Consider Phlebas
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
NOTE: I'm a huge Iain Banks fan, both non-M and M, so this review reflects that.
It's hard to review the first book in a series that you've gone on to read several times over. Consider Phlebas is the only Culture novel I'd give a 4/5 for and it's hard to tell why.
The story itself not being told from The Cultures perspective makes it a strange first entry (I know it wasn't the first he wrote in the universe, just the first published) so while it does set up the kind of antics you'll get with further books in the series, it does so from a distance.
Banks plays with words so well, it might be the Scottishness, but there is something in the bleak humour that appeals to me on a fundamental level. He brings in politics, humour, vast internal thoughts, descriptive battles and scenes and despite being far future in a technologically advanced civilisation of trillions... It feels weirdly relatable!
So why is this a 4/5 not a 5/5 like the rest of The Culture series? It's not one thing. The story is action filled as any, but it feels like going from one scenario to another to another to showcase the variety of the universe. It's the fact the first isn't a Culture novel as such, but an antagonist of the Culture. Horza isn't the most endearing of fellows either.
It's got all the pieces it needs, but the plot overall is more of one to follow along and see where it ends up, rather than one that gets it's hooks in you.
Doesn't matter, still love it, nothing is perfect.
It's hard to review the first book in a series that you've gone on to read several times over. Consider Phlebas is the only Culture novel I'd give a 4/5 for and it's hard to tell why.
The story itself not being told from The Cultures perspective makes it a strange first entry (I know it wasn't the first he wrote in the universe, just the first published) so while it does set up the kind of antics you'll get with further books in the series, it does so from a distance.
Banks plays with words so well, it might be the Scottishness, but there is something in the bleak humour that appeals to me on a fundamental level. He brings in politics, humour, vast internal thoughts, descriptive battles and scenes and despite being far future in a technologically advanced civilisation of trillions... It feels weirdly relatable!
So why is this a 4/5 not a 5/5 like the rest of The Culture series? It's not one thing. The story is action filled as any, but it feels like going from one scenario to another to another to showcase the variety of the universe. It's the fact the first isn't a Culture novel as such, but an antagonist of the Culture. Horza isn't the most endearing of fellows either.
It's got all the pieces it needs, but the plot overall is more of one to follow along and see where it ends up, rather than one that gets it's hooks in you.
Doesn't matter, still love it, nothing is perfect.
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