Ian M. Banks Books Discussion

[colmquinn]

I didn't even know he was releasing one this year but I guess Christmas needs to be paid for in the banks household like all the rest of us.

Surface Detail

Title changed to reflect thread content. - [SG]

[Mikey]

How long has it been? I'm hopeful that the time will have engendered the quality of Excession rather than that of The Use of Weapons.

[colmquinn]

How long has it been?

What do you mean? If you mean how long has it been released I think it was October. If you mean since his last book was out I have no idea.

[Mikey]

If you mean since his last book was out I have no idea.

That's exactly what I meant.


In other news, I believe I'll put this in the "Books" thread.

[Reliant121]

What would be an ideal book to get started on the banks novels? Christmas coming up and all, I'd like to take a peek into the universe.

[colmquinn]

What would be an ideal book to get started on the banks novels?....

Personally I'd suggest starting with "Consider Phlebas" - its the first sci-fi book of his (i think) and is pretty easy to get into and understand whats going on quickly.

[Reliant121]

Looking at his website, I was thinking similar.

[colmquinn]

The Player of Games could also be a pretty good one to start with (my first was "The Use of Weapons") but may as well start at the start when you have the chance.

[Mikey]

I would say either Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games. I started with Excession and it was great, but maybe not the best jumping-off point. Do not begin with The Use of Weapons.

[Captain Seafort]

How long has it been? I'm hopeful that the time will have engendered the quality of Excession rather than that of The Use of Weapons.

Why? While they're both good, (and the former certainly has more shooty stuff), overall I prefer UoW, especially given the way in which the two threads diverge and yet compliment each other.

[Mikey]

How long has it been? I'm hopeful that the time will have engendered the quality of Excession rather than that of The Use of Weapons.

Why? While they're both good, (and the former certainly has more shooty stuff), overall I prefer UoW, especially given the way in which the two threads diverge and yet compliment each other.

They might compliment each other, but I found that they complemented each other far too little to make them useful as part of the same book.

[colmquinn]

I finished the book last night + thought it pretty good. I thought though there were a few bits I found annoying - mainly just waiting on some juicy combat bit to arrive.

I liked the concept of the Real and Afterlife and the hell worlds were interesting. I really liked the Abominator class Falling outside the the normal moral constrints and his avatar Demeisen. That's how a proper top of the line warship should behave - like a proper bastard when needs be. Its nice to see what a proper warship of the Culture was capable of when let off the leash.
The quick peek we get of the interaction between the different factions within the culture minds was interesting too I thought and how they meet to make decisions and the meeting place they have. Oh and Vatueil was a nice addition i thought

[Sionnach Glic]

If you mean since his last book was out I have no idea.

That's exactly what I meant.


In other news, I believe I'll put this in the "Books" thread.

He brought a book out in 2009, under Iain Banks, called Transition. I'm in the middle of reading it right now. The book's premise is quite interesting (there are a whole heap of alternate Earths and there are people who can transition between them, along with an organisation which involves itself in interfering with the alternate Earths to make them "better"). I can't speak for the quality of the book itself right now, since despite being halfway through I still haven't a clue just what the hell's going on. It's intriguing though, I'll give it that.

What would be an ideal book to get started on the banks novels? Christmas coming up and all, I'd like to take a peek into the universe.

Like Mikey, the first Banks book I ever came across was Excession. A lot of people say it's a bad book to read if you want to get into the universe, and I can see where they're coming from. It very much dumps you into the deep end of the Culture, and it can take a while to really get a grasp on just what everything is. Still, I enjoyed it enough to look out for his other books, and I never had too big a problem figuring out what was going on, so I wouldn't advise you to avoid it either.

Really, I don't think there's one good introductory book into the universe. I suppose one thing you could do would be to go through them in the order which banks released them (which would make Consider Phlebas the first book). But really, I'd say most of his books could be used as an introduction to the universe without too much trouble.

[Mikey]

Hmm. Maybe I just have an unusual appreciation for that sort of immediate immersion, but if I had read The Use of Weapons before Excession, I might not have ever read another Banks novel.

[Graham Kennedy]

Funny, Use of Weapons was the first one I ever read and it blew my mind; I couldn't get enough after that.

Player of Games is a good read, and will give you a basic intro to the Culture though most of it is set outside that body. Consider Phlebas is probably the way to go, though. It's a cracking adventure romp set against a staggeringly large and vicious war... someday I want to see this made as a movie, because there's a few scenes in here that would just kick ass on the big screen.

If you can find it, the novella The State of the Art is also an excellent introduction; it deals with a Culture ship which discovers Earth in the 1970s and spends a little time exploring the planet. Their impressions of Earth are quite... interesting.