Consider Phlebas
by Iain M. Banks
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Book Reviews of Consider Phlebas
Book Review: Unpleasant and uninteresting
Summary: 1 Stars
I'd heard really good things about this series, but I hated this book. The main character is an unlikeable jerk who keeps casually killing people. There's a really nauseating and pointless interlude with cultists who only eat things that are both disgusting and not actually food. The story takes forever to get where it's going. The author really wants to show off his world-building, but the world is kind of awful. I managed to make it through about half the book only because I was stuck with nothing else to read and no English-language bookstores.
Maybe the other Culture books are better, but this one thoroughly turned me off to the series. I won't trust an author who crammed so many unpleasant things into half a novel not to do it again.
Book Review: A bit of depressing space opera filled with very cool ideas.
Summary: 3 Stars
While this book was full of lots of interesting ideas and some fun action sequences, I found the main character unlikeable and that brought the level of enjoyment down quite a bit for me. Horza--and those around him--go through one hellish scenario after another. Since I wasn't rooting for Horza (or even his side in the Idiran-Culture War), I found it a difficult slog to get to the end of this one. Bottom line: some interesting concepts, but overall depressing. Underneath the bottom line: It is a book about the pointlessness of war, so the reader is probably not supposed to like either side in the war or feel good about the events in the book. Maybe if I had known this going in, I would have been able to appreciate the book more for what it is.Book Review: A Great Big Universe!
Summary: 4 Stars
Read all the rave review about the Culture -- Can't believe it took me so long to find it... but anyways -- I did enjoy visiting that Universe....
Lots of interesting places and people --- I was a bit taken aback with all of (practicaly S&M) renditions of bizare tortures.... & the battles did become a bit tedious at times, well - usualy --- I am certain that the entire bit about 'the eaters' could have been left out entirely! That bit of gruesome perversion was totaly unnecesary and added diddle to the overall story -
Sadly, the attrition rate during the endless battles was the one constant... and Considering Phlebas was ernestly illustrated in an unexpected fashion...
Book Review: My favorite science fiction novel
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the first book by Iain M. Banks I ever read, and it prompted me to read every one of his other SciFi novels. I enjoyed them all but this one stands out as his best, in my opinion.
For me, this story (and especially the ending) has a certain kind of poetry about it that is difficult to put into words.
People who are interested in a simple story with good guys who are purely good and bad guys who are purely bad, with lots of battles and explosions, will be disappointed in this book (and this series). But, if you're looking for rich characters in a story that has a "point" outside of the story itself that you can apply to the here-and-now, this is the book (and series) for you.
Book Review: Boring and uninteresting characters
Summary: 2 Stars
The book is boring and the characters are uninteresting. By the end of the book I just didn't care what happened to the characters, as the author doesn't give you many reasons to like or dislike them.
On top of that (spoilers coming) the book plods along. At one point there is train barreling down the track at the "heroes." This takes around 30 pages to happen. Unfortunately, there is no suspense, as the characters have no idea it is coming. Thus, they aren't trying to stop it. It was like those old cartoons where two vehicles are heading directly towards each other, and they purposefully go back and forth to make it ridiculously obvious they are trying to create tension. Boring!