Look to Windward (Mass Market Paperback)

by Iain M. Banks (Author) "The barges lay on the darkness of the still canal, their lines softened by the snow heaped in pillows and hummocks on their decks..." (more)
Key Phrases: raptor scouts, sister technician, ankle motors, Major Quilan, Mahrai Ziller, Uagen Zlepe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Set in Banks's far-future interstellar civilization known as the Culture, this highly literate novel from this celebrated British SF author (Inversions) centers on an act of revenge. The Culture is enormously rich and values personal freedom above all else, but it also has a tradition of meddling in the affairs of other, lesser civilizations. This is invariably done with the best of intentions, but occasionally things do go wrong. Parallels to U.S. foreign policy are probably intended, witness the book's dedication to "the Gulf War veterans." In a recent attempt to covertly overthrow the repressive caste system at the center of Chelgrian society, agents of the Culture's secret Special Circumstances unit accidentally triggered a civil war that left five billion Chelgrians both dead and dishonored. Now Chel has sent an ambassador named Quilan to the artificial, bracelet world of Masaq' Orbital. Ostensibly he's there to try to convince Ziller, a famous Chelgrian expatriate composer, to return home, but his real mission is to eliminate the AI that controls the Culture orbital. This action will also bring about the destruction of approximately five billion human souls held in suspended animation, thereby, the Chelgrians believe, balancing the books. Although things start a bit slowly, Banks's fine prose, complex plotting and well-rounded characters will eventually win over even the most discerning readers, and all will find themselves fully rewarded when the novel reaches its powerful conclusion. (Aug. 14)Wasp Factory, etc.).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
When the 800-year-old light of a distant space battle reaches the Masaq'Orbital, an emissary from Chel arrives on a mission hidden even to himself. Only Ziller, a Chelgrian composer, can unlock a secret that could save or destroy an entire world. Banks (Consider Phlebas; Inversions) uses the far future as a playground for the interplay of ideas and images. First published in Great Britain, this literate and challenging tale by one of the genre's master storytellers belongs in most sf collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; 2nd Printing edition (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743421922
• ISBN-13: 978-0743421928
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #364,280 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death by Water, September 2, 2001

By	James D. DeWitt "Alaska Fan" (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Look to Windward (Hardcover)

The title of Banks' latest Culture novel comes from the 4th part of T.S. Eliot's 1922 landmark poem, "The Wasteland." The full text of lines 325-326:

Gentile or jew,
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

Those familiar with Banks' work will immediately recognize the two words immediately following "look to windward" as the title of another Banks' Culture novel. What's going on here?

Not every SF author can get away with titling his books from one of the 20th century's greatest poems. A lot of them have the chutzpah, but can't bring their word craft up to their pretensions. Banks can. While _Look to Windward_ doesn't have the machine gun pacing or extraordinary violence of earlier Banks' works, it does offer remarkably good writing, generally good characterization, and a further display of Banks' astonishing imaginative powers. Masaq' Orbital and its billions of residents are seeing the supernovae from suns destroyed by the Idirans near the end of the Idiran War 800 years earlier. The Mind - the self-aware AI that runs Masaq' was a fighter in that war. Billions died, some at the hand of that Mind. More recently, Special Circumstances, The Culture's meddling, would-be uplifters of the disadvantaged, had another of their surreptitious interventions go horribly wrong, and 5 billion Chelgrians died. Look to windward, indeed. Masaq' Orbital's Mind has commissioned Ziller, an expatriate Chelgrian, to compose a symphony for the occasion of the second supernova. In the meantime, the Chelgrians have sent Major Quilan, a veteran of the civil wars triggered by The Culture, to Masaq', ostensibly to persuade Ziller to return to his home world. The real reason is more horrific: the destruction of the Mind that runs Masaq'. Major Quilan and the Chelgrians who support his have the help of mysterious benefactors, demonstrating, perhaps, that The Culture is still its own worst enemy.

In Major Quilan, Banks has created his most memorable character of The Culture novels. Tormented, ambivalent, manipulated and empathetic, he stands in stark contrast to the indulgent and snobbish, if immensely talented, Ziller. By seeing two very different Chelgrians, we better understand them and the reactions of those around them.

As in any Banks novel, there are surprises galore, and it is next to impossible to identify the goods guys or the bad guys. Don't expect the slam-bang excitement of _Consider Phelbas_ or the pacing of _Excession_. This is a novel of revenge. But as Eliot was at pains to point out in "The Wasteland,"

PHLEBAS the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.

Death cares not at all for the minor victories of life. One death is no more or less than a dozen or 5 billion. Major Quilan's willingness - zeal - to die, sadly mirrored in the front pages of today's news, is ultimately futile, as Banks warns us from the very title of this novel.

This is a very good book, literate without pretension. Highly recommended.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stylish and exciting, if not necessarily original, January 5, 2004

By	Glen Engel Cox "www.engel-cox.org" (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Look to Windward is the seventh book in Banks' science fiction universe based on a utopian society of advanced artificial intelligences and the humans (and other organic life forms) that originally created them, loosely termed the Culture. With each book, Banks has built his plots out of the interstitial area where the idea of this utopia fails, typically in its dealings with other, different societies, through its para-military/intelligence arm called Special Circumstances. This time, the Culture has interferred in the "advancement" of another society, failing miserably, and then must deal with the diplomatic fallout from their actions. That the other society, the Chelgria was a predator-based race with a rigid class structure and a warlike demeanor, makes this all the more difficult.

On this backdrop is placed several interesting characters: the Chelgrian Ziller, a composer who has ex-patriated himself because of his support for the rebels who attempted to overthrow the class structure, and wishes to have nothing to do with his old society or race; the Chelgrian emissary, Quinlan, whose despair over losing his wife in the war between the traditionalists and the rebels will drive him to commit the unthinkable; and the orbital Mind known as Masaq', who has hosted Ziller for years and asked the composer to create a new symphony based on the fading light of two suns--suns that went nova two thousand years ago when Masaq', as a warship, set off a chain reaction that destroyed them and the two orbitals around them.

As in his other novels, this one has several storylines to follow that eventually come together by the climax. Each storyline is given its own chapters, which some people find difficult to follow but I've always enjoyed, although it makes keeping track of the story much more difficult when the time spent reading the book occurs over weeks rather than hours.

It's not that Banks brings anything new to science fiction in his Culture novels; even the Culture itself can be found by looking at some mixture of Cordwainer Smith and Isaac Asimov. His ideas are culled from the classics as well, as in this book the orbital is roughly Larry Niven's "ringworld" mixed with John Varley's world-mind Gaea from his Titan trilogy. But what Banks can do better than those four, and a host of other published SF writers, is create believable characters whose motivations mesh with the unlikely locations and situations he sets for them. There's a reason why this type of SF is called space opera, but in Banks' hands it refers not to the televised soap operas but the sturm und drang of classical music. Yes, there are exaggerations here, but when a Banks' character has amnesia, it becomes a thematic device, not just a crutch to get you from one chapter to the next.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not excellent, Culture novel, July 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Look to Windward (Hardcover)

This book is not on par with Use of Weapons or Excession. With that said, it is an entertaining read exposing all the elements that you come to expect from a Banks' Culture novel. If you are new to the Culture, start with another (Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, or Use of Weapons) and save this one for later.