Consider Phlebas
by Iain M. Banks
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Book Reviews of Consider Phlebas
Book Review: Dog's Breakfast
Summary: 4 Stars
"Consider Phlebas" is a page turner, no doubt about it. However, the overall concept and the following books are greater than this, the first book. I am guessing Banks was feeling his way into the visible edges of his hidden dream-scape.
On one level the book is Swiftian, on another it is a Larry Niven-like comedic take on the space opera, which on a fundamental level is a violation of tone.
Another problem with the book is its tortured violation of point of view to present us with a very cinematic and omniscient view of the carnage at the end of the novel.
There seems to be a need among the current crop of science fiction writers to write cinema. I find this distracts from the writing. More particularly, ninety percent of the novel is written from the limited point of view of Bora Horza Gobuchul. Every time, Banks shifts to the Mind or Fal N'geestra I felt a novelistic hiccup, an interruption in the narrative flow.
Book Review: Wow..
Summary: 1 Stars
Usually when I find a book to be "bad" I sort of figure it out in the first chapter or so, and while I admit I put this book down a few times it finally drew me in.. but when the book started dropping plot-lines, and then when it finally got to the "end", I was so freaking upset I literally trashed the book... I mean, I would be embarrassed to suggest this book for anyone else to read.
I LOVE reading, but the very fact that this book ends with nothing having happened in the entire story-line makes me feel like my mind was taken advantage of, my time wasted and I feel dumber for just having read it. If I could rate a book lower than one stars, well, I would do so.
I have read a few other books in the culture since then, at the pressure of some friends, and it is like they are written by different authors.
How did this book get published?
Book Review: Not that great
Summary: 2 Stars
This book is all over the place, and unnecessarily long. It's like each chapter tries to stand on its own with no connection to the story overall. I felt like I was reading a bad Hollywood script that had to have a bunch of unncessary action to justify the length or budget of the thing. Dialog is boring (a very common problem with science fiction writers), and the ending a giant anti-climatic let-down.
The only SF writers I have read (so far) that do not suffer from these problems are Arthur C. Clark and Alastair Reynolds (his first books anyway), but I've read all their books and keep hunting for someone to take the next spot as my favorite.
This was my first Iain Banks book and probably the last. I only give authors one chance to impress. Maybe Iain's other books are better but it's too late. Sorry.
Book Review: Consider Buying Consider Phlebas
Summary: 5 Stars
Consider Phlebas was an thoroughly enjoyable book. For me, it was on par with other scifi page turners like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and 2001. The protagonist "Horza" sucks you into his life from the very beginning. Although he is human in form, his saliva and blood make him the equivalent of a venomous snake. This is the type of character is typically a villian. Horza is entangled in an inter-galactic conflict between a secular, AI-dominated society known as the Culture, and a militant, religious species known as the Idirans. Horza is an agent of the Idirans, what he regards as the lesser of two evils. I will not give away any more of the story, but will say that it was quite entertaining. I don't recall actually reading the term "Phlebas" anywhere, so I never figured out what the book is asking me to consider.Book Review: Shoddy book with a ending that does not match the rest of the book.
Summary: 2 Stars
The author of the book seemed to value the enviroment the story took place in more than exposing the motivations and beliefs of the charactors. He jammed most of the charactors introspection into cramped little bursts of exposition which made it feel like they where tacked on later to help the reader stay with the story more than anything else. The ending of the book at about the last one hundred pages felt like he was writing in a total different style than he had wrote the rest of the book in. It felt like the ending was changed last minute or rewrote to better suit the authors idea of how a story should end. Overall the book just seemed to be a series of events the charactors just happend to be a part of with a sadsack ending just for the sake of it.