I loved it. But I found the Reception section in the Wikipedia article about it funny: "Kirkus Reviews described it as 'Predictable, certainly, and less imaginative than Consider Phlebas, but technically much more solid: honorably crafted work, often engrossing despite some sluggish patches.'" What a lukewarm review!
I think what some readers may miss is that it's not about the games, nor about the player of games. it's about this backwards society into which he is thrust. That backwards society, the Empire of Azad, has a lot more in common with our world than the utopic society of Banks' Culture.
The Culture is like John Lennon's "Imagine" come to life on an interstellar scale -- no countries, no religion, no wars, no possessions, etc. The Empire of Azad is a brutal hierarchy in a remote corner of the galaxy. The hierarchy is purportedly based on a game called Azad that everyone can play -- except that it's set up so the underclass, females, minorities, the poor, etc. don't have a chance to make it past the first round. Meanwhile, the upper class elites train their whole lives to play the game.
Gurgeh, one of the Culture's best game players, gets dropped into this other game with very little idea of the real stakes. He studies it during his two year journey to the Empire. Supposedly he's just an honorary player who isn't expected to last long.
The predictable part is that he, of course, does better than expected, but as I said, that's really not what the story is about. It's the kind of story that can make you reassess your entire worldview. It's like seeing our world through the eyes of an alien from The Culture.
And while our world, or a fictional culture very much like it, does hold certain attractions -- after all, a utopia can be a bit boring -- there's more about it that's ugly, disgusting, and infuriating. And the illusion of opportunity created by the game just makes it worse.
I'm almost done with "The Culture" series by Iain Banks. I read it because, judging by the way Space-X names things, it seems to be Elon Musk's favorite Sci-Fi and I wanted to test his taste in that.
The Culture series can really be read in any order. It's a space opera that takes place over 1000s of years all over the galaxy. You should probably start with "Consider Phlebus" which recounts a very contentious war since other books refer to it.
It is space opera so: faster than light travel etc and Banks might not be the best writer perse, but the Culture series is a fricking rocking good read -- you know the type where, as you go, you get sadder and sadder because there's less and less of it left?
Sort of funny since the uber capitalist Elon loves the "machine socialist" Culture. The book does bring up some important ideas but never really caries them through: What will humans do with increasing AI, what is the meaning of life if you can have anything and everything, what is the morality of making literal digital heavens and hells, if you can live forever -- how long would you live, and what is the morality of imposing the computed best policy on society when the best policy involves the short term cost of literally billions of lives? But mainly, I was just drawn into certain characters but even more so, the fun of the stories. Banks is a deeply funny guy in the understated humor sense.
Hey everyone,
I have a group that is new to SWN and some of them to TTRPGs in general, but from what we’ve been reading in the sourcebook and this subreddit are stoked to get our game going.
For anyone here who is familiar, my fellow PCs are huge fans of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. One of us got an idea to try and model our game after that universe - specifically, we want to build a Special Circumstances team who start out by getting tasked by Contact to handle -insert plot hook here-. The party will consist of an SC agent, a drone partner, at least one “local” of the first world encountered, and a fourth that’s still in the works. In order to not mess up the balance of the game, I wanted to put some questions to the group for your experienced thoughts:
-
What kind of character build seems most faithful for an SC agent as portrayed in the novels? Scholar or Soldier or Spacer seems like the most relevant, but I’m eager to hear your thoughts. What skills or foci do you think would be most faithful to the build? Any cool flavor that you think I should work in?
-
Obviously the Culture itself (and their associated Mind-driven ships) is going to be a little too high-powered as a readily accessible support for new PCs. What do you think are plausible ways for this SC team to be repeatedly employed without constantly having to lean on them being unexpectedly “cut off” from Contact/SC/Culture support?
I appreciate anything you guys could help me out with. This is an awesome group, and we can’t wait to get started. Thanks again guys!
Just read Transition by Iain Banks and the book has left me kind of creeped out for some reason. Its is an interesting story and the book itself has very little to do with sex but their are so many sex scenes and sexually references that the more I read them more I felt that they served to person other than to shock or be edgy.
The first chapter starts with a women saying she cant be racist because she likes to have anal sex with black men and it just builds and builds to the point that it get hard to dismiss as part of the plot. Spoilers and very nsfw trigger warning but here are some examples:>!There's a bondage sex scene with teenager who is still crying after admitting that her father has raped her since she was nine and there are people getting molested in mental hospitals and a wife who screams and cries all night as her husband rapes her after coming home from the hospital after giving birth and he rips her vaginal stitches.!< And its told so casually and coldly that you dont even notice how inappropriate it felt until its all over.
The books is quite cinematic and very clever but a great way of imagining it is if you were watching Christopher Nolan's Inception and in every scene Dicapro fingers the female lead, then has sex with the bad guy then describes how that women in the background is about to get raped and so on and so on etc
I got about 4/5th of my way through the book before I just put it down. The part that made say I've had enough was a small scene the protagonist talks about that not at all plot relevant but minor spoilers and nsfw:>!The scene starts with him chasing a guy whom he surprised on the toilet taking a dump while having sex with prostitute. Then two lines later during the same chase he talks about how the chase interrupted the gang rape of a women who will either kill herself or become a successful academic depending on whether or not "they through acid on her face after they fucked her". !<
Its was such a throw away, non- important scene that went out of its way to describe sex and rape in such cold and grotesques way that I felt like I was listening to my creepy old uncle at dinner say some fucked up shit.
I was wondering if anyone else felt that way, its a feeling I quite new to and cant describe properly but the best way I could explain it has is inappropriate. And given this is a book by a fairly famous author whom Ive read before I feel like I signed up for a clever science fiction book but it h
... keep reading on reddit ➡I read foundation recently and the "capitalist realism" of it kind of ruined my mental image of what a galaxy spanning civilisation would be capable of
I love Al Reynolds and Peter F Hamilton and heard IMB is basically the third in the trio. So where to begin?
Give me something House of Suns-ey
I've always felt that his Minds offer perfect examples of autistic thought processes :)
They are genre fiction, which is often looked down on, but they are far more literary than most pew pew scifi.
The characters are fleshed out and compelling, the style is creative, there's usually a twist ending, the society envisioned is aspirational. And it still manages to have exciting action scenes, and cool scifi tech.
Also the ships names are hilarious.
hi guys, i am kind of super supprised that it is hard to find a print version of player of games in german.
i read it as an ebook but now wanted to get it it in print.
i would have never expected the culture books to be out of print in german and used copies are very expensive.
My wife and I listened to Use of Weapons recently and made this review. No spoilers. It might help you decide if it's a good fit for your next read. I was actually surprised at the parts she liked so much.
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks and a 'Revolver' (YouTube)
There’s so much more we could have talked about. Like how most of the Culture stories take place at the edge of Culture influence. Maybe it’s because that’s where there’s more drama. I wonder if it’s possible to write interesting stories from inside the Culture’s so-wonderful-it’s-boring society. I feel like it will end up being wish fulfillment, but maybe that’s not totally a bad thing?
If you're trying to decide whether to dive into the Culture, here's a long take. We try to highlight the good and the confusing.
We're having our first post-lockdown, in-person meetup next month. Gives you plenty of time to read one of the Ian M. Banks tomes :)
All the details available here: https://wiki.glasgow.social/sci-fi_bookgroup
September's book club theme was books with twists. By a close margin, Use of Weapons edged out The Gone-Away World.
This is the spoiler-friendly discussion post!
From Goodreads:
>The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks and military action.
>
>The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.
>
>The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a lost cause. But not even its machine could see the horrors in his past.
>
>Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, USE OF WEAPONS is a masterpiece of science fiction.
This story read like Banks wrote all the major plot scenes and then forgot to write the filler before publishing it. How could this book be from the same Author and in the same series as "Player of Games"?! Did Banks just get tired of coming up with detailed narratives?
This story jumped around like an ADHD toddler telling attempting to tell you why they tried to flush the cat down the toilet. And then it was just over, with no explanation of why any of it happened.
Have red all of his sci fi, some a few times, but hungry for more. Are there any comparable sci fi authors out there, that a fellow IMB fan has found?
Is The Culture an ideal anarchist society? Are some of the technologies such as The Minds, drones, transhumanist modifications helpful?
Better late than never!
September's book club theme was books with twists. By a close margin, Use of Weapons edged out The Gone-Away World (definitely worth your time, especially if you like Christopher Priest novels).
This is the spoiler free announcement post, look for a spoiler friendly discussion post about September 16.
From Goodreads:
> The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks and military action.
>
>The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.
>
>The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a lost cause. But not even its machine could see the horrors in his past.
>
>Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, USE OF WEAPONS is a masterpiece of science fiction.
