Unassigned Reading
On the topic of books, I’ve recently started reading Iain M. Banks‘ much acclaimed “Culture” series of books. None of the books are related in terms of plot, but all take place in the same massive universe. The Culture is a pan-humanoid post-singularity socialist utopian intergalactic civilization. It’s sort of a serious version of Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. As it is with most science fiction, the books provide ample social commentary about the context they’re written. For example, “Consider Phlebas” was written during the 80’s at the height of the Cold War and the story involves a long-standing war between the socialist Culture and the religion and competition driven Idarian civilization.
I’m about two books in and am thoroughly enjoying the stories. It’s a bit slower paced than, say, William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy, but the pacing isn’t really an issue. Most of the books are written from the viewpoint of Culture-based characters, thus, concepts that are normal for us (like rank and hierarchy) are completely foreign to them. I really like this aspect of the books. It’s social commentary of our value system done from the perspective of a completely detached 3rd party.
On top of the social commentary, Banks does a really good job on the actual writing of the book. There are some plot twists and some of them appear very obvious. The great thing about Banks is that he creates such a flexible enough universe so that the plot twists can easily go in any number of directions. He creates a very complex story in a very complex universe, but he writes in a very straightforward manner.The reader is very rarely left confused.
I just started the third book in the series. So far, so good.
February 27th, 2009 at 4:39 am
I originally read Iain Banks’ mainstream novels and liked them so much, I moved on to his science fiction although I’d never read sf before and didn’t think I ever would. I’ve read them all by now and order the new ones as they are published. Opened up a whole new genre for me. I guess it is the mark of a great writer when they can persuade you to follow them into totally unknown territory.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Sounds like a new take on Asimov’s Foundation series. But that series reads like a proof.