Rating: 
Summary: It's a comedy.
Review: I've read all of the science fiction (and most of the "straight" fiction) by Iain M. Banks, and I think that this is the funniest of them all. Despite a huge pile of bought and unread books awaiting attention, as soon as I'd finished "Excession" I just had to reread it. Don't worry too much about the plot (just let it wash over you - it will all fall into place) but just enjoy the humour of the writing. Leave aside your preconceptions (the good guys aren't all that good, the bad guys aren't all that bad and the "supercomputers" aren't all that intelligent) and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: What the HELL was that! I love being perplexed.
Review: Oh, man. You gotta read this. I'm not really sure how to describe it. I know this is supposed to be part of a series of books, but I didn't know that until after I read it, but even so this would not have perplexed me less, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The whole thing is sub-laced with little sideline ditties and short subplots that are completely meaningless but are just soo interesting and cool there's no way I'd excuse their absence in future printings. The ultimately bizarre occurences and characters present are all the more grabbing for the fact the author doesn't bother explaining their existence or the circumstances whence they came. The author's penchant for unexplained oddity, ala Kubrick, is most endearing and I shall be reading further books by him.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I love this (and other Banks books) for exactly the reasons others don't. They are full of detail and information. This makes this one thick and slow, but I can slowly savor the stories, digesting them over time. If you can not pay attention, watch TV instead.Consider this: it is actually several different novels that take place at the same time around an event that really does not matter the book or the characters in it. Look at what they do, how they do it & read the strings of computer gibberish. (There is information in there, just like real computer gibberish that goes on in the usenet.) Yes, you may not get it. I did, and I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: The best Banks available
Review: The problem with Bank's writing is that, like any good literature, it acts at many different levels, and it requires an astute reader to keep up with it. The episodic nature of the book can be difficult to read, but sets up the subtexts masterfully. You will have to think to read this book, but it is well worth it. However, I would give it but two stars for those who just want a quick pulpy space opera.
Rating: 
Summary: Good beginning, no climax, 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: Great ingredients but grossly undercooked
Review: As I waded through Banks' story I wondered why I didn't like it more. I never got engaged or really found a character about whom I cared deeply. Compared to Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep which I read straight through, Excession is a complete misfire. It has galactic travel, ship minds, suspended animation, time shifting, exotic xenobiology, and more but the story is related in episodic sections jumping around so much among points of view that a sense of plot or character is lost in the riffing on the certainly fascinating concepts Banks envisions. So this is more a book of ideas and concepts many of which are well realized than it is a novel or even a compelling story.
Rating:
Summary: The book that would
Review: Herm, you might wonder about the summary. I'm not a writer, so there. As for the book; I must admit that it's the first book I've read for years - litteraly - of my own free will, ie. not counting work and school books. I would also like to submit, that I've been pre-exposed by my friends by their glorification of the intelligence of mr. Banks. To that point, I would like to say, that they were right. I think, that his book, 'Excession', is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. (Although it has been a while since I last read a book of this genre) I simply love the details put into his exquisitely modelled character and setting definitions, and the way that he explains things so that you could understand them as if you were part of that universe. Also the way that he explains about past events that lead to this, and what might have affected persons or Minds (read: Computer-minds, eg. the mighty ships), and the way that their personalities are explained deeply, even in detail about the last thoughts of a heroically self-destructing drone.
Rating: 
Summary: first-draft sludge
Review: Warning sign: by page 200, NOTHING has happened either in this book or in the author's head to give us a hint where the story will go. The above blurb: "...Banks is a true original...whose brilliant speculative fiction has transported us into worlds of unbounded imagination and inimitable revelatory power" is the real Affront. It kills me how readers of science fiction are so easily pleased by any piece of kitsch that centers around, like wow, a rip in the fabric of spacetime. Totally. Throw in some multi-limbed aliens who like to play squash, and bingo--some jacket-blurb flack is telling us we're in the presence of a major imagination. Too bad the delete key is beyond him. Obviously Banks has gotten to a point in perceived stature where no editor had the guts to pack this junk in a FedEx overnight with instructions to cut it in half and come up with a real plot.
Rating:
Summary: Darn Good Book!!
Review: I haven't read too much of Banks' stuff recently. I found the book a good read. The concept of someone, a Mind, being part of a cabal and not being sure if the cabal is real or imagined by the subject is fun.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Another culture novel, branching out in another different direction, I liked it, I'll buy the next one that comes along too. The sentient machine battles are especially good in this one. Many reviewers seem to dwell on the point that they couldnt understand the Excession. Is that not the whole poit! We are seeing and being able to judge the actions of the culture when confronted with the the most difficult situation any society could cope with (ie something infinitely powerfull, infinitely unpredictable and infinitely incomprehensible) how would you fare if confronted by the infinitely powerfull unknown, I think the culture did OK. I especially liked Banks reference to the culture getting themselves into an "Out of context situation" well done, I love it. Dave Reid
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