jhapp's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
gullevek's review against another edition
4.0
Overall a very satisfactory read, but missing this slight part that would have made it outstanding. Especially when you can never really shelf off those deep mind Culture book thoughts. But overall a fantastic book absolutely worth reading. Recommended
sashkello's review against another edition
3.0
Like the author himself said (and it's hard not to notice) this is a non-Culture novel for people who liked Culture novels. But... I don't really see any reason why it wouldn't be a Culture novel. There were completely unrelated stories in that series, I don't see why this wouldn't fit here in some context . There are a lot of of parallels here with other Culture novels and many ideas are reused (AIs struggling for recognition as sentient beings, a genocidal unhinged dictator, and most of all the reveal at the end). It's not necessarily a bad thing, but after reading all 10 novels in the series, there were some feelings of deja-vu.
Overall, I can't say I didn't enjoy The Algebraist, but I can't say it's something mind-blowing either. The book is loooong and a lot of the content isn't necessary at all. There is a lot going on and when the ending approached and some references to earlier events & people started to show up, I simply forgot what exactly it was about. Had to go back through the pages several times to recall certain characters from first quarter of the book. I actually didn't get why it's called The Algebraist, as the reference to what it is was mentioned in passing somewhere at the beginning and I don't think it ever resurfaced after that. Maybe I have to read some other reviews to get the idea, but the point is I missed it and it's not entirely my fault (well, I think so...) And I'm not sure the whole adventure of Fassin Taak made any sense - why did anyone help him, I have no idea...
Nevertheless, it's a good novel. There are lots of interesting ideas here, the plot is engaging and I didn't feel bored for too long, there was always something interesting a few pages ahead. If you like Culture series, this is more of the same, good writing, well-thought-through concepts, semi-open ending, as usual.
Spoiler
(i.e., AIs turning out to be Culture spies influencing everything in some fringe society at the other end of the galaxy)Overall, I can't say I didn't enjoy The Algebraist, but I can't say it's something mind-blowing either. The book is loooong and a lot of the content isn't necessary at all. There is a lot going on and when the ending approached and some references to earlier events & people started to show up, I simply forgot what exactly it was about. Had to go back through the pages several times to recall certain characters from first quarter of the book. I actually didn't get why it's called The Algebraist, as the reference to what it is was mentioned in passing somewhere at the beginning and I don't think it ever resurfaced after that. Maybe I have to read some other reviews to get the idea, but the point is I missed it and it's not entirely my fault (well, I think so...) And I'm not sure the whole adventure of Fassin Taak made any sense - why did anyone help him, I have no idea...
Nevertheless, it's a good novel. There are lots of interesting ideas here, the plot is engaging and I didn't feel bored for too long, there was always something interesting a few pages ahead. If you like Culture series, this is more of the same, good writing, well-thought-through concepts, semi-open ending, as usual.
tombomp's review against another edition
5.0
Really really great book, wrapped up nicely, everything coming together. Dweller society is fascinating and a really great concept that's executed well. It's pretty funny at some points, especially the Dweller stuff - not laugh out loud but enough to lighten the mood and not be SUPER SERIOUS SCI-FI all the time. There are loads of details that give enough information to satisfy my curiosity while still wanting more and thinking there's a whole other world that I'm just scratching the surface of. I don't know I'm bad at praising fiction but it's a very satisfying, good, well done, nice, excellent sci fi novel that I highly recommend and you'll like if you like the Culture series.
Worth mentioning a couple of things that might be shitty for people to read: The main bad guy character of the Starveling Cult does a few pretty gory things - it's not super extended but early on there's some pretty gruesome description and there's some later gratuitous violence stuff although not described in too much detail. There are a couple of mentions of rape, although there's no detail. Just want to give a heads up, although this stuff is a very small fraction of the book.
Very very minor spoilers relating to the slow time stuff, just me trying to work out how it works:
1) Humans have a much longer lifespan than normal, measuring in the hundreds of years - this is through rejuvenation treatments and stuff. In addition, travelling long distances by spacecraft makes you age slower than your years because relativity. It's also possible for humans to exercise self-control of some sort (dunno if it's like a surgical thing) to slow their metabolism and thoughts down by large amounts, making them live much longer.
2) Dwellers are a "Slow" species because of their attitude to life and their biology that allows them to live billions of years. They live a lot of time at normal speed but especially as they get older they spend more time at very slowed down metabolic/thought speeds (1/64 normal is brought up at one point). Dwellers also often do this while travelling or just for fun - their timescales are several orders of magnitude longer than ours.
I'm still kind of confused about a moment where some dwellers say to Taak like "do we need to talk slower for you" as if on a normal delve talking normally to people he'd be slowed down? I guess usually delvers are slowed down a lot because they're talking to Sages and the like who spend most of their time in Slow.
Spoiler re the ending
Spoiler for near the end+Hydorgen Sonata
Worth mentioning a couple of things that might be shitty for people to read: The main bad guy character of the Starveling Cult does a few pretty gory things - it's not super extended but early on there's some pretty gruesome description and there's some later gratuitous violence stuff although not described in too much detail. There are a couple of mentions of rape, although there's no detail. Just want to give a heads up, although this stuff is a very small fraction of the book.
Very very minor spoilers relating to the slow time stuff, just me trying to work out how it works:
Spoiler
After reading the whole book, I *think* how it works is1) Humans have a much longer lifespan than normal, measuring in the hundreds of years - this is through rejuvenation treatments and stuff. In addition, travelling long distances by spacecraft makes you age slower than your years because relativity. It's also possible for humans to exercise self-control of some sort (dunno if it's like a surgical thing) to slow their metabolism and thoughts down by large amounts, making them live much longer.
2) Dwellers are a "Slow" species because of their attitude to life and their biology that allows them to live billions of years. They live a lot of time at normal speed but especially as they get older they spend more time at very slowed down metabolic/thought speeds (1/64 normal is brought up at one point). Dwellers also often do this while travelling or just for fun - their timescales are several orders of magnitude longer than ours.
I'm still kind of confused about a moment where some dwellers say to Taak like "do we need to talk slower for you" as if on a normal delve talking normally to people he'd be slowed down? I guess usually delvers are slowed down a lot because they're talking to Sages and the like who spend most of their time in Slow.
Spoiler re the ending
Spoiler
I was kind of confused about how Taak's memory got changed so that he thought the hostile Dweller would help him... yet he still thought not to meet him himself? It was a little weird that his memory was changed in the first place (why that specific change?). But also why would he be suspicious enough to not meet him in person yet still meet him at all. I dunno, felt I missed something there. No big deal thoughSpoiler for near the end+Hydorgen Sonata
Spoiler
when I saw that the twincaptain was represented by an orange ape with long limbs in VR, I immediately thought of that ship in Excession that had sublimed and come back because it had a similar avatar, IIRC. Don't see any real connection but it was neatc_lally's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
23149014345613's review against another edition
2.0
Banks seems to come from the school of "why show when you can tell and tell and tell and tell". I've read a bit of sci-fi at this point, and I understand that exposition dumping is both a genre staple and a necessary evil when you are basically constructing a new universe whose rules and minutiae are also the bread and butter of your core audience. That being said, my god is this a slog. Banks revels in every tangent and opportunity to expand on a description. How can you say a civilization is the first in recorded history? How about "the galaxy-spanning meta-civilisation (some would say post-civilisation) which, as far as anyone could tell, preceded all other empires, cultures, diasporas, civilisations, federations, consocia, fellowships, unities, leagues, confederacies, affilia, and organisations of like or unlike beings in general". Like, how about that? Does it give you, really give you, any key information that you wouldn't get by the word "oldest"? Or is it just designed to kill the faint-hearted reader who may have come to this book expecting, I dunno, coherence and a toehold in an unfamiliar universe? Am I supposed to find this kind of blustery, mind-numbing effluence to be funny or enlightening? Because I spent most of this book just fantasizing about what I would do if I had a red pen handy.
I dunno, I'm sure diehard fans of the genre are enthralled, that is to say delighted, intrigued, mystified, enlightened, overjoyed, made happy, cheered, soothed and stimulated by this sort of useless goop, but once I swam through the prose, I also found very little story to reward me. I agree with other readers who are sort of confused at the tone - is this high sci-fi or something like farce? There weren't enough brilliant new ideas in it for me to really get lost in the cosmic scale I'm constantly beaten over the head with, and unlike Dune, there wasn't enough to anchor me to any particular character. Oh, and the sadism of Luseferous is really in-your-face in a way that I found gratuitous and stomach-turning.
I think I stumbled into this corner of sci-fi due to my love of Dune, and I'm just gonna stumble my way back to literary fiction, where words mean things and readers aren't expected to have an infinite universe of both time and patience. I gave up at page 200, and I commend myself for being so generous.
I dunno, I'm sure diehard fans of the genre are enthralled, that is to say delighted, intrigued, mystified, enlightened, overjoyed, made happy, cheered, soothed and stimulated by this sort of useless goop, but once I swam through the prose, I also found very little story to reward me. I agree with other readers who are sort of confused at the tone - is this high sci-fi or something like farce? There weren't enough brilliant new ideas in it for me to really get lost in the cosmic scale I'm constantly beaten over the head with, and unlike Dune, there wasn't enough to anchor me to any particular character. Oh, and the sadism of Luseferous is really in-your-face in a way that I found gratuitous and stomach-turning.
I think I stumbled into this corner of sci-fi due to my love of Dune, and I'm just gonna stumble my way back to literary fiction, where words mean things and readers aren't expected to have an infinite universe of both time and patience. I gave up at page 200, and I commend myself for being so generous.