Look to Windward

Rating:
Summary: Slightly darker, not so vast
Review: I'd really give it 3.5 stars if I could... The start is indeed slow, but what struck me more than anything about this book is how dark and almost hopeless the tone is. The narrative gets very deeply mired at points in destruction and undoing; of course, we knew that Banks could do this, but in a Culture story? It's as though the tone from _Song of Stone_ bleeds into this book. There is something deeply hopeless here, very different from the near jubilance in _Excessions_. The novel also suffers -- where its predecessors shine -- as we "zoom out" to the scattered locations and environments the characters inhabit. Things get a little loose, diffuse.

Still, it's a Culture novel, and it's a Iain [M or no] Banks novel. Of course I read it. I'm glad I read it. I find myself wondering, though, between _Look to Windward_ and the aforementioned _Stone_; what is so bad that has recently happened to our author?

Rating:
Summary: Political theorizing with a novel wrapped around it
Review: I'm fairly new to Iain Banks, or Iain M. Banks as he calls himself for his science fiction works. I'd say, having now read Look To Windward that he writes a decent enough book, but with various problems that detract from the overall enjoyment.

Banks seems to enjoy his political commentary. It's less overt here than in Dead Air, the other Banks novel I read, but is more central to the plot. In a nutshell, there is an interstellar civilization that tries to induce another species to give up slavery by various means, including bribery, promises of help and aid, and assorted, unspecified, sneaky dealings. When this turns out to be successful, a civil war ensues among the alien species, killing a few billion of them. Some of them now want 'revenge'.

This is an oversimplified description, of course, but then again, we're dealing with oversimplified politics. Look to Windward is dedicated 'For the Gulf War Veterans', so presumably the interfering interstellar civilization is supposed to represent the United States. This would be in keeping with at least some of his other novels.

Now, you can agree or not about the political views expressed here. They aren't as overbearing as in other novels I've read by various authors, and Banks does a pretty good job keeping us focused on his universe, not our real one. That, actually, is the other problem I had with Look to Windward.

There's an awful lot of fluff in this book. Banks seems to be trying to impress us with how many unearthly images he can come up with, but the result can be long passages of description that I just couldn't get interested in. There's a fine line to be walked with science fiction. To give the reader as much information as is necessary to show the setting as it is, but without bogging us down in details. "The simian-adapted human and the fifth-order Decider-turned-Interpreter had returned to the dirigible behemothaur Yoleus without mishap after retrieving the errant glyph stylo..." This is a quote of the sort of narrative that can go on at some length here. My advice: skim over some of this stuff.

Now that I've been negative, I should point out that between some of these lengthy passages, and if one chooses to take the politics with a grain of salt, there is a rather enjoyable story here. The characters are fairly engaging, and there's enough tension to satisfy. I wouldn't call it a great work, but it's worth a look.

Rating:
Summary: Look to Windward
Review: I've searched out all of Banks novels about the Culture. I first read Look to Windward in Summer 2001 and enjoyed it immensely.

But after September 11, I'm struck by the comparisons in the Muslim attacks in the USA and how, and why, the medieval, militaristic alien empire attacked the Human/AI Culture.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Culture books, and that is saying a lot!
Review: If you like Space Opera feel combined with the cultural density of William Gibson, get a Banks Culture novel now!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: In its capacity as a ship's Mind during the Idiran war, Masaq Orbital's Hub has seen deaths it could have prevented at their most detailed. In his capacity as a Major in the Chelgrian Caste war, Quilan has seen deaths, too, and although in less detail, there is only one, which, to Quilan, was unpreventable and just as poignant. Both Hub and Quilan have a mind to die forever. But first, they must do their duty. Look to Windward would suit first time readers of Banks' work because it explains many details pertaining to the Culture, making some of his internediary works more easily followed. As a reader of all Banks' books I felt that this was a means to pad the story out, since so much of it was based on sections from other books, pretty much word-for-word. Some of the characters were of debatable importance, too. I finished Look to Windward with the strong impression that Banks has flogged this cultural pony as far as it will go. Hopefully he can turn his considerable writing skills to something fresh.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Insightful clear thought wrapped in a fantastic and surprisingly humorous package. It took me a little while to figure out why Mr. Banks dedicated the book to the Gulf War veterans. Without spoiling the book, think of the "Culture" as USA plus UK and Chel as the middle east, Afganistan, Vietnam...etc.

In the end, I think the Gulf Veterans he dedicated the book to are all the people who lived and survived the war regardless of whether they were Americans, British, Iraqis or Kuwaitis.

Considering the fact that the book was published in 2000 and the subsequent tragedy of September 11th, the book is almost prophetic. I believe it is critical that more people read this book. And the sooner the better.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Insightful clear thought wrapped in a fantastic and surprisingly humorous package. It took me a little while to figure out why Mr. Banks dedicated the book to the Gulf War veterans. Without spoiling the book, think of the "Culture" as USA plus UK and Chel as the middle east, Afganistan, Vietnam...etc.

In the end, I think the Gulf Veterans he dedicated the book to are all the people who lived and survived the war regardless of whether they were Americans, British, Iraqis or Kuwaitis.

Considering the fact that the book was published in 2000 and the subsequent tragedy of September 11th, the book is almost prophetic. I believe it is critical that more people read this book. And the sooner the better.

Rating:
Summary: Stylish and exciting, if not necessarily original
Review: Look to Windward is the seventh book in Banks' science fiction universe based on a utopian society of advanced artificial intelligences and the humans (and other organic life forms) that originally created them, loosely termed the Culture. With each book, Banks has built his plots out of the interstitial area where the idea of this utopia fails, typically in its dealings with other, different societies, through its para-military/intelligence arm called Special Circumstances. This time, the Culture has interferred in the "advancement" of another society, failing miserably, and then must deal with the diplomatic fallout from their actions. That the other society, the Chelgria was a predator-based race with a rigid class structure and a warlike demeanor, makes this all the more difficult.

On this backdrop is placed several interesting characters: the Chelgrian Ziller, a composer who has ex-patriated himself because of his support for the rebels who attempted to overthrow the class structure, and wishes to have nothing to do with his old society or race; the Chelgrian emissary, Quinlan, whose despair over losing his wife in the war between the traditionalists and the rebels will drive him to commit the unthinkable; and the orbital Mind known as Masaq', who has hosted Ziller for years and asked the composer to create a new symphony based on the fading light of two suns--suns that went nova two thousand years ago when Masaq', as a warship, set off a chain reaction that destroyed them and the two orbitals around them.

As in his other novels, this one has several storylines to follow that eventually come together by the climax. Each storyline is given its own chapters, which some people find difficult to follow but I've always enjoyed, although it makes keeping track of the story much more difficult when the time spent reading the book occurs over weeks rather than hours.

It's not that Banks brings anything new to science fiction in his Culture novels; even the Culture itself can be found by looking at some mixture of Cordwainer Smith and Isaac Asimov. His ideas are culled from the classics as well, as in this book the orbital is roughly Larry Niven's "ringworld" mixed with John Varley's world-mind Gaea from his Titan trilogy. But what Banks can do better than those four, and a host of other published SF writers, is create believable characters whose motivations mesh with the unlikely locations and situations he sets for them. There's a reason why this type of SF is called space opera, but in Banks' hands it refers not to the televised soap operas but the sturm und drang of classical music. Yes, there are exaggerations here, but when a Banks' character has amnesia, it becomes a thematic device, not just a crutch to get you from one chapter to the next.

Rating:
Summary: Oh Joy once more!
Review: Mysterious, subtle and thoughtful. Less of a mindless space adventure story with juvenile one dimensional space morons(i.e. Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction behemoth) than a crime fiction novel of sorts that moves with wit and finess, inexorably towards its ultimate conclusion.

Quilan is a Chel. A member of a nation moving out of the shadow of a sudden and violent civil war. It's relationship with the vast Culture civilisation is ambiguous. Quilan is sent as an emissary to a Culture orbital to meet with a famous Chel exile. As we move through the book the past of the central character is slowly peeled away as both he and the reader come to understand the implications fo his terrible mission.Muhahahaha!

This is one of those rare novels that reminds one of how truly satisfying it is to read, wrapped in blankets or draped across a sofa with a coffee in easy reach. The repartee between the Culture figures is almost Vancian (as in Jack Vance)in its quick indulgent interplay. There is little of Bank's (at times maligned) penchant for descriptive violence. Rather mystery blends deliciously with succulent characterization in this truly worthy addition to Bank's Culture series. I growled at times at pointless scences reading through 'Consider Phlebas'(esp the eater scene on a Caribbean-esque beach - Nice book title though!)Such superfluity has been truly expunged in this tight novel. Here I whoopped and chuckled with joy and delight as I read, locking myself in the bathroom so that I might finish it undisturbed by my family. It is perhaps Bank's finest work; Subtle in ways many people seem not to have picked up on. Ho ho.

If you enjoy this then do all you can to read any of Jack Vance's works. The Demon Princes series is as good a place as any to start.

Rating:
Summary: worst ever bank's sf book
Review: salut, c'est le plus mauvais livre de banks que j'ai lu. La seule chose que j'ai à dire, c'est que environ dès les 100 premières pages de l'édition anglaise, on se doute de la fin. C'est assez pbmatique. Il me" semble qu'il a voulu faire quelque chose d'absolument non romanesque: si on lit ce livre, c'est une tentative réussie de nous montrer un personnage flou: la culture, non pas dans son cÃ'té faible, mais dans ce qu'elle de plus ennuyeux: réfléchissons-y, du début jusqu'à la fin, une IA de la culture nous dit que tout est sous contrÃ'le. Et, comble de l'absence de suspens: tout est effectivement sous contrÃ'le. La culture a déjà gagné parce que l'intrigue du livre est en fait creuse.
Le pb est le suivant: quel est l'intérêt pour lecteur qui n'est pas un fan?
je crois qu'il est nul.