Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

 

 

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

I have never read Iain M Banks' The Culture in its entirety, despite being a massive fan of Iain Banks novels. I read a few volumes way back when and remembered it as a hit and miss, hard to read story. Having decided to delve back in and read them all, I started Consider Phlebas again and now wonder if my impression of all books wasn't tainted by this one. I don't think it's a very good book. It gives Banks the opportunity to develop some of the key themes around the Culture and to depict the massive scale at which subsequent stories will operate, but this happens at the cost of a lengthy - and frankly not very thrilling - succession of adventures that our hero Horza undertakes. I think Banks could have written mostly the same story with far less meanderings, it would have been much better. Still, beginnings...