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.
franklywrites's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
My first experience of the Culture series was Consider Phlebas, because it was the first one, I didn't realise they could be read in any order, and I always start at the beginning. I was not a fan. I didn't finish it. It was with great reluctance and after a good deal of time had passed that I could stomach approaching another in the series.
So of course I came to the last one next. I'm very glad I did pick it up, as it was much more coherent and I actually liked the characters. Getting to see the ship minds up close and personal was also quite fun. I'm not entirely sure of the pacing, but it's a long book and I was listening on audio, so my attention didn't keep hold of details quite the way it usually does. In any case, I enjoyed the ride, my husband got to laugh when he heard out of context, and I consider myself more likely to go back and grab another book in the series at some point.
So of course I came to the last one next. I'm very glad I did pick it up, as it was much more coherent and I actually liked the characters. Getting to see the ship minds up close and personal was also quite fun. I'm not entirely sure of the pacing, but it's a long book and I was listening on audio, so my attention didn't keep hold of details quite the way it usually does. In any case, I enjoyed the ride, my husband got to laugh when he heard
Spoiler
the man with a hundred penisesmschlat's review against another edition
4.0
There's some sadness here... A while back I decided to read all the Culture novels in publication order, and this is the last one, which I means I don't get any more Banks's wonderful takes on sociological science fiction.
Putting this aside, this is a good, but not great, installment. Plotwise, it reminds me of its predecessor [b:Surface Detail|7937744|Surface Detail (Culture, #9)|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1287893375l/7937744._SY75_.jpg|11345814], in that we follow a young non-Culture woman around inside a particularly powerful Culture ship, as her agenda and Culture agendas collide. But, this final book focuses on some of the Culture mythos we have only seen allusion to --- in particular, the idea of Subliming. The backdrop of the whole novel is the elevation of the Gzilt civilization to higher dimensions as they abandon the "Real", and what's fascinating is how Banks details how you still have very "earthly" behavior (treachery, warfare, debauchery) even as your society prepares to transcend all that. (And speaking of debauchery --- a theme Banks returns to again and again ---we have a five-year long party/orgy/feast as a major setting with the host having far too many of one particular body part.)
As usual, the tension near the end is fantastic as Banks puts all the pieces on the table. But, I felt like the Culture versus non-Culture questions that drove previous books were slightly muted in this one. So, great action, but lesser philosophical musings.
Putting this aside, this is a good, but not great, installment. Plotwise, it reminds me of its predecessor [b:Surface Detail|7937744|Surface Detail (Culture, #9)|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1287893375l/7937744._SY75_.jpg|11345814], in that we follow a young non-Culture woman around inside a particularly powerful Culture ship, as her agenda and Culture agendas collide. But, this final book focuses on some of the Culture mythos we have only seen allusion to --- in particular, the idea of Subliming. The backdrop of the whole novel is the elevation of the Gzilt civilization to higher dimensions as they abandon the "Real", and what's fascinating is how Banks details how you still have very "earthly" behavior (treachery, warfare, debauchery) even as your society prepares to transcend all that. (And speaking of debauchery --- a theme Banks returns to again and again ---we have a five-year long party/orgy/feast as a major setting with the host having far too many of one particular body part.)
As usual, the tension near the end is fantastic as Banks puts all the pieces on the table. But, I felt like the Culture versus non-Culture questions that drove previous books were slightly muted in this one. So, great action, but lesser philosophical musings.