Sheer delight.
Addition to Banks’ wonderful space-opera series (without the middle initial, he also writes impressive mainstream novels) about the far-future galactic Culture (Surface Detail, 2010, etc.), a liberal-anarchic, multispecies civilization guided and sustained, more or less invisibly, by Minds, artificial intelligences that take such physical forms as spaceships and habitats.
Vastly more intelligent than humans, millions of times faster and mostly benevolent, Minds are truly godlike entities. (Asked “Is this what gods would actually be like?” Banks replied: “If we’re lucky.”) Now, the Gzilt civilization, an almost perversely peaceful military society whose precepts arise from the Book of Truth, an ancient tome containing technological and intellectual predictions nearly all of which have proved correct, are preparing to Sublime, or vanish, into a set of higher dimensions where existence is thought to be almost infinitely rich and complex. As the Gzilt make their preparations, several rather primitive scavenger species gather nearby (one ship comes into orbit, as Banks puts it, with the “warp-engine equivalent of loud clanks and clouds of black smoke”), ready to grab whatever goodies the Gzilt leave behind. But then, a sudden, devastating attack destroys the Gzilt Regimental High Command. The reason seems to involve a shattering secret about the Book of Truth and the establishment of the Culture 10,000 years ago. One of the few survivors, reserve Lt. Cmdr. Vyr Cossont, a bewildered four-armed musician with, self-confessedly, no military skills, receives orders to locate and question Ngaroe QiRia, possibly the Culture’s oldest living person and the only one who might have some idea why the Book of Truth is so important and what really happened 10 millennia ago. Problem is, even assisted by Berdle, a powerful Mind avatar, and an erratic battle android who’s convinced everything’s merely a simulation, can she survive long enough to complete her mission? Scotland-resident Banks’ Culture yarns, the science-fiction equivalent of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, brim with wit and wisdom, providing incomparable entertainment, with fascinating and highly original characters, challenging ideas and extrapolations, and dazzling action seamlessly embedded in a satirical-comedy matrix.
Sheer delight.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-3162-1237-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Irredeemable in any world, real or virtual.
In this cyberpunk fiction debut, a massively popular online game has real-world consequences.
Ashley Akachi is a mixed-race woman who’s known as “Ashura the Terrible” to millions of fans of Infinite Game, which is watched around the world. In a near-future Florida that’s half drowned by rising sea levels, she sits inside a haptic chamber that converts her movements into gameplay in the ultraviolent competition. Former NFL player Kluwe (Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies, 2013) describes the game’s mechanics at length, at times giving the book the feel of watching someone else play a video game. (The game’s racist and misogynist online message boards also feature prominently.) Eventually, Ash uncovers a vast conspiracy involving not only Infinite Game, but also her love interest, Hamlin, who’s hiding a secret of his own. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space in this brief review to examine everything that’s obnoxious or distasteful in this novel, from its opening bullet-point infodump, lazily passed off as worldbuilding, to its eye-rolling last line. One may wonder if any women were involved in this book’s publication in any meaningful way. Only a male author could believe a woman thinks about “dicks” this often; when facing gender inequality, Ash huffs, “Must be nice to have a dick”; before castrating a would-be rapist, she scoffs, “You thought your dick made you a man? You’ll never be a man again.” Characters' attacks on Ash are all viciously gender-specific; in addition to being threatened with rape throughout, she's repeatedly called “slut,” “whore,” and “cunt.” Meanwhile, Ash herself reads like an unintentional parody of an empowered woman; she leers suggestively at a woman’s behind and then laments her small bust size, at length, before deciding “boobs are overrated.” At the book’s climax, Ash thinks that she’s “so tired of shitty men and their shitty dreams.” After reading this, readers will surely feel the same.
Irredeemable in any world, real or virtual.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20393-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A cut above the same-old, but hardly a classic.
Debut author Sanderson serves up an epic fantasy novel that is (startlingly) not Volume One of a Neverending Sequence.
Ten years ago, the magical city of Elantris fell under a curse, and the land of Arelon it once ruled has hit hard times. The mysterious transformation known as the Shaod, which falls on Arelenes at random and used to turn them into spell-wielding Elantrians, now leaves its victims half-dead husks, exiled to live in the ruined city. Even Prince Raoden, transformed overnight, finds himself imprisoned with the others—but he’s soon rallying the downtrodden and seeking out the source of the curse. Meanwhile, his betrothed, Princess Sarene of Teod (Sanderson’s got a tin ear for names), sets about modernizing the backward Arelish court, and thwarting the schemes of the spy-priest Hrathen of Fjorden, who plots to convert Arelon to his harsh Derethi faith. Sanderson offers an unusually well-conceived system of magic, but he cuts his characters from very simple cloth: only the Derethi agent Hrathen develops any intriguing depth or complexity. Still, the pages turn agreeably, the story has some grip and it’s a tremendous relief to have fruition in a single volume. (Not that sequels won’t be coming.)
A cut above the same-old, but hardly a classic.Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-765-31177-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2005
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