grid's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed this quite a bit, but the end was mildly unsatisfying. The journey was pretty fun, lots of fun twists and turns, even if they didn’t really pay off so much as just keep me entertained along the way.
Lots of ambiguous evil and folks getting away with various murders. :p
Lots of ambiguous evil and folks getting away with various murders. :p
oilbobble's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
sfletcher26's review against another edition
3.0
Iain M Banks, sublimed and enfolded but not forgotten.
Written in the year before his untimely death It was with a sense of trepidation that I started this book and it's therefore with a touch of sadness that I finish it. Banks has always been one of my favourite Scifi writers as his writing has always been demanding, clever and deranged in equal measure.
This though sadly is not one of his best. Everything is there, the wit, the style, the just plain bonkersness, but there is just something missing. If I'm honest I think it just feels rushed, as though he wanted to get one last Culture story out before his death and didn't have enough time to tighten things up. This may be unfair and not the case but that's the way it feels. Still at his weakest his books are still damn good fun.
Written in the year before his untimely death It was with a sense of trepidation that I started this book and it's therefore with a touch of sadness that I finish it. Banks has always been one of my favourite Scifi writers as his writing has always been demanding, clever and deranged in equal measure.
This though sadly is not one of his best. Everything is there, the wit, the style, the just plain bonkersness, but there is just something missing. If I'm honest I think it just feels rushed, as though he wanted to get one last Culture story out before his death and didn't have enough time to tighten things up. This may be unfair and not the case but that's the way it feels. Still at his weakest his books are still damn good fun.
hasseltkoffie's review against another edition
4.0
"Meaning is everywhere. There is always meaning. Or at least all things show a disturbing tendency to have meaning ascribed to them when intelligent creatures are present. It's just that there's no final Meaning, with a capital M. Though the illusion that there might be is comforting for a certain class of mind"
"This. I love this, when you are over me, when I can barely see you or touch you but I know that you are there and just a breath away and I feel each exhaling is like a warm breeze across the land, when I can hear each beat of your heart over mine, when you are close enough that I can feel the heat on my skin. Then you are my presence, over and above me, like a promise. I live for these moments. I die at the thought they might stop."
"We all think we're special, and in a way we are, but, at the same time, that feeling of being special is one of the things that's common to us all, that unites us and makes us the same as each other."
"In practice, people don't believe for good reasons anyway, they just believe and that's it, like we don't love for good reasons, we just love because we need to love."
"This. I love this, when you are over me, when I can barely see you or touch you but I know that you are there and just a breath away and I feel each exhaling is like a warm breeze across the land, when I can hear each beat of your heart over mine, when you are close enough that I can feel the heat on my skin. Then you are my presence, over and above me, like a promise. I live for these moments. I die at the thought they might stop."
"We all think we're special, and in a way we are, but, at the same time, that feeling of being special is one of the things that's common to us all, that unites us and makes us the same as each other."
"In practice, people don't believe for good reasons anyway, they just believe and that's it, like we don't love for good reasons, we just love because we need to love."
madden1706's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
drewtendo64's review against another edition
1.0
While reading I often listen to a Spotify playlist. In this case ‘Drifting Through Space.’ This book made me look forward to the Spotify ads.
Barely one-dimensional characters that say a great deal and do very little. A bizarre plot that didn’t really go anywhere at all (at least nowhere interesting) that could have been explored thoroughly in fifty pages (at the most).
If I hadn’t already read, and somewhat enjoyed, the previous nine entries in the Culture series I would have tapped out of this one well before the one-hundred page mark.
I’ve taken nothing away from this read whatsoever. A thief of time. The reason the Kindle has a ‘remove this book’ option.
Barely one-dimensional characters that say a great deal and do very little. A bizarre plot that didn’t really go anywhere at all (at least nowhere interesting) that could have been explored thoroughly in fifty pages (at the most).
If I hadn’t already read, and somewhat enjoyed, the previous nine entries in the Culture series I would have tapped out of this one well before the one-hundred page mark.
I’ve taken nothing away from this read whatsoever. A thief of time. The reason the Kindle has a ‘remove this book’ option.
cburling's review against another edition
Very early on in Consider Phlebos, I could tell that his writing style just wasn't for me.