By Iain M Banks.
This was a satisfying Culture Novel. The were fewer diversions and extraneous characters than usual. The store was interesting and straight forward. For some reason Banks loves to alternate between back story and the main story. In this case it made physical sense as the lead characters was regaining his memory of the past.
I think the whole dirigible megasaurus storyline could have been excised and the whole novel would have been better off for it.
Hi – I'm reading "Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers" by Timothy Ferriss, Arnold Schwarzenegger and wanted to share this quote with you.
"The Battle of Algiers."
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Hi – I'm reading "Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers" by Timothy Ferriss, Arnold Schwarzenegger and wanted to share this quote with you.
"If This Is a Man and The Truce (often combined into one volume) by Primo"
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/5OxbCBu
--------------
Read on the go for free – download Kindle for Android, iOS, PC, Mac and more
http://amzn.to/1r0LubW
By Iain M Banks.
I always get the feeling that Banks is never really sure how his books will end. There will always be one or two ideas that make their way through the full novel, but much of it feels like it was just made up as he goes along.
Having said that, Banks is a strong writer. There are always passages in his books that I love. My complaint is more that this could have been a great book. Instead it's a good book if you follow the culture series. That's nice.
The Hydrogen Sonata in this case is a bit of music created as satire—difficult to play music written for now other purpose than to mock other bits of music that were only written to be difficult to play. Over time the Sonata, much to the composers chagrin, becomes the definitive piece of music whose only purpose is to be difficult to play.
The meta joke there—a joke taking over and having consequences when people don't realize it's a joke, is the real plot of the book. In this case what happens when the Gzilt civilization discovers that their Bible was a practical joke sent to them by a neighboring alien species.
Sometimes characters come and go for no good reason. I get the feeling that Vyr & Tefwe were meant to be the same character. That Banks discovered that Vyr had too travel to too many places in too short of a time to be credible, so he created Tefwe.
