Look to Windward

Paperback, 403 pages

English language

Published Dec. 14, 2001 by Orbit.

ISBN:
978-1-84149-059-5
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4 stars (100 reviews)

It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war.

It led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported.

Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those ancient mistakes has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq.

The light from the second may not.

19 editions

Look to Windward

5 stars

"Look to Windward" est le septième tome du cycle de la Culture de Iain M. Banks. C’est aussi, pour l’instant, mon roman préféré du cycle. Cela signifie beaucoup, vu comment j’avais déjà aimé les précédents.

Le thème principal du roman tourne autour de la guerre, sous ses aspects moraux (encore et toujours ce droit d'ingérence que s'octroie la Culture) et humains, notamment à travers le trauma des combattants revenus à la vie civile, qu'ils soient humains ou même IA. Comme souvent avec les livres qui me touchent autant que celui-ci, cela parle aussi de deuil.

Là où les premiers romans du cycle m’avait plu de façon assez rationnelle, par leurs qualités d’écriture et de narration, celui-ci m’a profondément touché. Non seulement il présente les mêmes qualités que le reste du cycle, mais il m’a semblé apporter quelque chose de plus, comme un supplément d’âme.

Je ne suis pas certain de …

Review of 'Look to windward' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Super nice book, showing a bit more about the culture and their ways. Spite of that, I didn't like it much as the others, the Minds are presented too godly, making them very hard to imagine becoming reality. With perfect beings is very easy to have a perfect system, there's no space to dream for an earther of this time

Review of 'Look to windward' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was a thoroughly enjoyable entry in the Culture series. I've been bouncing through the series based on interest and availability (my local bookstore has a big gap between Use of Weapons and Matter for some reason) but this story is much more in the vein of earlier Culture novels than the experimental Use of Weapons (in which the plot was overly confused by characters having multiple disconnected names in different time periods) or the abstract Excession (which focused too closely on floating conversations between AIs).

This story, similar to Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, is able to use the Culture universe as a setting for a more conventional humanoid story. Which isn't to say that the story is unoriginal or straightforward, it's actually rather unpredictable and twisty, but it boils down to a much more relatable human level of "character I like is in danger" rather …

Review of 'Look to windward' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Ah yes, another Culture novel visited. From the end of the Idirian war, it's long felt after effects and early Special Circumstance meddling (botched.) What could be better?

The story sits on Masaq orbital, holding many billions of lives in its balance. Zooming in further to the life of a Chelgrian composer named Ziller. Who is an ex-pat from his homeworld, giving it up due to a caste system that is broken, one that incidentally a huge civil war played a part of (Hi SC!)

Through the travelings of this exile, the coming of a Chel Major to do what... suicide mission, but how? But why?

The many generations of reflections and affectations that created this crazy moment and many players across many landscapes so vast it's hard to tame if not name them all.

It's quite a journey. Very enjoyable, full of thrills and questions. Deep moments that stretch …

Review of 'Look to windward' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Still a favourite second time around

I enjoyed this book the first time around and my second reading was even better. The blending of the story lines was seamless and the anonymous chatter throughout the book just added the right amount of levity to what was a drama at times.

Review of 'Look to Windward' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Man, and they say Foundation is unfilmable - the main characters are either non-humanoid or floating boxes (lots of humans in the background, though), and often the ratio of made-up to real words is high even for epic SF - but I love it, for many of the same reasons that Hari Seldon spoke to me as a tween. This one and Excession are at the level (and scope) of the first two Culture books. Now what will the final trilogy be like?

Review of 'Look to Windward' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I picked up this book at Heathrow on my way to a work trip to San Francisco, and I had finished it before we landed. (Ooh, the jet lag...)

This was my first [a:Iain M. Banks|7628|Iain M. Banks|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207926823p2/7628.jpg] (with or without the 'M') novel, and I have to say the Culture universe has me captivated. I'm now slowly working my way through the series from the beginning.

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