Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: Still Banks' best book in my opinion, it's also one of my favourite books of all time. The plot is brilliantly structured but complicated, and I needed a reread to fully understand what was going on. The climax was wholly unexpected and incredibly moving the first time I read it. I've read it half a dozen times since and still enjoy the action, which you slowly realise is bound up with powerful emotions from the damaged background of the main character. I hope that doesn't make it sound pretentious because it's not; at heart it's an immensely satisfying story.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read book
Review: This was the first book I read by Banks, and it prompted me to desperately try to get my hands on anything else by this author. At first I was a bit confused by the structure, but after understanding it, I was quite impressed. The chapters alternate between Arabic numerals in ascending order and Roman numerals in decending order, "bookended" by a prologue and epilogue which take place after the main body of the story. The ascending Arabic numbered chapters tell the main story, while the descending Roman numbered chapters tell the character's history, each chapter taking place before the previous, with a childhood storyline interjected throughout. I greatly appreciate and admire this example of artistry and eloquence in structure. By the time you reach the story's climax, you feel you have a deep understanding of the protagonist, which is when Banks drops a revelation that completely changes your point of view. After finishing the book, I wanted to immediately start over and read it again. I did eventually, and with the foreknowledge of the ending, it was a completely different book and just as enjoyable as the first time. Of my extensive collection of Science Fiction, this book rates among the top. It should be read if only to give a glimmering of the variety of possibilities in storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: One of his best
Review: The majority of the Culture novels are uniformly excellent, with the only problem in some of them that the final twist is so odd that the book loses some of its impact, or the plot becomes so knotted that the book loses some of its coherance. Not so in this case. This novel tends to deal only peripherally with the Culture, but at the same time their presence infuses and infests the entire novel. Mostly it's the story of a non-Culture fellow who works for them in Special Circumstances (what a great euphemism) doing all the stuff they'd rather not admit to, starting wars, ending wars, waging wars, stuff that he's unfortunately good at. What makes this novel so brilliant is the tight and inventive structure, alternating between the main story itself and scenes from the character's past. All of it is wonderfully written and together they give not only an excellent view of the character in all his possibly dysfunctional glory, but also the rest of the characters (even the most minor character feels three dimensional), as well as a good cross-section of Banks' universe, both of the Culture and the civilizations that aren't part of the Culture. The final twist will change everything and sharp eyed readers will probably figure it out long before the end, although Banks is so good at misdirection and distraction that it barely occurred to me even as it came crashing down on the characters. Definitely his most consistently brilliant work, for once both structure and plot combine to create something that ranks as both first class SF and first class reading, period. If you've got a friend who's been hesitating on discovering Banks' works, give them this one and if that doesn't convince them, well then perhaps nothing will.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: the first time I read this it was dull. I'd read the explosive start and mayhem of Consider Phelbas and been stunned. I'd read the complexity and trickery of Player of Games and been impressed. Use of Weapons for the most part is at the very small scale side of battles when they happen at all. It seemed slow, with a main character who was not comprehensible. There were some bloody scenes and great descriptive passages but I considered it the weakest of the Bank's books I had read.
I have read it several times since and it is a stunning piece of literature.
The complexity of the structure, the vivid detailed descriptions, the whole idea of the variety of weapons in the book. (All of the main characters are weapons, so are the dead).
I'm really into revenge as a concept. This is one of the very few stories which puts forward forgiveness and self punishment as so powerful.Can he ever be forgiven for what he once did? He never forgives himself.
There's laughter, fun, joy and friendship in the book, along with war, death, pain and confusion. The realisation by the main character of the pointlessness (for him) of his life and all he has done is one of the most moving scenes in any book. A tragedy in the true sense. Wonderful!
Banks writes the very best novels along with Dan Simmons. Forget the label 'sci fi' and just read and enjoy
Rating:
Summary: " Slight Mechanical Destruction "
Review: I've read this book twice in the last two years and after the second reading I was able to appreciate even more. The book centers around Cheradenine Zakalwe one of Special Circumstances foremost agents. There are three plot-lines: the first follows his current mission and is seemingly the main story, the second brings us the events of his youth, the third shows us events from his military past. Altough for most the book these seem seperate they all come together at the mind-blowing ending. While reading you create a picture of Zakalwe only to have it shattered at the end. I won't give it away but pay notice to the image of the white chair appearing throughout the book. There are some great charaters, my favourite being the cyinical drone Skaffen-Amitskaw. I've read all but one of Banks' SF novels and this one is my favourite. It's multi-layered and while showing you the world of the Culture it really tells you something about human nature. I recommend all Banks' SF novels and this one especially. I can't belive it's hard to find in the US since it's readily availible in Croatia in both Orbit and Spectra editions. Don't miss it!
Rating:
Summary: A delicious shudder
Review: Of the three Culture novels I've read, I'd say "Use of Weapons" is my favorite. A little disorienting at first, with distinctly non-linear storytelling. The main storyline follows a mission of the meanest badass covert ops agent (working for the good guys, of course) in the galaxy. This is interspersed with flashbacks receding in time. As I'm reading, I'm thinking, that final flashback (the earliest one on the timeline) is going to be really horrific; something involving a white chair that makes our "hero" scream when he lets his guard down and allows the memory to bubble up. Well, Banks does not disappoint, although I wonder about the mental state of anybody who would dream up something like that. Then, toss the final twist into the main timeline to make the secret of the chair even worse, and you have in the end a Grade-A horror story to give you bad dreams for a week.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: There's not much I can add to the comments that have already been made about this book. It's brilliantly written, if a little slower-paced than some of Banks' other Culture books. This is definitely a book that will benefit from a second (and third) reading, just so that the reader can pick up the full texture of the thing. I was not, however, surprised by the revelation at the end of the book, and had actually been expecting it for some time. Definitely a book I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: An experience to savour
Review: As the fifth Culture book by Mr Banks that I've read, I didn't find it as much of a page-turner, but much more of a work of art. It took me weeks to get through "Use of Weapons" as opposed to "The Player of Games" which was munched up in a day. While the story and characters are delightfully crafted, it was the written words themselves that made me enjoy this novel so much -- Banks simply created a work of art with such stunning beauty that it is a marvel just to sit and savour each sentence by itself. Rereading it will be an interesting experience, due to the twist at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Love those twists
Review: If I ever write a critical summary of Banks' novels, I would have to title it "Beyond the Twist," for it is exactly that which is Banks' work. Where another author might come up with some of the same details, Banks makes each book his own by embodying a twist in it. This is most apparent in The Wasp Factory, where the entire novel hinges on a single fact about the narrator that is hidden from reader and narrator until the end. Similarly, Use of Weapons also relies on such a twist, but here it is hidden from the reader and the other characters; the protagonist knows the secret, and it is this that drives him and makes him complex--as well as providing for the story. On rec.arts.sf.written they were discussing a particular description in this story, calling it the single most disgusting thing they had ever read. I don't know if I'm jaded, but I didn't find it so. Disgusting, yes, and nothing that I would want to see, but it was fictitious (although possible). I can think of any number of things that actually occurred in the last year that I would consider more disgusting, possibly because they weren't fiction. And I guess that's my dividing line.
Rating:
Summary: Astounding.
Review: This book works on two distinct levels. On one hand it's a space opera about an undercover agent of the almost omnipotent, super-advanced humanoid civilisation called the Culture, as he overthrows governments, wins wars, and has bizarre and violent adventures all over the galaxy.
On the other hand it's a complex psychological story of the main character's past, who he is, and why he is that way.
The narrative also has two parts to it, sort of. One sequence of events moves forwards through the book, and the other starts at the end and works to the front. This is pretty easy to keep straight, except maybe the prologues/epilogues which raise some questions. This isn't just the author showing off his chops; the structure, like in the movie Memento, is there to augment the story being told.
Banks throws in a lot of neat technology and science, mostly used by the Culture, though he doesn't let it distract from the plot and characters. Some parts of the book are very funny, and others are downright depressing.
The unconventional narrative structure didn't bother me in the slightest, in fact it was part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much. The twist ending is totally psychologically feasible, which makes it even more powerful.
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