fletchie's review against another edition
5.0
I love Banks primarily for The Culture. Only two of the stories in here are explicitly Cultural, including the titular novella. It's been a long while since I've visited The Culture, and they were a very welcome return to it. Beyond those, Banks is relentlessly witty and provocative. Each story in here holds true to that. The State of the Art is a great read.
tpietila's review against another edition
3.0
A collection of shorter fiction by Banks. The stories are mostly pretty average, only the Culture ones stand out.
Road of Skulls • (1988) • short story by Iain M. Banks
Two men travel along a road to a city they never seem to reach. Very short, left me slightly baffled. What was the point? **
Odd Attachment • (1989) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A tree creature is tending his cattle and at the same time worrying if another one loves him. A spaceship lands, and a strange animal comes out. It has five nice appendices in both protuberances in its upper body which can be used to calculate if she loves me or she loves me not. A simple and short story. ***-
A Gift from the Culture • [Culture] • (1987) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A Culture citizen is staying on a non-Culture planet. He is blackmailed to use a powerful weapon that can only be used by a Culture citizen. He is supposed to shoot down a descending space ship which most likely will cause political chaos. What can he do? A pretty good story that ends a bit too soon. ***½
Descendant • [Culture] • (1987) • novelette by Iain M. Banks
A man has crash landed on a barren moon. He and a sentient but damaged space suit must try to escape death by walking around half of the moon. A pretty good story about surviving and co-operating. ****-
Cleaning Up • (1987) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A faulty matter transmitter sends random junk to Earth at random locations. As it is high-tech junk, humans try to use it, eventually with not-so-nice consequences. A short and ironic story could well have been from the 50s Galaxy magazine. ***
Piece • (1989) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A letter about religious fundamentalism which is supposed to be from a Lockerbie plane crash site. A short piece with no plot. ***-
The State of the Art • [Culture • 3] • (1989) • novella by Iain M. Banks
A Culture expedition is visiting the Earth in the 70s. The Ship that leads the expedition has hoovered every tidbit of anything humans have ever created with its tiny but powerful probes. A few members of Special Circumstances visit major cities to get a firsthand experience of human life. One agent decides to stay on Earth and more or less turn into a human. Another wants to drop a tiny black hole to the center of the Earth to rid of such a rotten place. Another wishes that Earth would join the Culture, but that is not to be: Earth will be a “control” world in a study by Culture. It wants to find out if it is worthwhile to make a contact with the uncivilized worlds which have not yet grown into the post-scarcity life. A pretty good look on Earth by Culture. After this story, there shouldn’t be any question of if the Culture is established by Earthlings. It is not. ****
Scratch • (1987) • short story by Iain M. Banks
Some kind of stream of consciousness thing. I didn’t understand it, I didn’t get it, I didn’t finish it.
Road of Skulls • (1988) • short story by Iain M. Banks
Two men travel along a road to a city they never seem to reach. Very short, left me slightly baffled. What was the point? **
Odd Attachment • (1989) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A tree creature is tending his cattle and at the same time worrying if another one loves him. A spaceship lands, and a strange animal comes out. It has five nice appendices in both protuberances in its upper body which can be used to calculate if she loves me or she loves me not. A simple and short story. ***-
A Gift from the Culture • [Culture] • (1987) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A Culture citizen is staying on a non-Culture planet. He is blackmailed to use a powerful weapon that can only be used by a Culture citizen. He is supposed to shoot down a descending space ship which most likely will cause political chaos. What can he do? A pretty good story that ends a bit too soon. ***½
Descendant • [Culture] • (1987) • novelette by Iain M. Banks
A man has crash landed on a barren moon. He and a sentient but damaged space suit must try to escape death by walking around half of the moon. A pretty good story about surviving and co-operating. ****-
Cleaning Up • (1987) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A faulty matter transmitter sends random junk to Earth at random locations. As it is high-tech junk, humans try to use it, eventually with not-so-nice consequences. A short and ironic story could well have been from the 50s Galaxy magazine. ***
Piece • (1989) • short story by Iain M. Banks
A letter about religious fundamentalism which is supposed to be from a Lockerbie plane crash site. A short piece with no plot. ***-
The State of the Art • [Culture • 3] • (1989) • novella by Iain M. Banks
A Culture expedition is visiting the Earth in the 70s. The Ship that leads the expedition has hoovered every tidbit of anything humans have ever created with its tiny but powerful probes. A few members of Special Circumstances visit major cities to get a firsthand experience of human life. One agent decides to stay on Earth and more or less turn into a human. Another wants to drop a tiny black hole to the center of the Earth to rid of such a rotten place. Another wishes that Earth would join the Culture, but that is not to be: Earth will be a “control” world in a study by Culture. It wants to find out if it is worthwhile to make a contact with the uncivilized worlds which have not yet grown into the post-scarcity life. A pretty good look on Earth by Culture. After this story, there shouldn’t be any question of if the Culture is established by Earthlings. It is not. ****
Scratch • (1987) • short story by Iain M. Banks
Some kind of stream of consciousness thing. I didn’t understand it, I didn’t get it, I didn’t finish it.
rom1504's review
2.0
So I tried to read this one several times and I just can't get into it. No context, it just starts with some boring substory about some culture gun, and then goes on to mention some random details about the culture.
How is the reader expected to be interested in this ? What's the main thing ? Is it the idea (which one ?) Or is it the story (seems very small!) ?
How is the reader expected to be interested in this ? What's the main thing ? Is it the idea (which one ?) Or is it the story (seems very small!) ?
_pickle_'s review
3.0
An uneven collection of short stories: the main story of the collection (Culture comes calling to little backwards Earth) was a bit obnoxious and almost leering. However the stories from interesting perspective (a space suit, an alien monster) were well thought out and compelling.
kavinay's review
4.0
Banks has this unique ability to unflinchingly drop you into disorienting contexts and let you make sense of the alien where most authors would just bombard you with exposition.
yeoldemandan's review
5.0
Some of the short stories are not up to a 5 star level, but the titular story does well enough I won't dock it. The Culture has always been a concept that at least subtextually is critical of our present society. Well here Banks makes that criticism undeniably textual and it's a banger. Where as usually the criticism can be found in the "why aren't we like that?" here it is more "this is why we suck and don't deserve to live." It's a great addition to The Culture series.
booknug's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
mwx1010's review
3.0
I've still not 100% bought into the Culture series although it seems to work better in the short story form than some of the novels. I've enjoyed them but they just don't seem to spark (which I feel like they should - on the face of things these should be in my sweet spot).
Like many short story collections this is something of a mixed bag. The title story is well done but some of the others are a little weak.
Like many short story collections this is something of a mixed bag. The title story is well done but some of the others are a little weak.