The Algebraist

Iain M Banks novels are a bit like M Night Shyamalan movies in that each one has a twist. Unlike Shyamalan, however, Banks' twists keep getting better and are embedded in works of artistic and creative genius. This book eschews the Culture universe where AIs run the show in favor of an alternative place where AIs have been hunted down (nearly) to extinction. Banks explores many common themes such as the complex ways that humans affect one another on personal and societal levels, as well as uncommon ones, like what kinds of species and societies could evolve on gas giant planets. This book is long and complex and its issues filled my thoughts for days after I finished it. PS If you like books like these where the fantasy goes hand-in-hand with great prose and characters, also try Gene Wolfe's "Book of the Long Sun" novels.

Nope - it's not The Culture, it's a grand space opera with treachery, villains, more villians, and not really many "good guys" in sight. I think Mr Banks may have been tired of the almost Star Trek Federation "rules" of the Culture and decided to write a rip-snorter. Of course, it IS Banks, so it's richly detailed, and every page demands attention - this took me a good week of savoring it. The world of the Dwellers is wonderfully realized. But it is the bureaucracy of the Mericator (sp?) and the raw villainy of Luciferous that makes me think that Banks was having a bit of a laugh with this episode. His sense of humor (which in the Culture books seemed to be constrained to the world of the ships) comes through... even as truly horrible events are unfolding (which he has a disturbing facility for creating)... He sets things up pretty easily for more adventures in this "universe", and I'm hoping there are a few more books on the way....

Iain M. Banks is one of the few really gifted writers of sci-fi, and this novel is no exception. The story itself -- a prolonged quest for a secret technology to save an isolated system from a ruthless invader -- seems familiar enough. But, as always with Banks, half the fun is in the telling: the brilliant array of characters whom Fassin Taak (a human "Slow Seer") encounters on his travels. However, as one gradually learns, the actual point of his travels is quite different from what it seems to be at the time, both to us and to Fassin. I won't reveal the secret, of course, but keep your eye on the Dwellers, who understand "the mystery of the universe" far more deeply than the human characters do, and who are, or who at least may be, willing to make a tragic choice in revealing that mystery. See if you can keep up! I have to admit that I was entirely astonished by the ending. Along the way: the description of the sailboat race on Nasq is simply dazzling. It takes place on the inner wall of the eye of a hurricane! And that's just the premise.

The Algebraist is an extremely absorbing and enticing novel. Banks writes with a milder style than in his well-known 'Culture' books, but he retains his prodigious imagination, dark humor, and his ability to construct a marvelously complicated landscape without allowing it to obscure the story. Many basic elements and themes of his previous science fiction can be seen in the structure of the work, but the creation is entirely new and original. Banks' earlier body of work is vibrant, gothic, and faultlessly well written. His crowning achievement 'Use of Weapons' is, IMHO, the greatest science fiction novel ever written (with 'Consider Phlebas' and 'Against a Dark Background' running close behind) and 'Crow Road' is a masterpiece of storytelling. His recent work however, has seemed to stagnate; 'The Business' and 'Look to Windward' were somewhat lackluster even to a Banks-phile like myself. With 'The Algebraist', Mr. Banks has clearly returned to his groove. He creates a completely new milieu, populated with new characters from his incredible font of imagination, and described with his usual wealth of vocabulary and vision. I highly recommend the book to any fan of well-written fiction (science or no). I eagerly await his next book which, if protocol holds, will be published by 'Iain Banks' and therefore contain contemporary rather than science fiction. Thank you, Mr. Banks, for another extremely enjoyable journey.

Unlike Iain M. Banks's Culture where machine intelligences are the dominant form of life, the world of The Algebraist has humanity structured as a quasi-religious hierarchy. The various human worlds are connected via gates that permit a limited form of FTL travel, the gates must originate from the same place and be transported at sub-light speeds to their destinations. When a gate is destroyed then the surrounding are is cut off from the rest of the galaxy. It is on just such a system that the story takes place. The protagonist is a part socialogist/explorer/diplomat who is one a chosen few who interacts with the denizens of a local gas giant. The inhabitants of the gas giant have a society far different from humanity, in part due to their lifespans stretching to the millions of years. In this time, numerous empires of the Quick, of which humanity is exemplar, have sprung up and disentegrated. Key among the secrets that the ancients are rumored to possess is a network of gates traversing the galaxy. It is in this setting that the story takes place. Aside from the adventures of the protagonist within the world of the gas giant dwellers, his home system is threatened by a sociapathic dictator and his invading army. If a weak point had to be listed for this novel it would be that the characterization of the dictator is too over-the-top. In providing a tour of Banks's new creation The Algebraist does get a bit heavy with exposition. However, exploring the new universe is worth the cost of having a slower story. It is nice to see a fresh environment from the author and hopefully there will be more books in this setting to come.