Rating: 
Summary: This was a tough one to get through
Review: I am fascinated by the imagination and style of Iain Banks and I found his "The Bridge" extraordinary."Excession" was confusing and a bit tedious to wade through. I very much liked his portrayal of the alien Affronter race and of the "Minds" of the starships, but the plot barely held me and rather petered out at the end. It is helpful for the reader to know that the curious conversations presented in reduced bold type are taking place between the artificial intelligent minds of the conscious starships. I have several more Banks novels on my night stand and I hope that they prove less formidable and more intriguing.
Rating: 
Summary: Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels are excellent SF.
Review: I first picked up one of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels in a train station in Edinburgh while I was studying abroad in college. I think I must have inhaled the entire book on the train ride from Scotland to London. Well, probably not, but it felt like it. By the time I left Britain, I had scoured the bookstores for more of the series, and finally picked up the last of one I couldn't find in Singapore. It really annoys me that such excellent novels are "out of print" here in the United States. The "Culture" in Banks' novels refers to a galactic hegemony involved in overtly or subtly bending the rest of the universe's civilizations to their will. It's really quite well done. Wonderfully invented worlds (such as giant, manufactured rings) and inventive quirks like various kinds of sentient machines make the series real page-turners. Books written published the "Iain M. Banks" nom de plume seem less overtly sinister, possibly not as thought provoking as his written under "Ian Banks." All in all, I'd give them the five-star rating.
Rating:
Summary: OOOOooo What a great book in a bad cover
Review: PlEASE note that the books of Ian M Banks and Ian Banks get deservedly heavyweight publishing support in the UK. This like all his Ian 'M' Banks books is character driven gothic Sci Fi in a credible and sustained distant future. Do not judge this by the shoddy cover its been given in the US. This is a masterpiece
Rating: 
Summary: Nice book
Review: This is a very nice book, and, frankly, although I read them out of order, my first introduction to this universe. I am currently reading Player of Games.
Rating:
Summary: Excession... Stick with Player of Games
Review: The book which precede's this book is _The Player of Games_. _Player_ is the reason that I chose to read _Excession_, but unfortunately, the bizarre plot twists and generally thick storytelling made this a difficult read for me. _Excession_ picks up in the same universe where _Player_ left off and dives even deeper into the consciousness of the sentient drones/ships/orbitals which populate the Culture. This is the reason to attempt this book... these characters are fascinating. They feel human for a bit then Banks subtly reminds you that you're in the "head" of a machine. Brilliance. The human characters is where Banks lost me. He begins with solid hooks on each of the main characters, but they often did not develop into three dimension characters that I cared about. Towards the end, I found myself praying to avoid threads which involved these characters and their confusing plotlines. If you want a taste of "The Culture" -- read _Player_. If you want to find out more, read this, but keep a notepad out and take notes.
Rating:
Summary: Get into it...
Review: It is certainly a well-made book with excellent visual accuracy and wonderful-and-quite-original use of "Minds" that make it special. It is, in itself, interesting and captivating from beginning to end. The few chapters with the sentient Alien drone living on a very, very dead ship has got to be one of the most memorable scenes of any book that I have ever read. The struggle for survival and the drone's clear and frank emotions take you in. The revelations are also of great proportion. They're in every chapter and unmissable. The ending is innovative and conclusive, the investigation drawing you in. The characters in general are very well-made and well-designed, and you can really imagine meeting the Humans, but the Drones and Minds are what make the book, in it's way, "special". It is hard to find anything wrong with this book. I have wracked my brain hard but can't seem to think of anything that could be flawed. It is great for anyone who wants a good book and even better for lovers of any space opera.
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Summary: Excession of my expectation
Review: Except for Star Wars, I'm never been much into sci-fi. I bought Excession partly on the strength of Banks' 'straight' fiction (especially The Wasp Factory), but mostly because it was the only English language book on the shelves of the Venetian bookshop in which I found it. The outward signs were not good: the edition I purchased is illustrated with one of those ghastly airbrushed spaceships favoured by the direst of pulp sci-fi publishers. But one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Nor did I have foreknowledge of Bank's "Culture", the parallel universe he has developed for his science fiction titles, a potential handicap given this is about the fifth in the series. It turned out not to matter. Excession had me from the start. This is proper literature which, as such, leaves Arthur C Clarke and E E "Doc" Smith for dead. The ideas in it are out of Clarke's league, too. There's something cinematic about the narrative, cutting and diving between figures and dialogues (the communications between the ships are especially fascinating) as Banks unravels, surely and deliberately, the plot. It's challenging - not a word in the 451 pages is wasted, and you can not afford to casually flick through a couple of pages. Fortunately, you never feel the need to. Readers of his straight fiction will know Banks' particular gift for story telling: it is put to even better use here. After fifty pages you know you're in the hands of a master - a fine, wicked, playful master at that. Banks' only concession to the genre is to give his humanoid characters silly names, such as Dajeil Gelian and (& I'm not kidding) Sikleyr-Najasa Croepice Ince Stahl da Mapin. Knowing Banks' style, however, this is probably some sort of in-joke that I don't get, so the laugh's most likely on me for missing it. His spaceships, which are delightfully sentient, all get terrific names, on the other hand, such as The Problem Child and Fate Amenable to Change. Cool. Great book - ideal holiday reading; excellent for a 15 hour ferry trips from Bari to Igoumenitsa.
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Summary: SPACE OPERA AT ITS BEST
Review: If you were to take the average Roman citizen circa 100AD and present him with a collection of short stories by brilliant twentieth century writers, chances are that he would find much of the content confusing, astounding or downright unbelievable. A similar feeling may be had by readers of Excession who are not familiar with Iain M. Banks previous works of science fiction. Mr Banks tells of a culture where technology is advanced to a point that it is borderline fantasy. While a good deal of his science fiction looks likely to become science fact, some of his concepts are unabashed plot devices. Unlike much of his non-sci-fi work, the prose here is beautifully straightforward and succint. There are romantic tragedies, collossal space battles, political intrigue and dealings between artificial intelligences. All this produces a spectacularly well written book that is actually several very different stories anchored around one particular event, the "Excession". I literally could not put this book down. The pacing is perfect, the characters very deep and the technology almost sinful. Throughout the novel I had the feeling that I was going to be in for some kind of major twist or surprise in the end. I was not dissapointed. The final confrotation was the most sensational piece of space operatics that I have ever read and it left my head buzzing. For people who like their science fiction with an edge, Iain M. Banks does for the next few millenia what William Gibson has done for the near future.
Rating:
Summary: Great addition to the Culture
Review: Over the last few years, Iain Banks has become one of my favorite, if not THE favorite, science fiction writer. I think this book is probably the best of his novels that fall under the 'Culture' universe that he's created, along with CONSIDER PHLEBAS and THE PLAYER OF GAMES. All of his earlier Culture novels are still available on Amazon.uk even if some of them are out of print here, and worth the effort to order.
Rating:
Summary: Fast paced, complex, and funny
Review: This was the first banks book i read, and i wouldn't recomend you follow my lead. I was totally unprepared for what followed. I found the chapter jumping disorientating, and was unfamiliar with the Culture imagery and technology. Dispite this, i thought it was one of the best books i have ever had the privilage to read. This culture book concentrates for once on the interaction between the Minds rather than drones and humans. The ending is extremely exciting and has a neat twist. As usual, there are dozens of characters and sub plots to keep track of, some of which may seem pointless, but aren't. I think this is the best sci fi book banks has written. Oh, and yes, it also has the best ship names too.
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