Books

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.