471 pages
English language
Published Dec. 1, 1987 by Macmillan.
Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. It is the first in a series of novels about an interstellar post-scarcity society called the Culture. The novel revolves around the Idiran–Culture War, and Banks plays on that theme by presenting various microcosms of that conflict. Its protagonist Bora Horza Gobuchul is an enemy of the Culture. Consider Phlebas is Banks's first published science fiction novel and takes its title from a line in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. A subsequent Culture novel, Look to Windward (2000), whose title comes from the previous line of the same poem, can be considered a loose follow-up.
This was a rollercoaster ride. It started out as 5 stars, went down to 2 for this one random chapter, up to 4 during the Game and downhill to complete boredom from then.
I turned the last page of Banks' 'Consider Phlebas' a couple of nights ago, and I enjoyed (almost) every moment of it. Having read a great deal of Bank's literary works, I knew what to expect from his style. Strong pace, clear sense of character and motivation, complex themes presented in layman’s terms - not patronising, but welcoming, understanding - yet continuing to prickle at the back of your mind, encouraging you to read more. It was every bit as I expected, and more, as I hadn't expected his science fiction settings to have the same epic feel as other writers in the genre, and the final moments of the text were a complete surprise.
It felt great opening up another work of science fiction. It felt like coming home after a long trip. Like a long awaited hug. 'Consider Phlebas' opens and ends with violence. Shuttles are rocked by …
I turned the last page of Banks' 'Consider Phlebas' a couple of nights ago, and I enjoyed (almost) every moment of it. Having read a great deal of Bank's literary works, I knew what to expect from his style. Strong pace, clear sense of character and motivation, complex themes presented in layman’s terms - not patronising, but welcoming, understanding - yet continuing to prickle at the back of your mind, encouraging you to read more. It was every bit as I expected, and more, as I hadn't expected his science fiction settings to have the same epic feel as other writers in the genre, and the final moments of the text were a complete surprise.
It felt great opening up another work of science fiction. It felt like coming home after a long trip. Like a long awaited hug. 'Consider Phlebas' opens and ends with violence. Shuttles are rocked by the impact of missiles and lasers as a number of ships engage in armed conflict open fire on one another. The races could not be more different - a race of three legged religious fanatics waging war with a race of sentient machines. The protagonist is caught in the middle, and then becomes a valuable tool in the conflict - his race, as a Changer, grants him access to a planet no other would dare step foot on. It just so happens that on that planet there is a thing-that-both-parties-want, and so the scene is set. Horza, the protagonist, needs to collect himself and get the thing-that-both-parties-want and deliver this to the three legged Idirian's before the sentient machines (the Culture) can get to it first.
Much of the novel takes place in the immediate aftermath of Horza's rescue from near death. Saved by the Idirian's, he is given a task and then launched into space following a battle between the Idirian's and the Culture. With nothing to hand, Horza has to start from the very beginning. The first half, perhaps more than half, of the novel is Horza finding his way in the world. I can imagine some - particularly those fond of pulp fiction - may find Banks' approach slow. It takes Horza a long time to get to where he needs to be, but I found that journey to be the most satisfying aspect of 'Consider Phlebas'. Horza's failing upward grounded me in the world and made the setting feel real and human, a number of incidents were the consequences of accidents and mistakes - either by Horza, or by others. This slow build allowed me to sink deep into the systems Banks was describing, and it never felt as if Banks was forcing exposition.
In fact, the only part in which I felt the text wobble was when Horza's party did eventually make it to the planet he had been tasked with investigating at the inception of the book. The setting narrowed violently - from the vastness of space where operatic battles played out around space stations, into tunnels deep beneath the frozen wastes of a forgotten planet. A solid third of the text takes place on this planet - and the tunnels are as constricting for the reader as they likely were for Banks' writing. His descriptions are continuously informative and insightful, however, even whilst trapped below the earth, but the ‘epicness’ is lost, and I too felt the sluggish trudge from one tunnel to the next.
Perhaps this is intended.
For those who haven't read the book, and intend to, then please do not read on
Horza's failure in the books final moments completely blows open traditional science fiction in which the protagonist saves the day. The long and drawn out section in the lower tunnels tests the abilities of all of those in the party, costing most of them their lives - and I closed the book thinking, 'and for what?' I felt then that the 'epicness' of previous chapters and sections were a kind of ruse - the task the main character had been given, if achieved, would not necessarily have ended the conflict, and yet he was so driven.
I was not surprised to find that, on closing the book, I continued to think long and hard about what had happened and what it had meant. An aspect of Banks' writing style, no doubt, as he so often sinks his teeth into morality, ethics, politics and philosophy. When I think back on 'Consider Phlebas' I think back on the presentation of the races - Horza's ruminations as to what the Idirian's are like, what they value, the make-up of their culture, and then too his thoughts on the Culture, and his own views on the two. It is a text in which the world is introduced through a character who very much wants to see his aims fulfilled, but who is defeated at the final turn. His is one of the many who fought and died; one of the many who had a task, and sadly, it was not achieved. In the words of the great KV - so it goes.
I've already purchased the next book - Player of Games.
This was my fluff read between "serious" books and... I don't know it just left me a little cold. Maybe it was the way Banks seemed to dislike every one of his characters or how the protagonist not only did NOT have an arc but seemed to be written in a completely different way in the back third of the story. All characters trended towards caricature. Granted, this was just a fun space opera but I got the impression both from other fans of the novel as well as the writer himself that Consider Phlebas aspired to be something more. Taken as a disposable piece of fluffy entertainment it was fine. Taken as anything more and I'd consider it a failure.
I don't know why I was under the impression that this was a super important part of the sci fi cannon. It had some interesting imagery in it, but it was pretty silly action movie sequences for the large part. I am curious how the culture grows in the other books though, there were enough of these written that some in them must have stuck.
I did not start here on my journey, I came back to it.
This was neat. I've read a lot of Culture books and this war was referenced quite a few times throughout the series. If you are just beginning here good job. If you liked it, know that every Culture book will be different. The framework remains the same but the view, the quadrant, galaxy, timing, subplot, will all be different. It's a large universe.
That is what makes Culture books great though. It is a dive for a moment into a scenario with conditions. Human, alien, technology, time, beyond. Great stuff.
How does CP measure up? Well, it's a bit complicated. CP takes us on a small fleck of a tour in the Idrian war. In hindsight, it was a momentous moment. The minds started developing a bit more specialized, trying a few new things out, all because--war. …
I did not start here on my journey, I came back to it.
This was neat. I've read a lot of Culture books and this war was referenced quite a few times throughout the series. If you are just beginning here good job. If you liked it, know that every Culture book will be different. The framework remains the same but the view, the quadrant, galaxy, timing, subplot, will all be different. It's a large universe.
That is what makes Culture books great though. It is a dive for a moment into a scenario with conditions. Human, alien, technology, time, beyond. Great stuff.
How does CP measure up? Well, it's a bit complicated. CP takes us on a small fleck of a tour in the Idrian war. In hindsight, it was a momentous moment. The minds started developing a bit more specialized, trying a few new things out, all because--war. In our own history, a war footing gives us some of our most advanced technological innovations.
The story at hand is interesting, but I didn't feel as drawn to it as others. This is not unique though, some Culture books you will be magnetized to, some you will have a bit more apathy towards. This one follows a shape changer to get a Mind that is hiding deep on a planet of the Dead, in this it means the planet was visited by a planetary genocide (also war driven), and care taken by a post-sublimed species who keeps these kinds of planets--like a museum piece I suppose. The adventure is where the meat is, the final leg is interesting if not a bit overly interdialogy (yea, like that word?), and the ending is very Culture.
You may like this, you may not, it's ok. I invite you to press on. This series is overall amazing and I assure you, if you like what the Culture has to offer, it's going to make you ponder a whole lot about a future civ you'd like to be a part of.
Excellent book, I can only wish that our future were like the one proposed in this book.
Abandoned. Just did not grab me. Culture universe seems cool, but this was just too disjointed.
I am curious about The Culture, and the idea of society that it proposes. I figured I'd start by the first book in the Culture universe. But Consider Phlebas is more interested on the action and the adventure. Bora Horza Gobuchul is a Changer (a kind of human that can change its appearance) and is smack in the middle of a religious war between the Idirans (some zealot aliens) and the Culture (some sort of machine-human hyper advanced society).
The book is fun and Horza is enough of an antihero to keep him interesting, but there isn't much that is surprising or deeply thoughtful about the sociological makeup of this "anarchistic-yet-successful-society" which was what I, personally, was after.
So lots of fun gun toting space opera type. A bit gory and gross sometimes but not overly so. Heaps of interesting underlying ideas that I hope I get to see explored …
I am curious about The Culture, and the idea of society that it proposes. I figured I'd start by the first book in the Culture universe. But Consider Phlebas is more interested on the action and the adventure. Bora Horza Gobuchul is a Changer (a kind of human that can change its appearance) and is smack in the middle of a religious war between the Idirans (some zealot aliens) and the Culture (some sort of machine-human hyper advanced society).
The book is fun and Horza is enough of an antihero to keep him interesting, but there isn't much that is surprising or deeply thoughtful about the sociological makeup of this "anarchistic-yet-successful-society" which was what I, personally, was after.
So lots of fun gun toting space opera type. A bit gory and gross sometimes but not overly so. Heaps of interesting underlying ideas that I hope I get to see explored in the next book in the series, but it is a self contained story, I doubt it is as necessary as I thought to understand the Culture.
The first book of several that Banks wrote about the war between the Culture and Idirans, two galactic civilizations both with understandable and identifiable but opposed philosophies.
I've read some Banks before and generally liked them but this book seemed disjointed and unsatisfying. Ultimately I guess I would say it's the story of a Mind (a highly advanced artificial intelligence belonging to the Culture) since the creation and escape of the Mind is what starts the book, and the plot revolves around both the Idirans and Culture trying to retrieve or destroy it. However, for most of the book the Mind isn't actually present and we rarely get narrative from its perspective; instead most of the story is told from the point of view of Horza, a shapeshifting Changer who has thrown his lot in with the Idiran faction and accepted a mission to retrieve the Mind for them.
Consider …
The first book of several that Banks wrote about the war between the Culture and Idirans, two galactic civilizations both with understandable and identifiable but opposed philosophies.
I've read some Banks before and generally liked them but this book seemed disjointed and unsatisfying. Ultimately I guess I would say it's the story of a Mind (a highly advanced artificial intelligence belonging to the Culture) since the creation and escape of the Mind is what starts the book, and the plot revolves around both the Idirans and Culture trying to retrieve or destroy it. However, for most of the book the Mind isn't actually present and we rarely get narrative from its perspective; instead most of the story is told from the point of view of Horza, a shapeshifting Changer who has thrown his lot in with the Idiran faction and accepted a mission to retrieve the Mind for them.
Consider Phlebas is a reference to a shipwrecked sailor in a poem to TS Eliot, and Horza appears to be the metaphorical sailor, shipwrecked and thrown around by tide and chance, trying to complete his mission throughout the book. Hopefully it's not too spoiler-ful to say that of Horza and the other characters he meets, very few survive to a happy ending, and ultimately all their hard work and sacrifice is just a tiny and meaningless side note in the massive war that will end millions upon millions of lives over the decades it lasts. Apparently Banks does not subscribe to the "one hero can make a difference" school of thought, and this novel seems to intentionally emphasize the irrelevance of any single person or action. So, while this may be realistic, in the end the story felt empty and meaningless also, and ultimately unfulfilling. I would recommend other books by Banks but not particularly this one.
The Idirans, a lizard-like warmongering species, are at war with the Culture which is a distant descendant of the human race now fully dependent on and integrated with advanced technology, in particular the advanced artificial intelligences called Minds.
Changer Horza, who is working for Idirans, is saved from the clutches of the Culture who are about to kill him and he is given a mission to retrieve a Culture mind which has crash landed on a planet that is off limits to all but the Changer race. On his mission Horza happens on a mercenary ship and takes part in their adventures whilst figuring out how to commandeer the vessel in order to complete his mission. As they finally reach the planet things go badly and more or less everyone dies.
Iain M. Banks has created a very interesting universe and I really enjoyed this... taster?... of this universe. I was expecting a standard sci-fi but this is a pretty dark story where nobody is safe.
As for the spaceships, wow, the size of them is mind-boggling ships flying through space with billions of passengers, Benny from the Lego Movie would implode.
Looking forward to reading the next book, hoping for more info on the culture though.
In this first installment of the Culture series I already enjoy the setting very much - especially the orbital Vavatch. The Damage game is quite fascinating - games appear to be a theme ;) - most of all I like the way how the conflict of Balveda and Horza symbolizes the conflict between the Culture and the Idirans.
Somehow though I didn't quite get the title? Did I miss something?
Consider Phlebas is the first book in Iain M. Banks long running Culture series of novels. It falls somewhere between a space opera and a travelogue to my mind.
There's certainly no shortage of action throughout the novel. It's pretty fast paced from beginning to end. But at the same time the story meanders a bit to show us the diversity of cultures in this universe.
It also has a strangely negative skew (at least by the standards of most SF)in that you could say the moral of the story is you probably won't make any difference in the long run.
There is a huge war being played out in the background of this story, but we are (deliberately I assume) kept at a distance from it and don't really feel the effects of the devastation that's going on. While the protagonist and those in his circle are driven by …
Consider Phlebas is the first book in Iain M. Banks long running Culture series of novels. It falls somewhere between a space opera and a travelogue to my mind.
There's certainly no shortage of action throughout the novel. It's pretty fast paced from beginning to end. But at the same time the story meanders a bit to show us the diversity of cultures in this universe.
It also has a strangely negative skew (at least by the standards of most SF)in that you could say the moral of the story is you probably won't make any difference in the long run.
There is a huge war being played out in the background of this story, but we are (deliberately I assume) kept at a distance from it and don't really feel the effects of the devastation that's going on. While the protagonist and those in his circle are driven by elements of that war, they also exist in their own bubble. We feel their concerns and their risks quite personally and yet in the end it's not clear that their actions actually changed anything at all. You won't feel that until you've finished though. While you're reading everything seems urgent and important.
The only area where I feel the novel slips (and thus loses a 5th star)is in the motivation of the protagonist Bora Horza Gobuchul. Banks sets up the Culture as such a clearly Utopian thing and their enemies the Idirans as sufficiently repellent that it's actually quite hard to buy into Horza's dislike of the Culture or his willingness to work for the Idirans.
It is addressed several times during the story but never in a way I found convincing. The Culture is just too perfect. Now of course in real life people frequently hold on to irrational, illogical and self-contradictory views. But ironically that doesn't work nearly so well in fiction.
It's a must read I think, but a flawed one.
I wish I'd read this book earlier in my life. It was not far into it that I began visualizing the events with Mass Effect characters and settings. I still don't understand the title, though.
Was enjoying the story & was wondering where the plot would go but felt a bit let down by the ending.
