April 18, 2011
Consider Phlebas
Okay i just finished this book by Iain Banks. It was his first book, and on balance i didn't really like it. I think if it was the only book I had read and I didn't know anything else about the author, it would stop me from reading anymore. Comments (no spoilers):
+ you'll benefit if you haven't read the later books in the Culture Series, because several of the tech / world items are really neat when you meet them for the first time. But they're hum-drum by Surface Detail.
- the motivations of the characters' actions were unclear to me, so much so that i found myself getting annoyed. I wanted to shout things like "don't go in there stupid!" and "why wouldn't you just murder that character immediately, they're clearly going to double-cross you" and "that character is your ally, why are you trying to kill them", etc. Irrational character behavior is a big distraction for action sequences, which make up most of the book.
- there's a really large amount of "fisticuffs" action scenes. Too much, really.
Anyway, I'm going to try "Matter" now, but if it annoys me then I'm done with the Culture series.
Posted by rus at April 18, 2011 10:16 PM