Although author Iain Banks passed away a couple years back, I'm happy to report that interest in the 10 books that make up the Culture series remains alive and well. The proof? How long I had to wait to get a copy of this book from the library! I think at one point San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties had not a single copy available for checkout in their libraries. Needless to say this only fueled my curiosity as to what the big deal was with this book.A few years earlier, a friend tried explaining the universe of the Culture novels, which promptly went over my head, though I made a mental note of interest and went back to add the first book in the series to my slow-moving reading queue. Now, he was animatedly telling me about Matter, a much later book in the series, and I was defying him by going back to the first book. From what I've heard the books are not closely related and can be enjoyed in any order, but I'm obsessed with the order of things, so it's back to 1987 I went.
First off, this is definitely "space opera" fare, which is a little surprising coming from the same pen as the guy who wrote a lot of award-winning non-genre fiction (without the "M" as the middle initial). Also, the science is a little hard, though I think if any kind of science is going to derail the plot it's social science (e.g. economics) than astrophysics. Like a lot of space opera, the actual story presented here frequently gets submerged by the rich universe it takes place in.
All in all, it's a so-so story in a fascinating universe. Do I want to read more about this universe? Absolutely! Do I care much about the characters of this book? Not really. Judging by the increased availability of the sequel, Player of Games, it would appear some readers probably gave up after Consider Phlebas. Like many things in life, sometimes it takes a little while for a book series to hit its stride, and with the backdrop of a fascinating universe, I'm sure things can only get better for the Culture novels.
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