Rating: 
Summary: No formulas here.
Review: The first Iain Banks I'd read was "The Wasp Factory"-- a book I found a little too much to stomach. Accordingly, I approached Consider Phlebas with considerable trepidation. I am happy to report that it is a wonderful book whose worlds are complex and whose characters strongly sketched and very real. The relationship of Horza to the warlike Idirans and the machine-based Culture is particularly poignent because we're never told what perspective is correct.
Rating: 
Summary: Consider Who?
Review: The novel that spawned the "new-age" renaissance in science fiction that we enjoy today. The taunt complex worlds of Peter F Hamilton and Dan Simmon's Hyperion/Endymion owe much to this 1988 breath of fresh-air. The novel is almost totally bleak, from its opening scenes to the ending. With disaster, failure and death in every sequence; an echo of the total war brushing the story's edges. Even in a war which fatalities are counted in "mega-deaths", Banks manages to get close to the 'human' side and the motivations that drive people. In a world of almost bewildering technology of immense powers, single fragile beings still make a difference. Banks was a surprise contender to the science fiction world, a writer whose work was normally described as "contemporary literature" and now in the UK often occupies two places in most bookshops. A champion, if you like, from the world of stuff literature, promoting just how good, really good science fiction is. If you like your science fiction realistic, gritty, imaginative and innovative. Then Banks is your man.
Rating:
Summary: Great roller coaster ride with an inferior ending...
Review: I would say "this is the best book ever!" if it wasn't for the letdown with the ending.Why? The characters are well-made, the plot captivating and a writing style to make it tense yet exciting. Even in the looonnnggg "Command System" parts it still maintains its roller coaster ride. Other books of his tend to have superb endings. This doesn't. I will not spoil anything, but if you read it I'm sure that you'll agree that Consider Phlebas is not a story with any sort of stunning yet realistic conclusion, especially for one with so much bulk into a single novel. Read for the thrill.
Rating:
Summary: OK, So It's "Space Opera", But...
Review: Having just re-purchased a copy (never lend your books) I found it as crisp and enjoyable as ever. (It is still in print in England and Australia!) Phlebas doesn't stretch the mind in the same way as 'Use of Weapons' or 'The Player of Games', but it was part of the foundation that raised SF out of the doldrums of loathsome "fantasy" and back into clear and breathtaking extrapolation of present technology where, dare I say, it belongs. "The Culture" remains the best SF invention since Gibson's "Cyberspace". Unfortunately my two heroes of the 1980s - Banks and Gibson - trending towards the ever more complex and inaccessible, now appear to have disappeared up their own fundaments, with 'Excession' and 'All Tomorrow's Parties' respectively. Buy Phlebas to round out your Banks collection and see where it all began.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting space opera
Review: After hearing about the works of Iain M. Banks for ages, with almost unanymous praise, I finally decided to check out some of his works. The author writes both regular fiction (under the name Iain Banks) and science fiction (under the name Iain M. Banks). His "Culture" novels fall under the SF category, and "Consider Phlebas" is generally considered the best starting point. The setting for this novel is the galaxy-wide war between the technology-driven Culture and the religious Idirans. The Culture is a loose group of human planets, living in wealth and freedom through their powerful technology. The true masters of the Culture are the Minds, incredibly powerful artificial intelligences, often fitted in big ships like GCU (General Contact Units) or GSV (General System Vehicles). One of these Minds is lost at the beginning of the story. The Idirans want to capture it, because studying it will provide them with useful techonological knowledge in the war. The Culture wants to prevent them from finding it, for obvious reasons. Horza, a human shape-changer employed on the Idiran side, is sent out to find the lost Mind. In his search, he teams up with a group of mercenaries and, after many adventures, travels to the planet where the Mind is hiding out. "Consider Phlebas" is a very exciting novel, filled with aliens, immense space-ships, Orbitals, ... Everything you need for a good, old-fashioned, sensawunda-filled space opera. If that's what you enjoy reading, look no further. I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the Culture series.
Rating:
Summary: Optimist's nightmare
Review: Back in 1997 or so, this was my first touch with Iain (M.) Banks. I liked it so much that I've spent a significant part of my time reading Banks ever since. But it wasn't until now that I finally returned to the book that, for me, started it all. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it didn't come as a big surprise that the book isn't his best. After all, this was his first foray into sci-fi. The main problem is that the book gets a little boring every now and again. I'm not much into action, and the movie-like sequences of Horza maneuvering a spaceship out of a bigger one, or the crew fighting those endless battles in the Command System Tunnels, don't work very well in written form, even though Banks's language is beautiful. Aside from this, I can't find much to complain about. Horza must be one of the most interesting characters in the history of literature, and the outcome of the story is just perfect, one of the most cynical and dark I've ever read. The universe, with all its details, is brilliant. And the Damage game... what an idea, it's been continually fascinating me for these past three years. Only great authors can dream up something like that. Still, I would recommend The Use Of Weapons, if you want Banks at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Intriging yet downbeat
Review: If you're not used to British writers (or at least writing on that side of the Atlantic, I believe Banks is actually Scottish) then here's a quick crash course. They're depressing. Not like "On the Beach" style depressing but definitely downbeat and somber. While American writers normally focused on the grand possibilities of space and conquering the enemy and tried to get you caught up in the glory and joy of the unknown, British writers tend to conjure up images of walking down grey streets on a cold day, wrapping your coat tighter around yourself for warmth as you finish your working class job and head back to your simple home. Yeah, even the SF books are like that. There's a reason why Brian Aldiss' Helliconia books begin in the Spring and end in the Winter. But we're here to discuss the excellent Iain Banks. This book here is one of his typical genre SF efforts (you can tell by the "M" middle initial) but that doesn't mean he slacks off because it's not one of his "literary" books (and I think a writer like Banks proves that SF can be literature) which means it's like nothing you'll be ready for. Horza is a Changer, which means he can basically look like anything, he's part of a dying race that's allied itself with the Idrians, a race based on religion and war that is at war with the Culture, a race of humans based on machines and perfection and tailoring. While Horza seems sometimes obsessed in his blanket condemnation of all things Culture, even he manages to admit that he's not much different from them. The book deals with his trying to find a Mind, the sentient portion of a spacecraft. Along the way he picks up a ship full of space pirates and things start to move. I like the relationship between Yalson and Horza, it's shown rather tenderly considering how intense both of them are, it's not hot sweaty lovemaking all the time. Sort of nice for once. But needless to say, the ending is almost nihlistic (make sure you read the appendix!) and if you're expecting happy wonderful things to occur, well look at it this way, he defies expectations at least. You expect everyone to make it, right? Because that's how it normally works, right? Uh-uh. Not here. In any event, this isn't his best work but one of his more accessible pieces (as compared to the Bridge or Feersum Endjinn) and well worth your while to track down and introduce yourself to his brilliance and perhaps the rest of our British cousins. There's some good stuff on the other side of the ocean.
Rating:
Summary: An alternative look at Banks' Culture
Review: "Consider Phlebas" was the first Iain Banks book I ever read, 10 years ago. Considering that since then I've tracked down and read everything he's written, it's safe to say he won me over. The concept of The Culture, a confederation of highly-technological spacefaring humanity largely guided by intelligent machines, is central to much of Banks' science fiction. The refreshing aspect of "Consider Phlebas" is that it views the Culture from outside, giving the reader a look at what those societies that come in conflict with the Culture (especially those with strong core beliefs of their own) might feel about its particular variety of hedonistic libertarianism. As with many of Banks' novels, the end of "Consider Phlebas" is downbeat yet fulfilling; as a writer, he's constitutionally incapable of happy endings, but doesn't always disappoint on that score.
Rating:
Summary: "Consider Phlebas" is superior space opera
Review: One of my all-time favorite science fiction books. Not everybody seems to go for it (and some miss the point that Banks is NOT rooting for the bad guys, the 'hero' is an otherwise admirable person who has invested so much into one side of a conflict that he cannot allow himself to see the truth). Monster space battles, brilliant but uneven and self-indulgent prose, a cutting dry wit, nihilistic, and so much raw inventiveness that he gets away with it anyhow. Well he does for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Amoral lowlifes on a futile quest - who cares?
Review: After seeing the gushing praise for Banks by critics, I gave this novel a try, much to my disappointment. Either his other novels far exceed this one in quality of writing, plot development, unity of theme, and characterization, or else Mr. Banks's reviewers are unfamiliar with quality literature and the giants in the Science Fiction field. Banks's prose is uneven, at times clipped, pedestrian and sneering, at others didactic and overblown. He prefers cliched characters and coincidence to the hard work that precedes literary invention. His moral premise, that a race of expansionistic, bigoted, warlike predators is preferable to ultra-civilized technology worshippers is basic and self-evident. But this does not prevent Banks from wasting the reader's time by pursuing the many detours taken by a hapless shapechanger as he plods through an assasination assignment of dubious value in a remote corner of the universe. The one redeeming aspect of the novel is that Banks successfully activates his characters in a suspenseful final scene. But the resolution, the ending is ultimately unsatisfactory and leaves one with the impression that either Banks is a nihilist or he is unequipped to bear out his message through a compelling storyline. If you think that this is good, try reading Gene Wolfe (first and foremost), Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guinn, or George Martin and I feel confident you will quickly revise your opinion.
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