Consider Phlebas

A personal view to a galactic conflict

The story told is basically a space opera, but unlike the usual sort of inter-galactic conflict this one is not limited to rousing space battles, adventures on alien planets and justified victors. While Banks includes all the typical aspects of entertaining science fiction in his first venture in the genre, the true essence of the story delves deep into the nature of humanity and the conflicts and confusions present in every person when they decide to take part in war. Horza, the protagonist, is human, but he has cast his lot with the tripedal Idirans who war against the Culture, an amalgamated civilization of humans and sentient machines. Horza's choice is purely biological, he rather support a living and organic species, even if it is openly racist and believes in its own divine pursuit, than have his life controlled by the Minds, ultra-intelligent machines that practically run all aspects of the Culture.

Over the course of the story, as Horza's adventures carry him across the galaxy and throw him in diverse, highly entertaining, and usually dangerous situations, Banks constantly reminds you of the greater war going on and how every little predicament is a representative feature of the Culture-Idiran conflict. As Horza faces the challenges and makes his choices, you begin to make up your own mind on whose side you would join, but I know I changed my mind several times. For me, that is the mark of a well-constructed plot, where the options available are not the typically predictable light vs. dark, but a wide spectrum of different shades of gray. While it is easy to lose yourself in Horza's view, it is when you detach yourself from the narrative, that his character flaws and the truth behind his motivation appears to be uncovered. However, what makes this a truly great book is that it is a self-contained story with real characters whose lives hang in the balace from page to page until the very end. Not to worry, all is accounted for, and Banks even gives the grand conflict an anti-climatic finality in an appendix loaded with philosophical viewpoints and staggering statistics. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and intellectually stimulating read from start to finish.

A hesitant start to a great concept series

My first experience with Iain Banks' Culture series was actually "Player of Games", which I wholeheartedly gave 5 stars.

This book contained many of the elements that I appreciated about that book: the almost-but-not-quite Utopian Culture, the workings of the characters (including machines) within the Culture and the whole idea of the Minds.

This book added a new element--an alternative viewpoint that the culture could be an actively bad thing, and how Utopia might be Hell. This seen from the viewpoint of Horza, a culture-hating mercenary with a poorly-defined sense of what he actually wants from life, worked especially well.

And there were several good characters, some solid interactions between different creatures, and great visions of what lay outside the culture (and on the fringe of it.)

However, the book had several faults which lowered it to three stars in my mind.

As a minor complaint, he introduced several concepts which appeared, flared, and then vanished without having done much for the story--the Mind-caliber teenager who provided an introduction to the culture, and to the Iridian hatred of the culture, but served little other purpose was my least favorite. This, by itself, could have easily been overlooked.

Banks' use of interspersed paragraphs from different storylines, to build up tension didn't work for me. If it was 5 pages, as things came to a climax, that would have fine. It was more like 50 pages--and got very old.

The fatal flaw, however, was that the book had numerous characters, twists (and eventually the major mission of the story) that I frankly didn't care about.

Ultimately, the book was a balance between elements that I loved, and elements that I actively disliked..and while I don't resent having read it, I wouldn't read it again.


That said, based on my experience with the first two novels, I would (and have) told my friends to skip "Consider Phlebas", and to proceed directly to "Player of Games." They won't miss anything, and they'll enjoy the series start significantly more.

Outstanding SF Novel

This novel is a fantastic interstellar SF adventure story about secret agents, bizarre aliens and gigantic spacecraft under the command of `conscious' AI programs. Expect some humorous dialogue, engaging characters and excitement throughout.

The Jinmoti of Bozlen Two

Iain Banks was born in Scotland in 1954 and published his first book - "The Wasp Factory" - in 1984. In the years since, he's won critical acclaim, topped best-seller lists and has even written Science Fiction books under the cunning nom-de-plume 'Iain M. Banks'. "Consider Phlebas" was first published in 1987, and is the first of his sci-fi novels.

The majority of Banks' sci-fi novels to date feature the Culture - a symbiotic society, part humanoid and part artificial intelligence. The artificial intelligence element to the Culture can be sub-divided into two parts - Drones and Minds. For the most part, the a Drone's intelligence will be roughly similar to a humanoids. However, while some drones will be significantly more intelligent, the Culture's essential work is carried out largely by non-sentient machines. Minds, on the other hand, are significantly more powerful than both humanoids and drones. They tend to act as the controlling intelligence behind, for example, the Culture's ships and Hubs (artificial habitats). Minds are also largely responsible for making decisions at the very highest levels of society - only a very small number of humanoid Referrers would be intelligent enough to join the process. In "Consider Phlebas", the Culture is at war with the Idiran Empire. Physically, Idirans are very imposing : they're about about three metres tall, fully grown, have three legs and are protected by a natural body-armour. They can also survive a great deal of damage, what would be more than enough to kill another species. They are also a deeply religious people and believe in converting as many as possible to the faith - preferably by conquest.

A little strangely, though, the book's hero isn't a Culture operative - or even a significant player in the war. Bora Horza Gobuchul is a Changer and works for the Idirans as a spy and a killer. Changers are shapeshifters, and have a couple of very impressive natural defences - including the ability to sweat acid and spit poison. The Changers' homeworld is an asteroid called Heibohre, which is located within Idiran space . However, he's not fighting because he's pro-Idiran - it's because he's anti-Culture. In "Consider Phlebas", Horza is sent to Schar's World - a Planet of the Dead - to retrieve a Culture Mind. Naturally, the Culture won't want a Mind to fall into enemy hands - though it won't be easy for them to retrieve it. Schar's World is 'protected' by the Dra'Azon - an exceptionally powerful race, who won't allow anyone other than Changers onto the planet. Nevertheless, Horza isn't without his problems either. Shortly after receiving his orders from Xoralundra, his Idiran contact,the spaceship on which they are traveling is attacked by a Culture vessel. Xoralundra promptly throws Horza out of an airlock and essentially tells him to hope for a lift. Luckily, the Clear Air Turbulence is passing - a ship that's staffed neither by Idirans nor Culture, but by space-faring pirates.

It's been a long time since I read any sci-fi, and the main reason I picked this up was of how highly I rate Banks' 'standard' fiction. I was slightly taken by surprise that the Culture were (technically) cast as the book's 'bad guys. (In a 'normal' book, the Idirans would've been the 'bad guys' - though things don't always have to be that straightforward when Iain Banks writes a book). Furthermore, while Horza is the book's hero, there's nothing villainous about the Culture's operatives who appear in the book - both Perosteck Balveda and Fal N'geestra are actually very likeable. The book's only flaw, for me, was the section that featured the Eaters - it really didn't add to much, and I couldn't see the point of including it. However, an enjoyable story overall and certainly good enough for me to try a few other Culture books.

Excellent story from Banks, not the best place for new fans to start

A lot has been said about this title already, so I don't have much to add. I love almost everything of Banks' I've read so far, and this was no exception. If you are new to The Culture or Banks' work, I wouldn't recommend starting here. Great as a second or third though.