Consider Phlebas

Consider Phlebas could easily be broken into a set of a few books with the (mis)adventures of the main character as they move from one bizarre situation to the next. Well written and easy to get engrossed in, I happily spent a long weekend finishing it.

This was the first Iain M. Banks book I read and it blew me away. It is one of many SF books to explore grand concepts like Artificial Intelligence, huge spaceships and Interstellar War, but it is one of very few to it believably and with dramatic tension.The war is between the Idirans, who are driven by religion and natural aggression born from a harsh home-planet, and the Culture, a luxury-loving empire largely run by machines. Until attacked by the Idirans, the machines spent most of their time mixing drinks for the Culture's biological citizens, but are now having to apply their (artificial) intelligence to war.The plot traces the story of Horza, an Idiran secret agent trying to capture a Culture Mind (Minds are big thinking machines that do most of the Culture's planning and strategy) which has gone to ground in neutral territory. Far from the Idiran front line, Horza is thrown very much on his own resources. He has to enlist help from the sad detritus of neutrals, each trying to get by and if possible profiteer at the margins of the war, to attempt to reach and capture the Mind. Naturally the Culture is also trying to recover this machine, and sends an agent who inevitably clashes with Horza. The trouble is that, across a gulf of fanaticism and violence, the two agents quite like each other.Banks' execution of this plot is totally absorbing. Huge concepts spring beautifully to the minds' eye, and the characters evoke interest and sympathy. The book starts with a prologue of the Mind's near-capture by Idiran ships and taking refuge on a neutral world. How do you describe the twists and turns of a super-intelligent machine trying to escape a host of hostile pursuers? Try beating that prologue.One of the best SF books ever written.

This is my first Iain M Banks novel. I have known *of* him for a long time, and thought it was high time I read some of his work.So, I asked a friend to recommend one sci-fi and one contemporary work, and this is the former nomination (thank you Dazey!).For me, starting a sci-fi book is a perilous time. I need to be convinced within the first few pages, else I will be turned off. And in sci-fi, getting convinced can take some doing.But Banks pulls it off with consummate ease. He is a truly natural story teller, and his writing has great fluidity and reality whether the location is Glasgow or Schars World.And so to the specifics of this novel.We follow the adventures of Horza from the first page of the book, where he faces certain death, to the last, where... he faces certain death!Along the way... yep, you guessed it, he faces certain death.Horza lurches from one disaster to the next, but all along he is following a path which seems to be destiny. A return to Schars World, where his past, and his love, were left behind.These are not normal times in the galaxy. The backdrop to Horza's odyssey is a war raging across 100,000 light years, fought between the Culture and the Idirans. The scale of this war is breathtaking, with billions dying and battle ships that are kilometers long.In such times, the journey of Horza and his rag-taggle company could pass unnoticed, except that Horza has been working for the Idirans, and Schars World holds something that both sides of the conflict are desperate to capture.Thus Horza becomes a mortal in a war between Gods. That sounds like a greek reference, and indeed there is more than a hint of greek mythology in the epic tale.Where this book really *works* for me is in the meshing together of this personal odyssey and the galactic war. Horza as a tiny piece of flotsam on a stormy ocean.Along the way he constructs a very credible universe, a convincing hero and manages to find time for humor, pathos and tragedy.Consider Phlebas is space opera of the highest, most defining, variety.

After hearing about the works of Iain M. Banks for ages, with almost unanymous praise, I finally decided to check out some of his works. The author writes both regular fiction (under the name Iain Banks) and science fiction (under the name Iain M. Banks). His "Culture" novels fall under the SF category, and "Consider Phlebas" is generally considered the best starting point.The setting for this novel is the galaxy-wide war between the technology-driven Culture and the religious Idirans. The Culture is a loose group of human planets, living in wealth and freedom through their powerful technology. The true masters of the Culture are the Minds, incredibly powerful artificial intelligences, often fitted in big ships like GCU (General Contact Units) or GSV (General System Vehicles).One of these Minds is lost at the beginning of the story. The Idirans want to capture it, because studying it will provide them with useful techonological knowledge in the war. The Culture wants to prevent them from finding it, for obvious reasons.Horza, a human shape-changer employed on the Idiran side, is sent out to find the lost Mind. In his search, he teams up with a group of mercenaries and, after many adventures, travels to the planet where the Mind is hiding out."Consider Phlebas" is a very exciting novel, filled with aliens, immense space-ships, Orbitals, ... Everything you need for a good, old-fashioned, sensawunda-filled space opera. If that's what you enjoy reading, look no further. I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the Culture series.

I feel like I've read hundreds of science fiction novels over the years (I'm 29) and this is one of my favorites. I enjoyed the characters, pacing, and language. Along with Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light," Orson Scott Card's "Ender-series," Dan Simmons' original "Hyperion" book, "Consider Phlebas" will remain on my shelf.