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Excession Iain M Banks 9780553575378 Books

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Excession Iain M Banks 9780553575378 Books

I am still working through the Culture series. To give a basis of comparison, I have read the following books in this order:

Consider Phlebas
Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession

Of these, Excession was the hardest to follow, although I mostly understood it by the end, as with most Culture books. This novel features the characters of Starship Minds most heavily, amid an historic scientific event and a (minor) intragalactic war. There are some amazing scenes depicted that will stimulate your imagination, and some fantastic dialog between these starships. There is also one of the only space battle scenes ever depicted in the Culture, and it's quite an awesome one.

I wouldn't start the Culture series with this novel, but it's still a very good one and worth reading if you like the others. Very imaginative sci-fi.


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Excession Iain M Banks 9780553575378 Books Reviews

I bought this book after having previously read the library's paperback edition. I do wish had made this available on . In my opinion, this best describes the essence of "The Culture." In fact, perhaps this should be your first book in the Culture series, as it will provide a wonderful foundation for the other novels.
For some unknown reason (stupid lawyers, I'm guessing), this is the only Culture book not available anywhere in electronic form. I've forgotten how inconvenient paper books are. I've read and re-read all the others electronically, and finally had to buy the dead tree version of this one in order to read it.

All that aside, it's a Culture book by Banks, so OF COURSE it's another brilliant, enjoyable, confusing, endearing, and fascinating glimpse into that universe. There are references to events and beings from the other books, but like all Culture novels, it stands on its own perfectly well. Still, it helps a lot to have read a few other Culture novels before this one so you have some rough idea of what ship Minds are.
Ian M. Banks, more than any other writer, has a knack for making artificial intelligence machines into living, "breathing" characters. (In fact, they don't breathe.) And they are the real starts of this novel.

What makes these characters enjoyable, though, is that their culture (as, in effect, de facto protectors of The Culture civilization) feels so human, with dignity, noble goals, ethics, protocols, social norms, and an admirable overall desire to make things better. The fact that The Culture is built on individual freedom, including freedom to do what you will and freedom from the nasty and brutish challenges of illness, physical disadvantages (let alone disabilities), and poverty, makes it easier to root for these "Minds". And the fact that The Culture is not perfect at achieving these goals, especially when it comes to meddling with less advanced civilizations, makes it all the more believable. Otherwise it'd just be too utopian.

There's a mystery at the heart of this novel A mysterious ship (if it is in fact a ship) that suddenly appears in a corner of the galaxy. Nobody knows what it's about, where it's from, what it wants. But it may have appeared previously long ago. The only thing that's clear is that it's vastly more powerful than the Minds who are the giants of The Culture.

This is a very enjoyable read, and is one of the few novels I've read that I plan to read again.
It's this one I remember best (just reread it) and enjoyed the most. Hydrogen Sonata is a close second. Of course, the whole Culture set is a triumph of the imagination, a lasting monument to the author's incredible skill. One wishes that someone else (William Gibson comes to mind, though he's obviously busy producing his own great stuff) had picked up and continued this series after Banks' untimely demise. It's not too late for someone to do this, even now. Culture fans worldwide would rejoice -- assuming sufficient artistry could be brought to bear on the effort. But this may be too much to ask . . . .
Jeez, the bot wants me to pre-review this book with a checklist of notes on plot, mood, pace and character. Do they know I'm writing a review of an Iain M. Banks novel, a novel which might be his most complex (and that's REAL complex) and adventurous, definitely his most imaginative, and a novel in which a good proportion of the characters are AI Minds, not humans?

Read this book and tell me. It has been one of the books that has given me new faith in science fiction. Mr. Banks' passing leaves a hole in the genre that will not soon be filled.
I am still working through the Culture series. To give a basis of comparison, I have read the following books in this order

Consider Phlebas
Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession

Of these, Excession was the hardest to follow, although I mostly understood it by the end, as with most Culture books. This novel features the characters of Starship Minds most heavily, amid an historic scientific event and a (minor) intragalactic war. There are some amazing scenes depicted that will stimulate your imagination, and some fantastic dialog between these starships. There is also one of the only space battle scenes ever depicted in the Culture, and it's quite an awesome one.

I wouldn't start the Culture series with this novel, but it's still a very good one and worth reading if you like the others. Very imaginative sci-fi.