Iain M Banks The Algebraist

[ubermonkey]

So I picked this up on Monday and really couldn't put it down, it's probably my favourite of his sci-fi books to date.

The relatively minor changes he makes to the universe versus a culture book has a huge impact on the style and tone of the book to me, it feels less science fantasyesque, for the better, IMO.

What did y'all think of it?

[The23SidedDie]

I have it sitting on my desk, taunting me. I actually started and put it down - not sure why, perhaps it was too close to reading Use of Weapons, which I adored.

BUt it's huge. So I go to start and get overwhelmed by its size.

[valen]

I've never read culture, so this is my first Iain M Banks book and I have to say I wasn't super impressed. I found the end kind of anti-climactic and I though some parts were tacked on to the story.

hmm... no spoiler tags... seems like that is going to be a problem. Here is some spoiler space. Just in case...





















The side plot of the industrialist and the navy pilot seemed to do nothing to further the main plot. In fact the entire planetary situation (outside of the gas giant) seemed like a distraction to where the important parts of the store were going on. All this build up to what looks like a gigantic space battle and then... nothing...

The solution to the dweller list was pretty cool though. In fact everything about the dwellers was pretty cool actually. Did anybody else get the impression that all the true-twins/travel captains were AI?

[Darlica]

My SO bought it and read it sometime around christmas (and wasn't over joyed, his favorite Ian M Banks is The player of games I belive) since then it has been sitting on my bedside table. I havn't really had the energy to read more than the first 25 pages, it seem to lack that something that makes it a Ian M Banks Book™, I really don't know what it is, but it is important to me.

I'm going to read it some day, I just need to muster up a little motivation...
~D

[Mikey Boy]

I enjoyed the book, but it did feel a lot less focused, and a lot more self-indulgent than his earlier SF books. He spends a lot more time going into details of the setting, and into the less-significant parts of the character's lives than in the previous books of his I've read, and the plot suffers a bit for it.

Also, the villain is an out-and-out, moustache-twirling, cartoonish parody. So ludicrously over-the-top in his Eeeeeeevil, that he must have been intended as a bit of a joke.

Still, it's a good read, nonetheless.

Mike

[Wakboth]

Also, the villain is an out-and-out, moustache-twirling, cartoonish parody. So ludicrously over-the-top in his Eeeeeeevil, that he must have been intended as a bit of a joke.
Yeah; Luseferous is IMO a very deliberate parody of the Evil Overlords in space opera.

[randar23rhenn]

This is my favorite Science Fiction novel to date. I love Iain M. Banks writing style and just can't wait for "Matter" by him later this year.

I still say Orson Scott Card is my favorite author (and I met him about a year and a half ago :) ), but Iain M. Banks is close.

[Axiomatic]

Yeah; Luseferous is IMO a very deliberate parody of the Evil Overlords in space opera.

Not only that, but he's cultivated the image of evil overlordliness quite deliberately.

[Wakboth]

Not only that, but he's cultivated the image of evil overlordliness quite deliberately.

Unfortunately for him (and fortunately to most others), the Dwellers don't take Evil Overlords seriously. :)

[Olive]

It had some nice ideas, but the excerpt that was on the Guardian website made it sound like such a good novel and the end result was a sprawling, almost plot-less mess.

I believe that Banks' editor died a few years back. If so, it shows. This is the typical thing that happens when a successful author changes publishers late in their career and no one at the new place is u to telling him to cut 300 pages.

The early word on Matter is that it's more or less the same.

So, in short, yeah, I was disappointed. Banks is my favourite sci-fi writer hands down and one of my favourite non-genre writers too. But he's lost the spark and I doubt he'll ever again produce anything that lives up to either The Player of Games or The Crow Road - books that were grounded in characters and plot, unlike the Algebraist which was the worst sort of 'world-building is enough' sci-fi.