Look to Windward

The Power of Despair

I don't think I have ever read a Sci-Fi book that was this emotional. Exciting, inspiring, dissociating, transcendentally inducing... Certainly... But not as emotional... The book explores the unrelenting weight of dark despair on even the most advanced creatures. There is a good dose of Banks' aliens and Banks' plot twists. As other reviewers mentioned, there is not the intense violence of some of the other books. The development of the character Quilan is sublime. It is totally weird how Banks can cause you to feel empathy towards a totally alien creature. It almost makes your gut ache in places. Intense book!

Rewriting the plot in the last 5 pages, not so good

Ian Banks' Look to Windward takes its time to develop its story. Banks revels in the universe he has created and will not be rushed to deliver his plot at the expense of painting a complete and complicated picture of his far-off future. Banks invests his technology and societies with grandiose detail and those descriptions do go a long way towards placing his story, though at times they can be long-winded and repetitive. But where Banks really shines is in creating characters to inhabit these well articulated settings. Banks has a particularly good grasp on articulating the alien nature of a character while giving his reader enough common ground to still be able to relate to the character. The tripod ambassador and the simian anthropologist in Windward are both intriguing, but especially compelling is the Hub of Masaq' Orbital, particularly as Banks lends it more and more personality towards the close of the novel. However, despite Banks' facility with setting and character, the plot of Windward was plodding and predictable. The only major plot twist was completely without precedent and in fact contrary to everything that the reader had been able to perceive for all but the last five pages of the book. Such shifts in plot are not so much twists as retroactive plot rewrites particularly unsatisfying to readers who have stuck with Banks' slow development of character, plot and setting throughout the balance of the book. That said, Windward was my first taste of Banks' Culture novels and I found it to be a very good introduction to the Culture, if not a great novel overall.

expectations unmet, but still satisfied

When expecting a Banks' sci-fi book, expect only excellence.
When expecting a Banks' "Culture" book, expect seven things:
1) war, weapons, death and destruction
2) glanding different sensations to alter reality
3) drones with smart mouths, attitudes and a cunning wit
4) knife missiles slicing through baddie targets
5) quirky aliens in and out of the Culture
6) dark, grim gory scenes that will leave you cringing
7) minds and their space vessels

With this latest installment in Banks' Culture books, how does it rank with the above expectations?
1) Not much war takes place in this book, but it does mention two past wars (Culture vs. Chelgrian & Culture vs. Idirian). Possible death is bountiful in a few of the chapters and actual death is far and few between... until the very satisfactory last few pages.
2) Glanding is occasionally come across, but just in one or two sections.
3) There is a drone as a main character on the Orbital of Masaq', but it seems too sophisticated so cop an attitude and spit out some wit.
4) knife missiles are mentioned twice, but, sadly, no one dies
5) The Chelgrian species is explored pretty well, more so than a lot of other aliens in Banks' novels. The single Homomdan species was barley touched upon. Perhaps this could be further explored in the future.
6) just one part of Look to Windward made me cringe a bit, and that part was only a page or two long.
7) minds are a central theme, focusing on the mind of the Hub of the Orbital Masaq'. Look to Windward really explores the Hub's mind in detail and all things a Hub is capable of. Silly names for space vessels will not leave you disappointed (especially the 'quote a Culture Ship' game between two characters).

Reviewing the list above, the entire novel fell short of my expectations, but that doesn't leave Look to Windward hanging out to dry. This book is more exploratory in the "human endurance" of a Chelgrian and the "emotions and thoughts" of a Hub Mind. Hard Sci-fi is also throw in the mix for a delightful (but a bit lacking) sci-fi novel from Banks.

Revenge can be sweet or Lethal

Eight hundred years ago, during the war between the Culture and the Idiran's the current Hub of Masaq' Orbital was part of a force that destroyed two stars (The Twin Novae Battle) and ended a war. The Chelgrians have just signed an armistice that ended their Caste War (which was instigated by the Culture) in which over 5 billion souls perished. Quildan, lost his love and half his body during this war. Ziller, the greatest composer on Chel, has gone into self-exile on the Culture Orbital Masaq'.

The two Chelgrians are on a collision, which will culminate in a genocidal act of suicide, when Ziller's symphony to honor the light from Twin Novae reaching Masaq. What and how the act will be accomplished is unknown but the secret has been discovered by the xeno-anthropologist Uagen Zlepe who is studying a Behemothaur halfway across the galaxy. Can he get back to Culture space in time.

Banks has created an amazing universe, populated by exotic creatures and worlds. Reading the narrative is almost as much fun as trying to figure out who everyone is and what part they will play in coming battle.

jacket summary

from the back cover of the November 2002 Pocket Books paperback edition
cover art by Jerry Vanderstelt
Eight hundred years after the most horrific battle of the Idiran war, light from its catastrophic, world-destroying detonations is about to reach the Masaq' Orbital, home to the far-flung Culture's most adventurous and decadent souls. There it will fall upon Masaq's 50 billion inhabitants, gathered to commemorate the deaths of the innocent and to reflect, if only for a moment, on what some call the Culture's own complicity in the terrible event.

Also journeying to Masaq' is Major Quilan, an emissary from the war-ravaged world of Chel. In the aftermath of the conflict that split his world apart, most believe he has come to Masaq' to bring home Chel's most brilliant star, the self-exiled celebrity Composer Ziller.

Ziller suspects Quilan has come to murder him, but the major's true assignment will have far greater consequences than the death of a mere political dissident. He is part of a conspiracy more ambitious than he can know - a mission his superiors have buried so deeply in his mind that even he cannot remember it.