Rating: 
Summary: Very complex and bizarre plots
Review: Iain M. Bank's "Excession" of the Culture series is incredibly complex and amazing for all the "gibberish" terminology that he just cranks out. I'd never even heard of Iain Banks before I spotted this book and promptly read it, because I enjoy sci-fi. I was not completely ready for all the terminologies that the AI ships utilize, but the many subplots were at times funny and irreverent or dire and thought-provoking. The thought that the diplomat Byr Genar-Hofoen could simply turn himself into a woman by thinking about it was...strange. The Culture's "culture" is ironic, because all that the AI machinery and the fun-loving utopia has done to ordinary human beings is what we're hoping for the future anyway. I mean, who wouldn't wish to live three hundred years and change sexes when wanted? Who wouldn't want AI machines doing everything for you and completely changing everything. Well, I think Banks raises a lot of ethical questions in "Excession", because for the Culture, what we consider somewhat taboo thought is commonplace. Brilliant, Iain M. Banks!
Rating:
Summary: Complex space opera
Review: Another of Banks' Culture novels, this one languished on my to-be-read shelf for a couple of years. Since Banks writes about a book a year, if one does not keep reading him steadily, it is easy to fall behind (as opposed to, say, Howard Waldrop). I'm a fan of Banks mainly for his easy, breezy style and the modernist trappings of his characters. Yes, he writes space opera (when he writes SF), but this is no Star Wars--the characters are never so easily swept into categories of good and evil, nor can the science be so easily removed from the plot to reveal a western in space. A Culture novel would not be filmable, although it would be interesting to see someone try. The title refers to a spatial anomaly that threatens to change the universe. It is big and spherical and obviously not a part of the "normal" universe, so it triggers the machinations of several conspiracies (what the Culture's Minds are best at) and a new war between the Culture and the aggressive Affront. The usual cast is there under different names: an independent human male envoy for Contact, a wronged woman, a spunky girl, some old and patient Drones, and some devious Minds. The Affront are interesting as foils to the utopian leanings of the Culture (I think I remember Banks saying that the reason he created the Culture as a utopian society was to show just how inherently unstable such a thing was). This one jumps around a lot, switching various storylines so often that it is difficult to keep everything straight in your head, especially if you read this over multiple days. Don't. Read it in one sitting for the pure pleasure of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing ending
Review: I admit I haven't read prior Culture books. So the sheer scale of the inventiveness of the author sped me through the first half. But then the main threads become somewhat obvious and I've expected the plot convolute again closer to the end (expect the unexpected ;) but unfortunately, besides some hierarchical irregularities and military oddities, all storylines become rather linear and ended up in rather logical and predictable way.
Also, every sentient being in the book is very human-like. Just dialed this or that way a bit.
Rating:
Summary: Very complex and bizarre plots
Review: Iain M. Bank's "Excession" of the Culture series is incredibly complex and amazing for all the "gibberish" terminology that he just cranks out. I'd never even heard of Iain Banks before I spotted this book and promptly read it, because I enjoy sci-fi. I was not completely ready for all the terminologies that the AI ships utilize, but the many subplots were at times funny and irreverent or dire and thought-provoking. The thought that the diplomat Byr Genar-Hofoen could simply turn himself into a woman by thinking about it was...strange. The Culture's "culture" is ironic, because all that the AI machinery and the fun-loving utopia has done to ordinary human beings is what we're hoping for the future anyway. I mean, who wouldn't wish to live three hundred years and change sexes when wanted? Who wouldn't want AI machines doing everything for you and completely changing everything. Well, I think Banks raises a lot of ethical questions in "Excession", because for the Culture, what we consider somewhat taboo thought is commonplace. Brilliant, Iain M. Banks!
Rating: 
Summary: Funny. Ironic. A very fine book
Review: An unexpected return to the more straight forward structure of Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games. This makes Excession a very straight through read, while not sacrificing the quality of writing that I have come to expect from Mr Banks. The use of data-headers for the dialouge sections involving the ships' minds is clever and unusual. The headers were a bit confusing until I figured out what they were telling me, but I didn't find them to be a distraction as some other readers have. You don't have to read them, they serve to embellish the text, and create visual diversity. In some respects this book is better than the more more stylised Use of Weapons and Against A Dark Background. There aren't any dead chapters, and the prose isn't spoilt by the ill-considered flippancies, which Mr Banks can only too easily resort to. The Excession is an uncomfortable paralell with the obelisk in Clarke's 2001 though. That aside it's a brilliant read. Watch out for Inversions.
Rating:
Summary: Hooked
Review: On vacation, at an idyllic Thailand beach resort with an unexpected library, I got hooked on Iain Banks. It was this book that did it. As the other reviewers say, it's a tad long (i.e. perfect for long holidays and vacations.) And sure, the story gets tangled at times. But it's unbelievably creative and screamingly funny in a sarcastic and cynical way. Think "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" on growth hormones. (If one is looking for "hard" science fiction, however, this is not your book.) I would buy the book if were only to have the complete listing of all the names employed by Banks for his sentient starships. These are a catalog of odd-ball word pairings and acidic aphorisms. My favorites - "Ethics Gradient" and "Fate Amenable to Change." The writing throughout Excessions is constantly imaginitive, heads in unexpected directions, creates a novel sweeping universe, and frankly is everything I hope for in science fiction. My only complaint is that after reading this book I bought 9 or 10 more books by Banks, and I found none provided the enjoyment that this one did. While the other books are all excellent, they did not bowl me over. Is that because everything else is not as good, or that a reader tends to favor the first thing read of a wonderful writer? Judging from the range of responses from other reviewers as to "the best" Bank's book - I am leaning towards the latter.
Rating:
Summary: Haiku Review
Review: Star drops into space.
Ripples spread through time and Minds.
Read other books first.
Rating:
Summary: Good beginning, long middle, no end
Review: Banks' "Culture Universe" is definitely intriguing, the backdrop for potentially great stories such as "Player of Games". This book looks promising from the start, but then you realise that you're halfway through the book, and nothing much has happened. By the end, still nothing has happened. Missed opportunity for a good story.
Rating:
Summary: For the smarter SF reader
Review: If like me you love Science Fiction with a passion that is hard to articulate then read all of Banks' books not just this one. Humour, philosophy, ripping yarns and intelligence - I wait for each new Bank's novel like a morphine addict.
Rating: 
Summary: Great start but ended with a fart
Review: Don't know how to explain it but being fully "interfaced" between the MINDS running the various spaceships was GREAT in a cruising sense...but the unraveling of multiple plot lines and the eventual blackholing of characters in face of the some alien Quitoxic reflective "being" as EXCESSION...hmmm, a bit too excessive
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