inconsistent's review
4.0
Amazing ideas and a great theme - I did find it hard to read at points, and grappled with what was actually going on a few times, but a mind broadening book overall!
hugewizard's review
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
A bit of a jumbled mess. Ideas are good and there are some great bits, but overall the form is hard to parse, there are too many meaningless threads, and it's not quite worth the slog.
shane's review against another edition
Always really enjoy Iain M Banks. This was particularly dear to me since it deals almost entirely with the AI Minds, those wonderful sentient ships that basically lead their own lives. I've read this before and loved it just as much then. Who doesn't love a post-scarcity, Utopian society where you can have and do just about anything you can think of.
Excellent read.
Excellent read.
charlibirb's review against another edition
3.0
Not one of my favorite Culture novels. It was a bit all over the place.
halibut's review against another edition
3.0
The good bit of this was when it felt like being on a space tourbus, with the writer showing me a succession of cool and odd things he's come up with. The amount of different things packed in left each individual bit feeling pretty thin, particularly the human characters, and like the fairly simple central plot was getting too stretched out. There's some interesting parallels and disconnects between the stories of individual ships & humans in places. I don't know, I liked it ok, but prefer things with a much smaller scope generally.
andy_hird's review against another edition
4.0
I'm very glad a friend recommended this book. Never even heard of the author, and frankly thought it would be a self-indulgent 'space-opera' that made itself as over the top as possible. I almost wanted to stop reading. Glad I didn't. I've never read a story that depicts AI (machine life, rather) in such an interesting way. They're "human" in a way you wouldn't normally expect from a typical sci-fi story.
cburling's review against another edition
Very early on in Consider Phlebos, I could tell that his writing style just wasn't for me.
whippycleric's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
As far as culture novels go its about average but the series is really good hence the 4 stars. The first half is quite slow and took a while to get into but the 2nd half is really good. The human story told in parallel to that of the sleeper service and the understanding of the excession is nice. There's more focus on the ships in this than a lot of the other culture series adding some more depth to the universe.
elusivity's review against another edition
4.0
The more I read of the Culture series, the more I am puzzled as to its stature in the SF genre. True, Banks' prose is really rather good. The personalities he craft are often vivid and interesting -- though I've noticed this holds true more of the artificial intelligences than the human ones. But each novel so far seem so very much ado about little.
I have several issues with this one:
Too many characters. Minds with their impossible-to-remember names, humans with their impossible-to-remember names, aliens with their impossible-to-remember names. I lost track of who said what, who plotted with whom, and didn't care enough to return to re-read or take notes.
Plot points illustrated through tiny snippet vignettes of random minor characters who may or may not appeared again. This contributed much to my inability to keep the various story-threads alive in my head.
Remind me, what is the point of all these twists and turns again?! This novel seemed littered with mountains made of ant hills.
Ultimately, what can be written about the inhabitants of a society who no longer need to worry about death or illness or any kind of material lack? Not much of deep significance, it seems. Only with the appearance of an outside context entity, posing overwhelming potential for destruction, does deep thoughts /philosophy come into being (as clearly illustrated by the various instances of Minds & humans finally coming into clarity after having faced the prospect of imminent annihilation). In the meanwhile, entities squabble, plot, sulk, throw tantrums, indulge in all possible pleasures, and live out their self-acknowledged ultimately-meaningless lives...
---
2017:
Years later, I am forced to upgrade the original 2-STAR rating to 4-STARS. No matter what I thought about the details within this novel, it is one I remember most out of the entire series, and the first thing I think of whenever the idea "Outside Context Problem" pop into my head (which happens more often than you'd think). I must strive for a re-read soon.
I have several issues with this one:
Too many characters. Minds with their impossible-to-remember names, humans with their impossible-to-remember names, aliens with their impossible-to-remember names. I lost track of who said what, who plotted with whom, and didn't care enough to return to re-read or take notes.
Plot points illustrated through tiny snippet vignettes of random minor characters who may or may not appeared again. This contributed much to my inability to keep the various story-threads alive in my head.
Remind me, what is the point of all these twists and turns again?! This novel seemed littered with mountains made of ant hills.
Ultimately, what can be written about the inhabitants of a society who no longer need to worry about death or illness or any kind of material lack? Not much of deep significance, it seems. Only with the appearance of an outside context entity, posing overwhelming potential for destruction, does deep thoughts /philosophy come into being (as clearly illustrated by the various instances of Minds & humans finally coming into clarity after having faced the prospect of imminent annihilation). In the meanwhile, entities squabble, plot, sulk, throw tantrums, indulge in all possible pleasures, and live out their self-acknowledged ultimately-meaningless lives...
---
2017:
Years later, I am forced to upgrade the original 2-STAR rating to 4-STARS. No matter what I thought about the details within this novel, it is one I remember most out of the entire series, and the first thing I think of whenever the idea "Outside Context Problem" pop into my head (which happens more often than you'd think). I must strive for a re-read soon.