Customer Reviews
What Horza did next! - By: James, 03 Jul 2008 
Well, I am almost speechless! I've always held a prejudice against genre novels in general, but particularly science fiction. However, I have found myself wanting to vary my reading recently, & I saw this book on offer at the local bookshop. I have been aware of Iain Banks's alter ego for many years, having read many of his 'non-genre' novels. He has been somewhat inconsistent in quality, it's true, but 'The Wasp Factory' was undeniably a very good book, & even his recent effort, 'The Steep approach to Garbadale' was a decent read.
Why be prejudiced against science fiction? I asked myself. Surely a good writer can do anything with it; it doesn't have to be 'Star Wars'. On that basis, I bought, & started reading 'Consider Phlebas' with quite high expectations; this was a well recognised literary author, after alll. Talk about being quickly disillusioned! The book is utter drivel; so bad that, like other reviewers have noted, it reallly is very difficult to believe that the author of 'The Wasp Factory' & the person who wrote this are one & the same; I couldn't recognise any echoes of style at alll. The feeble narrative is almost exclusively given over to weak dialogue or action scenes, with the occasional respite of fairly average descriptive sequences. There are lots of fights, chases, explosions & corny dialogue; it reads like a screenplay for the next crappy-Hollywood-alll action-epic-blockbuster movie, just utterly puerile. There is nothing profound in it whatsoever; nothing of any literary merit, despite the title. I always make a point of finishing books that I've started, but when I realised how much I was going to dislike this one, I felt like I had strapped myself inescapably on to some ghastly, cheesy roller-coaster ride; I couldn't wait to finish it; it reallly felt like I was wasting my life.
There may be such things as good 'Science Fiction' novels, but I'm afraid it's going to be a case of once bitten, twice shy, with me. And it will be a long time before I can forgive Iain Banks for inflicting this tripe on the discerning public (he has taken the 'credit' for it, whether he actuallly wrote it or not). Is he having a laugh, or what?
The Jinmoti of Bozlen Two - By: cluricaune, 24 Apr 2008 
Iain Banks was born in Scotland in 1954 & published his first book - "The Wasp Factory" - in 1984. In the years since, he's won critical acclaim, topped best-seller lists & has even written Science Fiction books under the cunning nom-de-plume 'Iain M. Banks'. "Consider Phlebas" was first published in 1987, & is the first of his sci-fi novels.
The majority of Banks' sci-fi novels to date feature the Culture - a symbiotic society, part humanoid & part artificial intelligence. The artificial intelligence element to the Culture can be sub-divided into two parts - Drones & Minds. For the most part, the a Drone's intelligence will be roughly similar to a humanoids. However, while some drones will be significantly more intelligent, the Culture's essential work is carried out largely by non-sentient machines. Minds, on the other hand, are significantly more powerful than both humanoids & drones. They tend to act as the controlling intelligence behind, for example, the Culture's ships & Hubs (artificial habitats). Minds are also largely responsible for making decisions at the very highest levels of society - only a very smalll number of humanoid Referrers would be intelligent enough to join the process. In "Consider Phlebas", the Culture is at war with the Idiran Empire. Physicallly, Idirans are very imposing : they're about about three metres talll, fully grown, have three legs & are protected by a natural body-armour. They can also survive a great deal of damage, what would be more than enough to kill another species. They are also a deeply religious people & believe in converting as many as possible to the faith - preferably by conquest.
A little strangely, though, the book's hero isn't a Culture operative - or even a significant player in the war. Bora Horza Gobuchul is a Changer & works for the Idirans as a spy & a killer. Changers are shapeshifters, & have a couple of very impressive natural defences - including the ability to sweat acid & spit poison. The Changers' homeworld is an asteroid callled Heibohre, which is located within Idiran space . However, he's not fighting because he's pro-Idiran - it's because he's anti-Culture. In "Consider Phlebas", Horza is sent to Schar's World - a Planet of the Dead - to retrieve a Culture Mind. Naturallly, the Culture won't want a Mind to falll into enemy hands - though it won't be easy for them to retrieve it. Schar's World is 'protected' by the Dra'Azon - an exceptionallly powerful race, who won't alllow anyone other than Changers onto the planet. Nevertheless, Horza isn't without his problems either. Shortly after receiving his orders from Xoralundra, his Idiran contact,the spaceship on which they are traveling is attacked by a Culture vessel. Xoralundra promptly throws Horza out of an airlock & essentiallly tells him to hope for a lift. Luckily, the Clear Air Turbulence is passing - a ship that's staffed neither by Idirans nor Culture, but by space-faring pirates.
It's been a long time since I read any sci-fi, & the main reason I picked this up was of how highly I rate Banks' 'standard' fiction. I was slightly taken by surprise that the Culture were (technicallly) cast as the book's 'bad guys. (In a 'normal' book, the Idirans would've been the 'bad guys' - though things don't always have to be that straightforward when Iain Banks writes a book). Furthermore, while Horza is the book's hero, there's nothing villainous about the Culture's operatives who appear in the book - both Perosteck Balveda & Fal N'geestra are actuallly very likeable. The book's only flaw, for me, was the section that featured the Eaters - it reallly didn't add to much, & I couldn't see the point of including it. However, an enjoyable story overalll & certainly good enough for me to try a few other Culture books.
Great story well told - By: Kevin O'reilly, 23 Apr 2008 This is my first Iain Banks Novel & proved to be an absorbing & thrilling read. (Thks Mark). The plot (set in the backdrop of a Galatic war between the Idirans & the Culture) moves along at a nice pace & develops characters to a degree that you quickly sympathise with them even when they're diametricallly opposed.
Bank's imagination is un-surpassed as you experience orbitals, GSV's, quirky robots,a life threatening game of poker callled damage & much more..
The ending is a little disappointing but serves to emphasise that you have just read about the experiences of a smalll band of mercenaries, caught up in huge conflict played out over unimaginable distances spanning many years. (Also liked the smalll appendices at the back of the book detailing the reasons for the war)
On the whole this is a good introduction to Ian Banks & I would not hesitate in recommending this book to anyone.
Thoroughly disappointing - By: BloodyOllie, 12 Mar 2008 There was a time, shortly after reading The Wasp Factory, The Bridge & Walking On Glass, that I thought of Iain Banks as the most exciting & genre-defying writer of his generation. My enthusiasm for his early fiction persuaded me to try out some of his sci-fi endeavours. Sadly this was the first & last one which I read because it was so far from his usual standard I actuallly considered the possibility that this was an imposter writing under Banks's name.
Having read the other reviews here, most of which are generous to say the very least, I was shocked to find that nobody had picked up on my major gripe with the book, which is that the story is absolutely, unwaveringly linear in structure. It follows the same characters from page one right until the end, with no sub-plots, no background history, no auxilliary characters, just monotonous, unending action sequences. Sci-fi readers, in my opinion, are probably one of the most intelligent & discerning demographics in the literary sphere, & yet paradoxicallly the only people who would enjoy this book are the same people who never read books, preferring to sit mindlessly in front of a screen watching Jean-Claude Van Damme kicking the crap out of various things.
If you're looking for a thought provoking, exhilerating sci-fi experience & were thinking of buying this then take my advice: DON'T!
May I recommend Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds or the truly staggering Hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons.
This is very amateurish fiction by a writer who should know better (although the steady decline in the standard of his other fiction has tempted me to think that the first three were something of a fluke, but that's another story...)
My first sci fi read - By: Shodan, 19 Dec 2007 
At the age of sixteen i was addicted to fantasy novels & read almost nothing else.
Then out of curiosity i picked up Consider Phlebas based (dont give out to me) on the cover.
since then the table turned, i became voraciously involved in sci fi. from dune onwards they are a major source of joy & wonder to me. more so that the fantasy stuff had been.
So without spoiling the book for people or writing a huge speel on the content etc (its is epic btw) i can just say, get it & read it, one of Bankys best books in either his fiction or science fiction modes
