Customer Reviews

The State of the Art

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There are a few versions of this floating around. The one pictured on top of this page is the one I'll be talking about and is a collection of short fiction. There's at least one other published earlier that only contains the title story. "The State of the Art" is probably what this book is best known for, it's over a hundred pages long and thus dominates by far all of the other stories in the volume. It's also by far the best, probably because the length allows Banks to really run with his ideas and themes. Basically his ultra-advanced Culture runs into Earth circa 1977 and decides to hang around and observe for a bit. This allows Banks to indulge in quite a bit of social commentary in the form of "aliens telling us what we do wrong" but he keeps it balanced,... some of the Culture think Earth is a great place and there are more than a few arguments that the Culture itself is stifling and stagnant (not that these are new arguments to anyone who has read the other Culture novels), all in all it feels like a complete novel as opposed to a novella, and just about everything works. The book is worth it just for that story. Fortunately the others are all pretty decent, most are pretty short and thus don't have as much impact either because they're just downright weird (the one with the sentinent tree or whatever was just odd) or experimental (the last story especially, I suspect I missed a wagon-load of comments on British society) but most of the others, such as the other Culture story or the guy stuck in the astronaut suit work just right and show the depth and extent of Banks' vision. He's not concerned with working in just SF or just genre fiction or "just" anything, his stories run the gamut and are unmistakeably his, in whatever genre or strange mix thereof. These new to Banks would be wise to sample this and see what he's capable of before moving onto the (hard as it is to believe) vastly better novels. I wish I could say he's underrated, but it wouldn't be true.

Look at it this way - State of The Art is a great short story with some additional filler between the covers. But what a great short story it is. State of The Art finds the Culture arriving at Earth in 1978. By all accounts, the outlook is bleak for the human race. Contact, and our favorite Culture gal Dziet Sma, have to decide whether to get in touch with a world locked in a seemingly desperate arms race and the slow and painful destruction of the planet's ecosystem. Banks casts an ascerbic eye over the "state of the art" - both the Culture's and Earth's. By setting the story in the recent past, the reader knows that if the Culture had turned up just 10 years later the whole story would be different. Or would it? Sma and her crew-mates travel around the world sampling the delights and the horrors of Earth. Despite various cosmetic changes, is the planet in any better shape than it was 21 years ago? Is the Earth beyond hope? In a fitting gesture to the Culture's perverse tolerance for dissent, a crew member decides to stay. Why? And what, asks Banks, makes us human - and the Culture alien? A clever, philosophic and beautifully written story. Worth the price of the book alone.

...this is not a collection. There is a short-story collection of Banks', but it was only released by his British publisher (Orbit, in 1991). That collection is also called The State of the Art (the title novella does takes up close to 2/3 of the book...)... Any edition that is from 1989, or published by Mark V Ziesing, is the origional American version and only contains the novella.

Hope that helps out.

There are at least two editions of this book around (I've got two in front of me as I write this), and there is a significant difference in addition to the cover art. The two editions I have are The State Of The Art (Night Shade Books) and The State of the Art (Orbit UK edition). The reviews posted on Amazon are the same for both editions, causing some confusion.

The Orbit edition has the following eight short stories:

- Road of Skulls

- A Gift from the Culture

- Odd Attachment

- Descendant

- Cleaning Up

- Piece

- The State of the Art

- Scratch

The Night Shade edition has these same stories plus an extra 21 pages of a "non-fiction" chapter titled "A Few Notes on the Culture." These notes are written in the form of a letter from author Iain M Banks to the reader, ending with "Anyway, that's more than enough of me pontificating. With best wishes for the future, Iain M Banks (Sun-Earther Iain El-Bonko Banks of North Queensferry)."

If you are a Culture fan, you'll want the Night Shade Books edition.

If you just want to read an interesting collection of (mostly) sci-fi stories, you can read either! "Odd Attachment" has a unique spin on the "she loves me, she loves me not" petal-pulling exercise. I also liked "Descendant", about the relationship between a man and an intelligent space suit. "The State of the Art" was almost 100 pages, and is about a Culture Contact team visiting Earth in 1977.

This is a book written for fans of both Iain M Banks and the Culture!

If you're not already a Banks fan, this book won't make you one (that would be "The Player of Games", "Canal Dreams", "The Brige", or "Use of Weapons," depending on your taste). But if you liked "Use of Weapons", "State of the Art" is worth it just for the title story, which has Diziet Sma aboard a GCU orbiting Earth in the 1970s. The intervene

In "State of the Art" Banks gives us an powerful insight into our own culture, its greed, politics, and notion of what it means to be "human."

As with the very best science fiction writing, Banks challenges the reader. His gritty writing style, coupled with the slick high-technology Culture clashing with 1960's Earth politics, sets the stage for a explosion of ideas. Many of these ideas fly directly in the face of common wisdom (at least for what *we* consider is wisdom) and forces the reader to reevaluate our own mind-set. Scary stuff indeed.

In one of the most telling passages, alien characters play a party game -- describe earthlings in one word. Replies include: industrious, curious and insane. One alien replies "MINE!" A very telling exclamation of modern Earth.

I'd rank "State of the Art" as Banks' best work to date - which is certainly a big complement. I'd recommend the book for any sci-fi fan, or - more importantly - any person who believes that capitalism is the only way for the future. You may not agree with Banks, but at least he gets you thinking

I like Iain M. Banks, I own many of his books and have read many more. But this collection is not that great. There isn't a single story in here that I'd want to keep, nothing that justifies the shelf space this slim volume would take up. If you find it in a used book store and have read everything else Banks has written, go for it. Otherwise, go buy some other book of his that you haven't read yet.

If you haven't yet read Use of Weapons or The Player of Games then go get one of those, they're great!

Humor & sci-fi wrapped up in a nice little package. Banks works wonders in this regard. Here are my top 5 (of 8) favorites.

5) "Piece" is a look at gritty life outside of the Culture.

4) "Descendant" isn't sci-fi, but a moving and intelligent story.

3) "Odd Attatchment" is about an astronaut and his, sometimes, humorous relation ship with his AI spacesuit.

2) "The State of the Art" is highly original.

1) "Cleaning Up" is weird (my dad says). I say it's head-shaking, tongue-biting, tear-rolling, seen-in-public-laughing-by-yourself sci-fi/humor at its finest. Ever.

I really don't know what to say, the culture books have all been beyond my expectations. The State Of The Art is no exception, it contains 8 stories and then it has some notes on the culture. I enjoyed all of the stories but those that stood out most were "Odd Attachment", "Descendant", "Piece" and "The State of the Art". The story "Scratch" is weird to read but stick with it and you'll get it (at least I did). The writing technique of "Scratch" kind of reminded me of the Beatles "Revolution 9" (that could just be me though). As for "A Few Notes on the Culture" reading it just shows you how much thought Banks has put into his Culture books, it also gives you some insight to his intelligence. I have few favorites in anything (music, books, movies etc.) but when asked "who is my favorite author? I have no problem saying Iain M. Banks.

It's a great collection. Maybe some of the stories are alittle artsy and hard to access, and the novella State of the Art is less a plot driven edge of your seat adventure, and more the musings and meditations on humanity, interventionism, determinism, and aliens (and it's pretty predictable, really). But, even still, I do love it, and plan on rereading it again and again.