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It was one of the less glorious incidents of the Idiran wars that led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, 800 years later, the light from the first of those deaths has reached the Culture's Masaq' Orbital. A Chelgrian emissary is dispatched to the Culture.
dkelly304: Gas Giant Creatures, Ancient Air-Based Intelligences, that don't bother anyone and have existed for billions of years. Sounds like the the behemothaur Yoleus in Look to Windward. Might also enjoy the Saga of the Seven Suns (the Hydrogues, Gas giant bad-guys).
I love the Culture Novels SO much so I may be twisted to recommend more Banks, when reading... Banks. But honestly if you really do like the range and depth of the story telling, and this story, is meta-told by a character from the story... if you like that a bit more it gives Banks greater freedom from Character Perspective when he narrates and allows him to bring a universe much like the Culture's back to life in 1 book, weaving all the nuances of almost a dozen Culture Novels into a new pattern and then deftly anchoring the story line into yet another complicated weave of flashbacks, character flaws and subtle, underplayed pivoting climaxes in the plot that make the reader double guess what was just read, and attempt to re-read back.
I say re-read back, and get the e-book version to accompany your Audio Rendition - I have the "Recorded Books Collection" version on audio and I find that the Non-Audible Style is a fresh take (even if it's a retro throw back to the 90's style recording), gives some of the more "british" aspects of Banks's style a more familiar and easily absorbed format for the American Reader/Listener.
As always Bank's need for a character (or an aspect of all of them) to be at some level, a nuisance, a spy, a bad lover with emotional baggage, once the opposite sex, several thousand years of age, in league with the enemy, using massively advanced technique technology and doing it with real gravitas when the time comes to deliver the written bomb that is the true climax to the plot in any great Banks novel. don't leave out long lists of possibles and extra things that come at the end of paragraphs - the long iterations of different like things that comically represents some aspect of the far flung society we are being told about. It is done as much to amuse us, as to bring in some of the well-known, the familiar idiocy of our current society out into the beyond in time so that when we hear of it again in story, our minds and hearts can believe it could really be so, just that much more.
For those who didn't enjoy this book as much as the culture novels, try it in Audio, or a Written Format other than e-Book - format makes a difference, I could not follow this book when it was in print, Audio Format is the only thing I was able to absorb (then I list it in my top 10 non-series Sci-Fi Novel List_#6 when I write this).
-Super Future Enthusiast and Sci-fi nerd novel reader extraordinaire… (plus d'informations)
AlexanderM: These works are both incredible pieces of literature that fit together nicely. Childhood's End and Look to Windward both have a similar view on humans as a species. Despite the fact that one is told from the humans' point of view, and the other is told from an alien races', they both give an interesting take on the future of humankind. Both are amazing pieces of literature, and I highly recommend reading them.… (plus d'informations)
Une histoire où il ne se passe rien, avec une histoire parallèle toute aussi vide. Ce n’est pas que le livre est inintéressant, mais le rythme est lent et rempli de… rien.
On a pourtant des bons personnages, et le style est agréable; mais c’est creux. Dommage ! ( )
La Culture, cette société galactique tolérante, cynique et par-dessus tout hédoniste attache évidemment une grande importance à l’art. Et c’est pourquoi le compositeur chelgrien (non humain) Ziller, de réputation galactique, a été prié par l’I.A. du monde artificiel orbital Masaq’ de créer une symphonie lorsque la lumière d’une ancienne nova, résultat de la destruction d’une étoile dans une guerre, huit siècles plus tôt, atteindrait enfin ce monde. Ziller, le Chelgrien, a abandonné sa planète d’origine et son peuple dont la violence lui répugne. Cette même violence a provoqué une guerre entre la Culture et les Chelgriens. La Culture l’a emporté mais un noyau de fanatiques Chelgriens envisagent toujours d’en découdre. Et lorsque Ziller apprend qu’un Chelgrien est envoyé sur Masaq pour le rencontrer et en principe pour lui demander de revenir sur son monde d’origine, il flaire un piège et refuse de recevoir l’ambassadeur, malgré les pressions des services de la Culture. Il craint en effet d’être assassiné. Mais la réalité est bien plus complexe. L’ambassade masque un autre piège tendu à la Culture : la destruction pure et simple de l’orbitale Masaq’ et la mort de ses milliards d’habitants, pour une obscure raison religieuse.
L'orbitale Masaq' est un monde immense de 50 milliards d'habitants, un immense anneau artificiel qui héberge des environnements divers et spectaculaires qui servent de distraction aux habitants, presque tous membres de la Culture. Le compositeur chelgrien Ziller s'est réfugié sur l'orbitale où son talent fait de lui un hôte de marque surtout qu'il y prépare une nouvelle symphonie qui sera mise en scène par le mental même de Masaq'. S'il a choisi de s'exiler dans un des mondes de la Culture c'est que Chel, monde d'origine de Ziller, et cette dernière entretienne de mauvais rapports, la Culture ayantt maladroitement déclenché une guerre civile sur Chel. Or Ziller refuse catégoriquement le système social de sa planète qui repose sur un système de castes. Mais Chel envoir Qillian, un ancien soldat devenu moine, prier Ziller de revenir sur Chel. ( )
Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction. He begins in medias res, introducing characters, places and events that are not explained in detail until many pages later. [...] The deus ex machina ending will strike some as too easy. But as in all good fiction, what's important in Banks's work is the subtext, which I take to be the idea that freedom is both necessary and dangerous, and that only by imagining the unimaginable, both in ourselves and others, can we hope to remain free.
.. he is not afraid to to ponder the implications of his flash-bang spectaculars. He examines the fine distinction between hedonism (what the Culture thinks it practises) and decadence (what many others perceive), as well as the responsibilities that come with immeasurable power. An enjoyable romp is overlaid with tragedy as he rubs our noses in the consequences of war: ...
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"Gentile or Jew O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you." T. S. Eliot, 'The Waste Land', IV
Dédicace
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For the Gulf War Veterans
Premiers mots
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Near the time we both we knew I would have to leave him, it was hard to tell which flashes were lightning and which came from the energy weapons of the Invisibles. (Prologue)
The barges lay on the darkness of the still canal, their lines softened by the snow heaped in pillows and hummocks on their decks.
Citations
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"Believe me; democracy in action can be an unpretty sight."
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By the time the warhead in Eweirl's brain exploded a few minutes later, she had become an attenuated column of greyness sucking itself up into the sky high above.
It was one of the less glorious incidents of the Idiran wars that led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, 800 years later, the light from the first of those deaths has reached the Culture's Masaq' Orbital. A Chelgrian emissary is dispatched to the Culture.
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LOOK TO WINDWARD discussion (The Culture group read)
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On a pourtant des bons personnages, et le style est agréable; mais c’est creux. Dommage ! (