Frank SkorniaI also just finished 'Excession' by Iain M. Banks on audio.
This may be my favorite of the Culture books so far, although I think I need to go and read it in print as I feel I may have missed a lot of stuff as my concentration is largely on driving.
I think part of my enjoyment is that I think I finally sort of understand the premise of Banks' Culture novels.
They're not meant to tell a classic story. Rather he creates an inciting incident and then writes how it would happen in his universe. How do the different groups behave or how does it affect a small selection of characters.
By changing my expectations of the story, I was able to enjoy a lot more of it. It was also a really interesting book.
They're not meant to tell a classic story. Rather he creates an inciting incident and then writes how it would happen in his universe. How do the different groups behave or how does it affect a small selection of characters.
By changing my expectations of the story, I was able to enjoy a lot more of it. It was also a really interesting book.
Captain ButtonOne thing that I noticed about the Culture novels is that people will answer questions rather than attack them. In one of the books someone asks what the Culture would do if someone committed murder, and they answer "have a slap drone follow them around for the rest of their life to stop them doing it again."
If they were like people here on the internet they would say "you can't murder people in the Culture because [reasons]" and then argue about increasingly unlikely scenarios.
The Culture can cure decapitation.To murder someone you have to physically destroy most of their brain without warning and so quickly that the local Mind doesn't notice what you are doing and stop you, by displacing the victim's head to a hospital if nothing else.
And you have to make all the preparations to do this without the local Mind wondering why you are doing such odd things.
(Let's not get into the Identity Question of neural laces and restoring people from backups.)
@cptbutton Actually, that would be a really great plot for a book.
My favorite genre of space opera is a space opera murder mystery - how does the crime happen and get solved with all the technology and culture of the space opera around it.
Peter F. Hamilton has a short story in his Night's Dawn universe of a murder committed on a sentient space station where everyone is mentally linked and it's still one of the standards I hold other SF mysteries to.
@cptbutton And of course Hamilton's 'Great North Road' is essentially a murder mystery thriller written in a high-technology far future.
Finally, I started 'Foxglove Summer' by Ben Aaronovitch
Rather fun to be back in the Rivers of London books. Aside from the whole cop-centrism thing, these are some real great urban fantasy.