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.