Consider Phlebas

Consider Phlebas
by Iain M. Banks

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Book Summary Information

Author: Iain M. Banks
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2008-03-26
ISBN: 031600538X
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Orbit

Book Reviews of Consider Phlebas

Book Review: Seminal work of "new" space opera- but not to everyone's taste.
Summary: 5 Stars

I'm right in the demographic that is completely nuts about star wars, but I'm not. I saw the film in 1979 on the big screen. I was eight years old. Yes, it completely blew me away, and I was obsessed with it as a kid. I still have a soft spot for the three original movies, probably because they were seen through the eyes of a young boy without much access to TV or movies in general, and a bent toward nerdy scifi/fantasy stuff.

As I got older, I saw star wars for what I think it really is. A really great space opera for its time, with great special effects, characters and costumes. But limited. The empire and the rebels are kind of cardboard. Yoda (and I realized this the first time I saw it) has the same voice as Grover. The Ewoks are just cutesy muppets. Not to diminish it, but from an adult perspective, it just doesn't scratch my itch anymore. I'm more jaded, more sophisticated, and don't want to watch a muppet with Grover's voice dispensing Jedi wisdom.

This is where the Iain Banks culture novels come in. They scratch pretty much the same itch, but in more of an adult way. First, they're hard R for violence, sex, peril, etc. Second, there are some realistic and sophisticated political machinations going on that the characters inevitable interact with. More realistic and sophisticated than rebels vs. empire- more interesting as well. Third, they have cooler races, cooler weaponry, and WAY cooler robots!

That said, there's a certain sci-fi reader that may not like this. Someone who's into, for example, Greg Bear or John Scalzi. A more sedate and "scientific" breed of reader who likes plodding, pedestrian development, characterization, and books where the good guys always win in a nicely tied up ending. Banks doesn't play that. He writes on a grandiose scale- baroque plots, nasty alien races, awesome artificial intelligences- surprises around every corner. This is the real deal.

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Summary of Consider Phlebas

"Dazzlingly original." -- Daily Mail
"Gripping, touching and funny." -- TLS

The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender.

Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.

Contemporary Books

Book Subjects

Most talked about in Culture Novels by Iain M. Banks, in Chronological Order

Matter
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Look to Windward
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Inversions
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Excession
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The State of the Art
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Use of Weapons
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The Player of Games
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Consider Phlebas
by Iain M. Banks
Orbit; Published: 2008-03-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.03
Price in other shops: ~~$12.99~~

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