Review of "Excession" by Iain M. Banks

Let’s skip the highty-flighty, atmospheric float of intros and get right to the point.  Iain M. Banks’ 1996 Excession is gosh-wow, sense-wunda science fiction that pushes the limits of the genre as far into the imagination – and future - as any book has.  The AI ship-minds, post-human world-is-your-oyster humanity, and incredible roster of engine speeds, galaxies, drones, weaponry, biological possibilities, planets, orbitals, etc., etc. of previous books have been topped.  Banks took a look at the savory milieu of the Culture, cocked his head and asked: “How can I up the ante?”  The titular ‘excession’ is the answer.

Arthur C. Clarke’s brilliant Rendezvous with Rama sees humanity attempting to quantify and understand a BDO (big dumb object) that comes sailing through the solar system one day.  In Excession, Banks introduces a similar concept.  Despite having hyper-precise and ultra-technical scanning and analysis tools, the eminently advanced tech-gods of the far-future known as the Culture likewise have difficulty penetrating the 50km black sphere which suddenly appears in a back corner of space.  And so while a handful of characters and species attempt to control the object for their own devices, for the first time in the Culture series the AI ship-minds take center stage as protagonists.

And Banks wholly succeeds.  While the AI mind can exist in imagination only, the author relays the actions and thoughts of these oddball personalities in delicately balanced and wholly relatable fashion that is as realistic as imaginative far-future might be.  On one hand the ship-minds are presented as ‘Other’, something totally exclusive and unidentifiable to the human experience, while on the other, base virtue and vice tint their conduct in an undeniably familiar manner.  At times witty, at times eccentric, and at others just plain human, Banks takes a choice selection of interesting personalities in Excession and uploads them into technical constructs.  The resulting AI minds treat unlimited access to technology, control of the environment, and the complete freedom of movement as though they were toys.  Inter-ship dialogue and behavior not only stimulating, novel, and amusing, they are also brilliant commentary on the potentiality of AI evolution. 

Without giving away too many of the major plot milestones, there are a handful of ships which take the spotlight as the sentient universe investigates the mysterious black sphere.  The Sleeper Service has spent several centuries as a drifting cryolab/artist, recreating scenes of famous battles using the hibernating bodies of humans. Grey Area (called Meatfucker by the other ships for the degree to which it is willing to interact with biological life) is an avid collector of torture instruments.  Attitude Adjuster, while upon first reveal comes across as simply traitorous, later proceeds along a course no one but Banks could plot.  These and several other ships paint the novel in colors of mechanical culture sci-fi has never seen.

Added to this mix and taking a backseat (Har!) to the ship-minds are a handful of human characters.  Living out wholly human stories in Banks’ far-future world, their post-scarcity freedom does nothing to utopian-ize the emotive side of life.  Genar-Hofoen, while first coming across as smug and impersonal, later reveals a side of his personality that will have readers raising an eyebrow in respect.  The eternally pregnant and brooding Dajeil has a story that may not draw much sympathy, but remains wholly relatable.  And no summary of the book would be complete without a brief mention of the newly introduced species, the Affront.  Brash, chauvinistic, and aggressive at every turn, they spit in the face of such ideas as ‘civilized’.  A major player in the game to exploit/steal/attack/destroy the ultimate truth of the black sphere, the Affront are despicably good reading that Banks is able to subvert in utterly satisfying fashion upon denouement.

In the end, Excession is meaty sci-fi that readers can really sink their teeth into, and for others, including myself, approaches a pinnacle of what sci-fi in its purest might be.  Dan Simmons divided AIs into three factions in Hyperion, Banks fragments them further into individual minds, and as a result, the ships’ reactions to the unexplainable BDO appearing suddenly in a universe they dominate - not a competitor in sight - is simply great sci-fi and not to be missed for fans of the genre.  The ship-to-ship banter - highly reminiscent of Vance’s overly formal, comedic dialogue – is just the icing on the cake.  While Banks may aim to entertain, Excession is more than just fun.  A line is crossed somewhere, just not sure whether it’s into literary land, or another dimension… of storytelling.  Does anyone do far future better than Banks?

Review of "Surface Detail" by Iain M. Banks

Virtual hell.  It’s an expression used everyday, from street fighting in the Middle East to an awful day at work.  But what if it were actually possible?  What if a person’s psyche could be inserted into a virtual hell as punishment for an immoral life in reality?  Bringing Dante’s Inferno into Stardate 55.673, virtual hell is just one of the ideas shaping Iain Banks’ eighth Culture novel, Surface Detail.  Rounding off the pile are Banks’ usual assortment of intriguing AI ships, fantastical set pieces, techy space battles, and individual tales of honor, revenge, and duty.  There comes a point, however, where the book is about what was excluded, not included.

Surface Detail tells of the decades-long war the opponents of virtual hells have been waging against its creators.  The moral rectitude of civilly controlled hells the main point of contention, the “War for Heaven” is being simulated inside a neutrally-controlled virtual environment and is drawing to a head as the novel opens.  With factions and sub-factions on both sides beginning to take their subterfuge into reality, bloodshed is about to be for real.

Standing on the sidelines of the war at the book’s opening is the entrepreneur, overseer of the planet Sultucht, and planet’s richest man, Joiler Veppers.  Nothing ambiguous about him, Veppers is grade A evil.  Cementing his position at the top of the bad-guy heap is the treatment of his chattel, the omni-tattooed Lededje.  The unspeakable crimes he commits against her, obvious to say, set one of the themes of the book from the very first chapter: revenge.  Lededje’s travels on this path provide the second main storyline.

And there are additional stories to be told.  Along with Veppers and Lededje, the story of the soldier Vatueil appears - again, and again. A fighter in the “War for Heaven”, he is re-inserted into the virtual environment every time he dies, culminating in perhaps the first experience of reincarnation blues in literature.   The mysterious Yime likewise plays a part in the overall story, keeping the Culture abreast of not only Lededje’s progress, but Veppers and the advances he makes in society.

While previous Culture novels have been uniquely inventive, Surface Detail sees that brightness of imagination fade.  Banks borrowing more than creating, the tours people are brought on of hell as an incentive to live morally upright lives run easy parallels to Dante.  The neural laces acting as soul-catchers, able to digitally capture a person’s persona for later restoration in another body, are firmly in the footsteps of Greg Egan and Richard Morgan.  Under-ice missions, miniaturized ship battles, and armored suits are just more examples of worn ideas.  And so while Banks includes many Culture tropes from previous books, the remainder point at a weary imagination in need of a refresh. 

On that note, virtual hell is a great idea; but Banks dresses it in nothing less than pan-Christian clothes.  The visual cues, though more visceral, are very much of the demon and devil, hellfire and brimstone variety the pope warns of.  As a result, Surface Detail’s hell feels like an ornate vase sitting on the shelf without flowers: all form, no function.  By utilizing such a familiar and morally charged plot device, the reader expects at least a minimum of overt or between-the-lines discussion on the nature of good and evil.  Banks, however, never moves in that direction, using the hells instead to motivate the larger war, fiery proceedings pushed to the background. 

And there are other wasted opportunities.  While Inversions sees Banks touching upon poignant human issues, at no time does he delve into the authoritarian notion of hell as retributive justice (the rational, post-enlightenment variety) in Surface Detail.  Instead, he remains fixed on the less ambiguous, more morally transparent religious view of “hell as punishment”.  As a result, the book does not go into any of the ambiguity regarding who goes and who doesn’t, who judges, and how long eternity is, exactly.  None of these questions are examined, disconnecting the idea of virtual hell from the theme.  It is sensational, but plays no deeper role.  Thus, by turning a blind eye to the sticky moral and social aspects, Banks simply plays off the more easily digested religious/cartoon side of hell.  To the author's credit, however, Vatueil’s story does cut at something deeper in Buddhist beliefs of the afterlife.

In the end, Surface Detail is a safe novel, but one wherein the reader feels a little cheated that virtual hell ended up playing second fiddle to a larger but more standard sci-fi war.  Despite utilizing commonly understood notions of Buddhist and Christian afterlife, Banks never takes the time to unpack the moral and social implications of having a network of virtual hells, instead using these ideas as mere plot devices, minor in comparison to a war which climaxes in a rather pedestrian, been-there-done-that space battle.  Good and evil deserve so much more with hell in play.  That being said, Banks’ usual flair for language, fantastically realized scenes, singular take on space tech, and relatable characters are once again on display.  Though not able to fill the shoes it wears, Surface Detail at least remains able to get you were you’re going.

Review of "The Algebraist" by Iain M. Banks

Over the top villain. Check.  Strange and funny alien races.  Check.  Quest for singular object that leads through space.  Check.  Multitudes of battlecruisers, space wings, and dreadnaughts converging at a single point.  Check.  Boxes ticked, Iain M. Banks makes no bones about it: The Algebraist is unabashed space opera, for better and worse.

The Algebraist, the 20th novel and 8th sci-fi offering in Bank’s oeuvre, tells the story of Fassin Taak, a scholar who spends his time in the atmosphere of a gas giant interacting with the native species called Dwellers.  A smaller version of the blimp-like floaters Banks created in Look to Windward, the Dwellers live for millions and billions of years, accumulating knowledge, enjoying life, and remaining aloof of the cyclical rise and fall of power humanity and other species experience.  When word gets out that the Dwellers may be owners of a secret document containing the coordinates of wormholes which would interconnect the whole universe, multiple groups and species head to the gas giant, Nasqueron, to get their hands on it – by coercion of violence.  Among them are the ever-evil Luseferous (complete with diamond teeth) and his Empire-esque rebel horde who hope the document will pave the way for their rise to dominance.  Ordered by the “good” guys to be the first to lay hands on the document, Fassin’s adventures begin when his affinity for the Dwellers comes at odds with his mission, Luseferous and crew closing in fast.

The narrative at times so loose and free, it appears Banks set no limits for his pen describing the universe of ‘The Algebraist’.  A leaf falling free, the language, thought, and descriptions roll off the page real-time.  Less planned and therefore less thematically honed than the Culture novels, the novel comes across as exceptionally detailed entertainment with little commentary.  A secondary result of this tactic, or lack thereof, is that the story often lacks focus.  There are more than a few random plot digressions.  Moments of poignancy that stylishly carry the storyline oscillate with improvised, rambling thoughts which do nothing except highlight Bank’s self-indulgence.  Certainly some readers will revel in the worldbuilding for worldbuilding’s sake, others may find it tedious and ignorable.  

As is the norm with Banks, The Algebraist is filled with gorgeous set pieces - the main strength of the novel.  The gas giant Nasqueron, where most of the story occurs, comes to sulfurous, swirling life.  The time/space feel of space travel is also presented well, particularly how a human would have to adapt to survive the relative effects and forces of a gas environment.  Fully at home in this setting riding in his gel-filled gas-craft, Fassin and his plight take center stage for the majority of the novel, his character more developed for it.  What lack development, however, are the secondary characters.  The antagonist Luseferous is just evil for evil’s sake and comes across as more of a Superman style villain than the more serious, mature events that Fassin experiences would seem to allow for.  Furthermore, the Dwellers, while often stated as an intelligent species, are nevertheless portrayed as Dionysian clowns, wholly detracting from the strong effort at world-building and content.  The tweedle-dee tweedle-dum twin Dweller which appears does not help matters.  Worse yet, the sub-stories of Fassin’s friends, especially his fiancé, are so poorly fleshed out they do not deserve mention.  Banks would have been better to stick with his hero in linear fashion, concentrating on space opera for space opera’s sake, rather than foul the airwaves with his indecisive attempts at adding story depth and seriousness through additional characters and forced outcomes.

In the end, fans of Banks’ other science-fiction will at a minimum not regret reading The Algebraist.  Likewise, fans of Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, Peter Hamilton’s universe, James Corey’s Leviathan Wakes, or Lucas’ Star Wars may be interested.  But if worldbuilding and space battles are your thing, by all means have a go.  Be warned, however, Banks’ earlier Culture novels have more much focus to their plots and emphasis on balanced characterization.  If you’ve never read Banks, I would recommend Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, or Look to Windward first. Though it has been seven years since the book’s publishing, I should also note that there are strong indications The Algebraist appears to be the first in a series; not all the plot threads are resolved.  That being said, though I do not regret reading the book, due to its digressive nature and ineffective characterization, I will probably wait until the series as a whole is published – if ever – to read more…  

(This review has also been posted at fantasyliterature.com)

Review of "Look to Windward" by Iain M. Banks

This is the first book I have read by Banks - and it won’t be the last.  His post-human vision of the very distant future, with its closer-to-perfect, but all-too-human AI, is not only plausible but a thought-provoker.  And if you read sci-fi, don’t you want something thought provoking?   The alien cultures, the societal implications, and use of technology were exactly that.  Bucking the trend of throwing everything into a thousand page tome, literary science fiction gets better in the hands of only a handful of other writers. 

Not a mix of tech and storylines that overwhelms (looking at you, Peter Hamilton), Look to Windward is science fiction deeper than the storyline.  In fact, the sci-fi elements take a backseat to the human and human-esque plights (there are aliens, after all) of what few main characters there are.  The plot is based on a war that was sparked by the Culture (Banks’ AI human overlords) and killed billions of Chelgrians.  Now, thousands of years later as the light from the supernova they had used as a bomb is making its way across the galaxy, the Culture has changed its tune and is bent on reconciliation.  Composed by a Chelgrian outcast, a symphony is due to show in honor of the dead, the finale to start the moment the “star” appears in the sky above the Culture for the first time.  Compromise is not what the Chelgrians have in mind, however.  A caste-based species, they remain focused on revenge.  How a third group becomes involved, a behemoth style alien floating in a gas giant, is up to the reader to discover.  The drawing together of these threads, while seeming anti-climactic, remains true to character and theme, and for this should be commended.  Those complaining of the climax’s lack of whiz-bang fireworks undoubtedly miss out on the ideas Banks has at play.

And these thematic elements are numerous and varied.  Banks seems to touch upon current world affairs in describing how suicide bombers are selected and mentally molded.  He describes the long-term effects love can have on the individual when the object of their desire is taken from them at the emotional peak of the relationship - both humanoid and AI.    Likewise, he dips slightly into the psychology resulting from post-human life without limits, technology able to satisfy every dream.  And all through characterization.

My only complaints about the novel are that two of the main alien species were in fact humans in costume; their emotional output was identical to humans.  Likewise, while a humanist tone prevails throughout, moments of the ending reverted all too quickly into cheap vengeance: good-rewarded, bad-punished, subverting the mood that dominated up to that point.   The result of this is that the thematic punch was pulled a little, the sympathy and emotional edge blunted by the violence.  That being said, the theme of hope and optimism towards constructive outcomes remains clearly visible throughout.   The characters as representative, as well as the storyline motivating them, are amongst the best modern sci-fi has to offer.  Look to Windward is recommended for anyone who enjoys science-fiction that has a human face displayed equally alongside plot and worldbuilding. 

(This review has also been posted at www.fantasyliterature.com)