sfletcher26's review against another edition
5.0
Like Douglas Adams on speed.
I've not read all of Iain M Banks' Culture novels though have read a few (The Player of Games, Matter, The Algebraist) so to say that this is the best and most satisfying of the books may mean little. That said this really is a blinding read and is thus far my favourite Culture story to date.
Reading a Banks novel is always a leap of faith because he never brings you in gently, explaining things as he goes along. Instead he jumps right in and then seeks to tell you about things later on. This can sometimes make it very difficult to get into his books (The Algebeist took me 3 attempts and 4 years to read). This though just sweeps you in and keeps you hooked all the way through and doesn't drop the ball, as it were, at the end which I felt he did in both the Algebraist and Matter.
Fully deserves 5 stars.
I've not read all of Iain M Banks' Culture novels though have read a few (The Player of Games, Matter, The Algebraist) so to say that this is the best and most satisfying of the books may mean little. That said this really is a blinding read and is thus far my favourite Culture story to date.
Reading a Banks novel is always a leap of faith because he never brings you in gently, explaining things as he goes along. Instead he jumps right in and then seeks to tell you about things later on. This can sometimes make it very difficult to get into his books (The Algebeist took me 3 attempts and 4 years to read). This though just sweeps you in and keeps you hooked all the way through and doesn't drop the ball, as it were, at the end which I felt he did in both the Algebraist and Matter.
Fully deserves 5 stars.
frogfather78's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
provaprova's review
3.0
The usual intertwined Banks plotting was easier to follow this time, and the overall resolution very satisfactory. Not as interesting as _Player of Games_, but still a solid Culture novel
charlibirb's review
4.0
A couple of the plots were awesome. Really enjoyed Lededje's, and Prin and Chay's storylines. Didn't quite understand the relevance to Nsokyi's or Vatueil's contribution to the overall plot.
Really loved his exploration of what would happen if there were simulated afterworlds, and all the different possibilities that might stem from that concept.
The aliens don't seem too different from humans, mentally, but physically interesting descriptions.
Fun read, overall.
And what the heck was up with the "name reveal" at the end? It felt like a punchline to another book (I looked, and it its,) but it's been too long since I've read it, so... I guess it felt like a bit of a letdown. Like that whole plotline wasn't good for anything in the actual story I was reading.
Really loved his exploration of what would happen if there were simulated afterworlds, and all the different possibilities that might stem from that concept.
The aliens don't seem too different from humans, mentally, but physically interesting descriptions.
Fun read, overall.
And what the heck was up with the "name reveal" at the end? It felt like a punchline to another book (I looked, and it its,) but it's been too long since I've read it, so... I guess it felt like a bit of a letdown. Like that whole plotline wasn't good for anything in the actual story I was reading.
tommi's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
phil782's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
andyml's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sambora's review against another edition
4.0
*This is a spoiler-free review.*
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks is the ninth book in his Culture series and the twelfth science fiction novel that he wrote. Each book in the series can be read as a standalone, but that being said; I would not recommend starting here.
(If you are interested in jumping into the Culture I would suggest starting with [b:The Player of Games|1913598|The Player of Games|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562794896l/1913598._SY75_.jpg|1494157] or [b:Consider Phlebas|5510838|Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353258248l/5510838._SY75_.jpg|14366].)
Surface Detail is also the second to last book that Banks wrote under this name before he died of cancer in 2013.
I normally wouldn't mention much about an author or their personal/health situations in a review, but I believe that the topic is so closely linked to the subject matter found within the story of Surface Detail, that it would be a disservice not to mention it.
This is - above all - a story about death, what it means to die and, therefore, the value of life. Within the Culture - this society that Banks has created - death is fixable, avoidable and repeatable. Using personality back-up and custom body re-growing technology, a person can "revent" within a few days, with all but the most recent of their memories fully intact. This is just one perk of such advanced technology.
Another option to those faced with death is a digital afterlife. A technically artificial heaven in which you can do whatever you so desire - with a potentially endless time frame for an individual to enjoy all the pleasures and entertainment conjurable. These afterlives can be as realistic as life in the Real and it is often hard to differentiate between them in quality alone.
BUT. Not all is perfect. Other involved societies that have taken to the galactic stage, (some of which rival the Culture in size, but never in technological know-how) have created Hells.
These digital Hells were created for the express purpose of torturing their inhabitants. Unending pain, mutilation and suffering. Many of the occupants go mad, losing all sense of themselves, knowing nothing but a huge array of the most creative pains that any being could possibly imagine.
*I should note that whilst some of these scenes are rather disturbing, it is never overly gratuitous or fetishised, but it's worth knowing it's there for those who try to steer clear of such writings.*
But yes, death is a dominant theme throughout the book and it doesn't shy away from asking, and sometimes trying to answer, the myriad of difficult questions associated with it.
The book follows 6 main character perspectives and a handful of smaller peripheral ones too.
- Our first is a young lady called Lededje Y'breq. Lededje is from a non-Culture world and her family is indebted to the wealthiest person in the system. She herself is part of the debt owed and is marked as property with a full body tattoo.
(This tattoo, and it's perceived importance, is what inspired the title Surface Detail.)
- Next is Joiler Veppers, an industrialist, playboy and the aforementioned wealthiest and most powerful man in the system - the owner of Lededje Y'breq.
- The third perspective is Vatueil, a soldier who is fighting on multiple levels of the virtual war between the pro and anti-hell societies of the galaxy.
- The next characters come as a pair. Prin and Chay are academics and lovers. They plan to expose the truth of the horrendous goings-on in the various Hell's to those ignorant of it back in the Real.
- Lastly is Yime Nsokyi, a Culture agent. She is part of a team known as Quietus, whose purview is dealing with and assisting those entities who have either retired from biological existence into a digital form, or those who have died and been resurrected/revented back into the Real.
I thought at first that this was too many perspectives. I felt as though I was bouncing around a lot and felt myself getting a bit confused at the beginning, but about 1/3 of the way through it all fell into place and I realised just how important each story was to the others, and to the story as a whole.
Whilst I do not know if Banks had yet been faced with his diagnosis at the point of writing this, it is very clear to me that he put a lot of thought into the importance and significance of death (or lack of) and the role it plays within a society.
Elevating these ideas, and many more, to a scope such as we are used to him doing within the Culture series, gives him a lot of space and time to really get creative and explore the themes through a multitude of lenses.
If you cannot tell from my ramblings, I adore Banks' writing and his imagination. The Culture novels are some of my all time favourites and I truly believe that anyone can find something in his books to enjoy, from the cool tech and his progressive thinking, to his wit and humour and his mind-bending ideas.
Whilst this isn't my favourite of his works, it's still lightyears ahead of many of the other sci-fi adventures out there.
This is another superb addition to the best Space Opera series available today.
4 stars.
_________________________
Thank you for reading this (once again) somewhat overlong review. I struggle to refrain myself when it comes to finishing and reviewing a Banks book and it is a real challenge to stay spoiler free.
I hope you are all doing well and that you are enjoying your current reads!
Up next for me will be [b:Elantris|10803709|Elantris (Elantris, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1376132571l/10803709._SY75_.jpg|2908871] by Brandon Sanderson!
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks is the ninth book in his Culture series and the twelfth science fiction novel that he wrote. Each book in the series can be read as a standalone, but that being said; I would not recommend starting here.
(If you are interested in jumping into the Culture I would suggest starting with [b:The Player of Games|1913598|The Player of Games|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562794896l/1913598._SY75_.jpg|1494157] or [b:Consider Phlebas|5510838|Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353258248l/5510838._SY75_.jpg|14366].)
Surface Detail is also the second to last book that Banks wrote under this name before he died of cancer in 2013.
I normally wouldn't mention much about an author or their personal/health situations in a review, but I believe that the topic is so closely linked to the subject matter found within the story of Surface Detail, that it would be a disservice not to mention it.
This is - above all - a story about death, what it means to die and, therefore, the value of life. Within the Culture - this society that Banks has created - death is fixable, avoidable and repeatable. Using personality back-up and custom body re-growing technology, a person can "revent" within a few days, with all but the most recent of their memories fully intact. This is just one perk of such advanced technology.
Another option to those faced with death is a digital afterlife. A technically artificial heaven in which you can do whatever you so desire - with a potentially endless time frame for an individual to enjoy all the pleasures and entertainment conjurable. These afterlives can be as realistic as life in the Real and it is often hard to differentiate between them in quality alone.
"The vast, coruscating landscape below was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his long and varied existence.
It was heartbreaking that they had come here to destroy it utterly."
BUT. Not all is perfect. Other involved societies that have taken to the galactic stage, (some of which rival the Culture in size, but never in technological know-how) have created Hells.
These digital Hells were created for the express purpose of torturing their inhabitants. Unending pain, mutilation and suffering. Many of the occupants go mad, losing all sense of themselves, knowing nothing but a huge array of the most creative pains that any being could possibly imagine.
*I should note that whilst some of these scenes are rather disturbing, it is never overly gratuitous or fetishised, but it's worth knowing it's there for those who try to steer clear of such writings.*
But yes, death is a dominant theme throughout the book and it doesn't shy away from asking, and sometimes trying to answer, the myriad of difficult questions associated with it.
The book follows 6 main character perspectives and a handful of smaller peripheral ones too.
- Our first is a young lady called Lededje Y'breq. Lededje is from a non-Culture world and her family is indebted to the wealthiest person in the system. She herself is part of the debt owed and is marked as property with a full body tattoo.
(This tattoo, and it's perceived importance, is what inspired the title Surface Detail.)
- Next is Joiler Veppers, an industrialist, playboy and the aforementioned wealthiest and most powerful man in the system - the owner of Lededje Y'breq.
- The third perspective is Vatueil, a soldier who is fighting on multiple levels of the virtual war between the pro and anti-hell societies of the galaxy.
- The next characters come as a pair. Prin and Chay are academics and lovers. They plan to expose the truth of the horrendous goings-on in the various Hell's to those ignorant of it back in the Real.
- Lastly is Yime Nsokyi, a Culture agent. She is part of a team known as Quietus, whose purview is dealing with and assisting those entities who have either retired from biological existence into a digital form, or those who have died and been resurrected/revented back into the Real.
I thought at first that this was too many perspectives. I felt as though I was bouncing around a lot and felt myself getting a bit confused at the beginning, but about 1/3 of the way through it all fell into place and I realised just how important each story was to the others, and to the story as a whole.
“Naturally, also, both sides were convinced they had right on their side, not that either was remotely naive enough to think that had any possible bearing on the outcome whatsoever.”
Whilst I do not know if Banks had yet been faced with his diagnosis at the point of writing this, it is very clear to me that he put a lot of thought into the importance and significance of death (or lack of) and the role it plays within a society.
Elevating these ideas, and many more, to a scope such as we are used to him doing within the Culture series, gives him a lot of space and time to really get creative and explore the themes through a multitude of lenses.
"At such moments she felt she was the very heart and soul of the ship; the tiny animal kernel of its being, with every other part, from her own drug-jazzed body out, like force-multiplying layers of martial ability and destructive sophistication, each concentricity of level adding, extrapolating, intensifying.
She plunged into the storm of swirling motes."
If you cannot tell from my ramblings, I adore Banks' writing and his imagination. The Culture novels are some of my all time favourites and I truly believe that anyone can find something in his books to enjoy, from the cool tech and his progressive thinking, to his wit and humour and his mind-bending ideas.
Whilst this isn't my favourite of his works, it's still lightyears ahead of many of the other sci-fi adventures out there.
This is another superb addition to the best Space Opera series available today.
4 stars.
“All you ever were was a little bit of the universe, thinking to itself. Very specific; this bit, here, right now."
_________________________
Thank you for reading this (once again) somewhat overlong review. I struggle to refrain myself when it comes to finishing and reviewing a Banks book and it is a real challenge to stay spoiler free.
I hope you are all doing well and that you are enjoying your current reads!
Up next for me will be [b:Elantris|10803709|Elantris (Elantris, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1376132571l/10803709._SY75_.jpg|2908871] by Brandon Sanderson!