banks' overall focus as a writer is on concepts, tech, culture and the exploration of ideas, rather than story and character. Does that sound about right or have I got that horribly wrong?

[Razorback]

I'm in the middle of my first by Banks: Consider Phlebas. So far, my impressions of this one are very similar to yours Coolhand. I'll update this once I finish the book.

[MetalJon]

I've read `Use of Weapons' and `Consider Phlebas' as well as `Player of Games' - I think I'm going to have to re-read the first 2! I read them ages ago and thoroughly enjoyed, but the actual plots are a dim and distant memory...

I do think all the culture novels are a fascinating reflection on what life might be like in the future!

[Vetch]

Read them all; and as I said in the Matter thread - Excession is my favourite. Player of Games and Look to Windward follow. You notice I like the -- how to call it? -- the friendly stuff. Use of Weapons is amazing, too, though I have similar feelings about it as Coolhand in the beginning of his thread ("question about cheradine zakalwe" - sorry, may not post links yet).

I used to dislike Consider Phlebas, mainly because I disliked it's protagonist so much. But after a recent rereading I changed my mind. Love most parts of the the novel, and like Horza much better (though I still think he 's a dick).

I also notice a certain ... sameness about some of Banks' male protagonists. Horza is a bit like Zakalwe is a bit like Genar-Hofoen.