I recently finished Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks.
I’d been aware of the book and the wider Culture series that it is a part of for many years. But I think I avoided getting into the series for two main reasons: I was under the impression that I would have to start the series and work my way through through its 10 novels like some confused, starved moss. Only getting through sizeable numbers of pages when the humidity, temperature and mood all aligned and left trying to patch together the wider setting from novels read months apart.
The other reason requires a bit of groundwork — The Culture novels centre around a spacefaring collection of species, machines and technology bearing the name. They are a post-scarcity lot, unneeding of money or energy or much materials within their borders and almost all of them can pursue whatever whim they want. While this sounds lovely as a civilisational goal, it does feel like it would make for boring reading.
Thankfully the novels often skirt at the edges of the society and the space in which it inhabits while also covering interactions with other societies — Consider Phlebas covers a sliver of a war the Culture is embroiled in and, as a result, characters often stray out of the main ideals to get things done. Despite this I still stayed away for a long, long time.
Shortly after I’d started reading it I cursed my younger naive self. The book was full of interesting characters and places. Never did I feel I was stuck in the cushy embrace of a place where all (interest-brewing) conflict had been stamped out. Banks’ style also works well to give vibrant descriptions of the myriad of locations seen in the book while also not letting the reader get too bogged-down in those locations. The setting, while inherently vast also feels deeply historied (the novel itself takes place around 1400 AD), with plenty of present and distant civilisations flitting about the galactic volume.
I’m very happy I managed to get into the series, the next book (released chronologically) waits on my shelf for me to dig into. I imagine I won’t take me long at all to get started.
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