Excession
by Iain M. Banks
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Book Reviews of Excession
Book Review: Excession of my expectation
Summary: 5 Stars
Except for Star Wars, I'm never been much into sci-fi. I bought Excession partly on the strength of Banks' 'straight' fiction (especially The Wasp Factory), but mostly because it was the only English language book on the shelves of the Venetian bookshop in which I found it. The outward signs were not good: the edition I purchased is illustrated with one of those ghastly airbrushed spaceships favoured by the direst of pulp sci-fi publishers. But one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Nor did I have foreknowledge of Bank's "Culture", the parallel universe he has developed for his science fiction titles, a potential handicap given this is about the fifth in the series. It turned out not to matter.Excession had me from the start. This is proper literature which, as such, leaves Arthur C Clarke and E E "Doc" Smith for dead. The ideas in it are out of Clarke's league, too. There's something cinematic about the narrative, cutting and diving between figures and dialogues (the communications between the ships are especially fascinating) as Banks unravels, surely and deliberately, the plot. It's challenging - not a word in the 451 pages is wasted, and you can not afford to casually flick through a couple of pages. Fortunately, you never feel the need to. Readers of his straight fiction will know Banks' particular gift for story telling: it is put to even better use here. After fifty pages you know you're in the hands of a master - a fine, wicked, playful master at that.
Banks' only concession to the genre is to give his humanoid characters silly names, such as Dajeil Gelian and (& I'm not kidding) Sikleyr-Najasa Croepice Ince Stahl da Mapin. Knowing Banks' style, however, this is probably some sort of in-joke that I don't get, so the laugh's most likely on me for missing it. His spaceships, which are delightfully sentient, all get terrific names, on the other hand, such as The Problem Child and Fate Amenable to Change. Cool. Great book - ideal holiday reading; excellent for a 15 hour ferry trips from Bari to Igoumenitsa.
Book Review: Another installment of the history of Culture...
Summary: 4 Stars
Excession, by Iain M. Banks, is the 1996 installment of the Culture series. Culture is the collection of intelligences, organic and machine, that voluntarily accepts a peaceful coexistence. Culture "civilization" has no need for a militarily expansionist structure; it has all the energy and materials needed to develop ships holding hundreds of millions of inhabitants in empty space. There is simply no need to conquer another planet, or take over another civilization.
Unfortunately, other civilizations don't share this philosophy. Thus, Culture has its "Special Circumstances" section to deal, both reactively and proactively, with aggression toward Culture and Culture's interests (primarily peaceful coexistence).
The Idirans nudged Culture away from its coexistence goals, and Special Circumstances geared up to deal with them. Culture was successful, and after the Idirian War, Mind-controlled warships were stored throughout the galaxy in hidden havens like Pittance.
In Excession, three things happen. An Excession, an extraordinary, unexplainable event/entity, pops into existence. It is assumed to originate from another Universe. Its presence threatens peaceful coexistence, particularly with the Affronters, a violence-loving civilization that also has eyes on the Excession, and on the perceived threat from Culture (that Culture would even attempt to keep Affronters from the Excession was interference enough). Finally, among the ancient and powerful Minds in Culture, there appears to be a renegade faction with secret aims and goals... a conspiracy within.
Banks' Excession is complicated, convoluted, and complex. It was hard (for me) to keep track of the characters and Minds as the plot rotated around its various subroutines, and a few of the characters wee simply not believable. But there was an "event horizon" that, once crossed, grabs the reader's interest and won't let go.
To Culture fans, you won't be disappointed.
Book Review: exploring Minds and the wealth of the Culture
Summary: 4 Stars
When expecting a Banks' sci-fi book, expect only excellence.
When expecting a Banks' "Culture" book, expect seven things:
1) war, weapons, death and destruction
2) glanding different sensations to alter reality
3) drones with smart mouths, attitudes and a cunning wit
4) knife missiles slicing through baddie targets
5) quirky aliens in and out of the Culture
6) dark, grim gory scenes that will leave you cringing
7) Minds and their space vessels
Here's the breakdown of this Culture novel:
1) War breaks out between the Affront and the Culture, but there was little death and destruction. One or two deaths were satisfying enough.
2) Glanding different sensations to alter brain chemistry was prevalent throughout the book. It played no key role, but it was remarked upon enough.
3) Three of four drones made an appearance here. None of them were over the top scene catchers, but one drone did have a few choice words to say.
4) Sadly, no knife missiles were used.
5) The Affront species was humorous to read about. They seem like a hearty species to be mixed with, as long as you're not their dinner or hunting game.
6) I very much like the gritty scenes in Banks' novels, especially the island scene in Consider Phlebas. Excession had two gritty scenes (one with a death and one with grisly injury). Not up to par.
7) There were more Minds in this Culture book than any other Culture novel I have yet to read. It was bordering on mind-boggling, but the story cleared up towards the end. Reading the conversations between Minds was extremely interesting to experience (especially the Eccentric Minds).
Not all categories were up to par, but between the greatness of witnessing the Affront and the Minds. Well played out.
Book Review: Complex space opera
Summary: 4 Stars
Another of Banks' Culture novels, this one languished on my to-be-read shelf for a couple of years. Since Banks writes about a book a year, if one does not keep reading him steadily, it is easy to fall behind (as opposed to, say, Howard Waldrop). I'm a fan of Banks mainly for his easy, breezy style and the modernist trappings of his characters. Yes, he writes space opera (when he writes SF), but this is no Star Wars--the characters are never so easily swept into categories of good and evil, nor can the science be so easily removed from the plot to reveal a western in space. A Culture novel would not be filmable, although it would be interesting to see someone try.
The title refers to a spatial anomaly that threatens to change the universe. It is big and spherical and obviously not a part of the "normal" universe, so it triggers the machinations of several conspiracies (what the Culture's Minds are best at) and a new war between the Culture and the aggressive Affront. The usual cast is there under different names: an independent human male envoy for Contact, a wronged woman, a spunky girl, some old and patient Drones, and some devious Minds. The Affront are interesting as foils to the utopian leanings of the Culture (I think I remember Banks saying that the reason he created the Culture as a utopian society was to show just how inherently unstable such a thing was).
This one jumps around a lot, switching various storylines so often that it is difficult to keep everything straight in your head, especially if you read this over multiple days. Don't. Read it in one sitting for the pure pleasure of it.
Book Review: SPACE OPERA AT ITS BEST
Summary: 5 Stars
If you were to take the average Roman citizen circa 100AD and present him with a collection of short stories by brilliant twentieth century writers, chances are that he would find much of the content confusing, astounding or downright unbelievable. A similar feeling may be had by readers of Excession who are not familiar with Iain M. Banks previous works of science fiction. Mr Banks tells of a culture where technology is advanced to a point that it is borderline fantasy. While a good deal of his science fiction looks likely to become science fact, some of his concepts are unabashed plot devices.Unlike much of his non-sci-fi work, the prose here is beautifully straightforward and succint. There are romantic tragedies, collossal space battles, political intrigue and dealings between artificial intelligences. All this produces a spectacularly well written book that is actually several very different stories anchored around one particular event, the "Excession".
I literally could not put this book down. The pacing is perfect, the characters very deep and the technology almost sinful. Throughout the novel I had the feeling that I was going to be in for some kind of major twist or surprise in the end. I was not dissapointed. The final confrotation was the most sensational piece of space operatics that I have ever read and it left my head buzzing.
For people who like their science fiction with an edge, Iain M. Banks does for the next few millenia what William Gibson has done for the near future.