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A review by beaconatnight
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
3.0
Cheradenine Zakalwe was born outside the Culture's sphere of influence, but who was later hired as an agent in its Special Circumstances department whose function it is to secretly intervene in less advanced civilization and provide guidance without them knowing that they had been manipulated in this way. He had successfully completed a number of difficult jobs and his military effectiveness is beyond a doubt, but his latest mission has been a complete failure.
Still, they need him again. War is imminent in the Voerenhutz cluster. Its peace-preserving and beloved president, Tsoldrin Beychae, abdicated some years ago and ongoing disputes are becoming increasingly more heated. There are the so-called Humanists who fiercely oppose the introduction of artificial intelligence in their society. To them only human (or at least biological) experience has intrinsic value. They want to rely on terraforming to further their course. Since the Culture is controlled by (artificial) Minds, it's easy to see why they take offense at these developments. They need Zakalawe because of his special connection to the ex-president.
Use of Weapons, the third novel in the Culture series, is very episodic in nature. It has a main line of action told continuously over chapters counting forward, yet there are also chapters that progress back in time and that provide more and more detail to our anti-hero protagonist's troubled past. There is no straight-forward narrative to the more character-oriented sections, but I highly enjoyed the sense of mystery gradually resolved by the slowly emerging wider picture.
Zakalawe desperately wants to see his sister Livueta again – in fact, this is what the Culture offers him as payment – but we soon learn that they had a severe falling out, though it remains unclear what happened. There is the puzzling obsession with chairs and casual remarks about some Chairmaker that don't seem to make much sense (what importance could a chair have?). There is the usual lost love, and there is the question of the purpose to his later life's ventures. In the present there is even the question of where he is and how he could escape.
Iain M. Banks's vivid writing does a great job to make you excited for his little projects that have no clear connection to Zakalawe's overall arc. There is the great moment of retribution at the first (or last) assignment, the narrative told from the arrogant aristocrat's viewpoint at the second (to last), the nighmarish state of consciousness where he tries to deceiver the meaning of metaphors. There is chapter told in the haze of a drug-induced ritual. Later Zakalawe suddenly even finds himself the religious leader in an escalating war.
Of course Zakalawe is by far the most completed character, but there are many highly enjoyable personalities in the wider cast. The most important for the overall plot is Diziet Sma who is of interest mainly because of her more personal relationship to our otherwise rather distant protagonist. I loved the humorous dynamics with her drone, Skaffen-Amtiskaw, who don't always see eye to eye and that give us a sense that the Culture might not be as disinterested and objective as it claims or even thinks it is.
In one of the later chapters, a minor character expresses a truism that well renders the state of affairs with novels of a less conventional plot structure: "What one person may call a proper story may not please somebody else." I thought that the book itself was a great example. For me personally it was a bit too fragmented for my liking, though I cannot but praise the exciting and repeatedly surprising ride. This is especially true for the big plot twist at the very end that throws a completely different light and on the character we thought we had learned to understand.
Though genuinely funny at times, there is the underlying sense of tragedy throughout the tale of Zakalawe's life. Maybe it's too much to say that I enjoyed the melancholy, but it was still highly satisfying when in the end you understand where it was coming from.
Rating: 3.5/5
Still, they need him again. War is imminent in the Voerenhutz cluster. Its peace-preserving and beloved president, Tsoldrin Beychae, abdicated some years ago and ongoing disputes are becoming increasingly more heated. There are the so-called Humanists who fiercely oppose the introduction of artificial intelligence in their society. To them only human (or at least biological) experience has intrinsic value. They want to rely on terraforming to further their course. Since the Culture is controlled by (artificial) Minds, it's easy to see why they take offense at these developments. They need Zakalawe because of his special connection to the ex-president.
Use of Weapons, the third novel in the Culture series, is very episodic in nature. It has a main line of action told continuously over chapters counting forward, yet there are also chapters that progress back in time and that provide more and more detail to our anti-hero protagonist's troubled past. There is no straight-forward narrative to the more character-oriented sections, but I highly enjoyed the sense of mystery gradually resolved by the slowly emerging wider picture.
Zakalawe desperately wants to see his sister Livueta again – in fact, this is what the Culture offers him as payment – but we soon learn that they had a severe falling out, though it remains unclear what happened. There is the puzzling obsession with chairs and casual remarks about some Chairmaker that don't seem to make much sense (what importance could a chair have?). There is the usual lost love, and there is the question of the purpose to his later life's ventures. In the present there is even the question of where he is and how he could escape.
Iain M. Banks's vivid writing does a great job to make you excited for his little projects that have no clear connection to Zakalawe's overall arc. There is the great moment of retribution at the first (or last) assignment, the narrative told from the arrogant aristocrat's viewpoint at the second (to last), the nighmarish state of consciousness where he tries to deceiver the meaning of metaphors. There is chapter told in the haze of a drug-induced ritual. Later Zakalawe suddenly even finds himself the religious leader in an escalating war.
Of course Zakalawe is by far the most completed character, but there are many highly enjoyable personalities in the wider cast. The most important for the overall plot is Diziet Sma who is of interest mainly because of her more personal relationship to our otherwise rather distant protagonist. I loved the humorous dynamics with her drone, Skaffen-Amtiskaw, who don't always see eye to eye and that give us a sense that the Culture might not be as disinterested and objective as it claims or even thinks it is.
In one of the later chapters, a minor character expresses a truism that well renders the state of affairs with novels of a less conventional plot structure: "What one person may call a proper story may not please somebody else." I thought that the book itself was a great example. For me personally it was a bit too fragmented for my liking, though I cannot but praise the exciting and repeatedly surprising ride. This is especially true for the big plot twist at the very end that throws a completely different light and on the character we thought we had learned to understand.
Though genuinely funny at times, there is the underlying sense of tragedy throughout the tale of Zakalawe's life. Maybe it's too much to say that I enjoyed the melancholy, but it was still highly satisfying when in the end you understand where it was coming from.
Rating: 3.5/5