Consider Phlebas (Paperback)

Like David Brin, Dan Simmons or Poul Anderson, this is high concept space opera. But unlike them, this book, and the subsequent books about The Culture, are morally ambiguous. Horza, the protagonist, despises the machine intelligences and moral laziness of The Culture. But his embrace of and alliance with The Culture's enemies in this galaxy-wide war reveals them to be intolerant, racist, religious zealots. He is much more comfortable with the agent of The Culture who infiltrates his band of pirates than with his erstwhile allies. Through plot twists, when he fights his allies with the help of his enemy, Banks makes many points on many levels.

The book is amazingly compelling. As Horza careens from debacle to disaster, fighting a battle in which he only partially believes, you come to care a about him. Which is surprising, because by any sane standard he an amoral criminal.

Banks is a good but not exceptional writer. But he produces very remarkable books. Even the coda to this book, in which Bank reports the war, of which this story is a tiny, tiny part, caused 850 billion casualties; even the coda underscores the ambiguity of the tale.

What makes a culture "good" or "bad"? In the course of telling a very good story, Banks makes you wonder if you are asking the right question.

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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.

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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.

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