Inversions

Rating:
Summary: Banks Back In Fine Form
Review: After the rather disappointing "A Song of Stone", his last novel to be released in the USA, Iain Banks has finally returned to this side of the Atlantic with another of his more typically engaging and complex narratives. If you have read Banks' earlier science fiction novels that elaborate Culture themes, you should immediately recognize and appreciate the subtle introduction of highly advanced and evolved Culture philosophy and technology to the low tech setting of this book. Chapters alternate between the twin tales of two seemingly unconnected protagonists, who reside in different warring nations on an alien planet with double suns. One state is ruled by a Cromwell-like regicide, the other by a moderately progressive monarch. Indeed, the lives of the two main characters, one a resented, yet capable female physician to the king, and the other a tough, enigmatic bodyguard to the protector, were once closely intertwined when they were younger and lived on an idyllic Culture world together, as one of the bodyguard's stories-within-the-story reveals. Yet on this somewhat primitive and brutal planet inhabited by fractious factions in a largely pre-mechanized stage of development, societies are composed of either wealthy and privileged nobles or wretched peasants in abject squalor, side by side. The two Culture exiles each experience their separate exotic adventures unknown to each other, in parallel but always different, "inverted" realities, which are nonetheless still obliquely interrelated. All in all quite satisfying, if edgy, conclusions to the tales of both main characters are reached, as loose ends are neatly tied up and ambiguities resolved for the careful reader. Fans of Banks will be well pleased with this refreshing and unique variation on familiar motifs.

Rating:
Summary: Banks Back In Fine Form
Review: After the rather disappointing "A Song of Stone", his last novel to be released in the USA, Iain Banks has finally returned to this side of the Atlantic with another of his more typically engaging and complex narratives. If you have read Banks' earlier science fiction novels that elaborate Culture themes, you should immediately recognize and appreciate the subtle introduction of highly advanced and evolved Culture philosophy and technology to the low tech setting of this book. Chapters alternate between the twin tales of two seemingly unconnected protagonists, who reside in different warring nations on an alien planet with double suns. One state is ruled by a Cromwell-like regicide, the other by a moderately progressive monarch. Indeed, the lives of the two main characters, one a resented, yet capable female physician to the king, and the other a tough, enigmatic bodyguard to the protector, were once closely intertwined when they were younger and lived on an idyllic Culture world together, as one of the bodyguard's stories-within-the-story reveals. Yet on this somewhat primitive and brutal planet inhabited by fractious factions in a largely pre-mechanized stage of development, societies are composed of either wealthy and privileged nobles or wretched peasants in abject squalor, side by side. The two Culture exiles each experience their separate exotic adventures unknown to each other, in parallel but always different, "inverted" realities, which are nonetheless still obliquely interrelated. All in all quite satisfying, if edgy, conclusions to the tales of both main characters are reached, as loose ends are neatly tied up and ambiguities resolved for the careful reader. Fans of Banks will be well pleased with this refreshing and unique variation on familiar motifs.

Rating:
Summary: Not your typical Culture novel
Review: Although you can read Banks' Culture novels in any order and not miss out, this is the one Culture novel you should not start with. It would be a good book if you had read no other Culture book, but if you have read one this becomes a great book. Told from two different, seemingly unrelated, viewpoints, Banks forsakes his ultra-high tech settings and tells a compelling story in an almost fantasy setting. While his books sometimes have the tendency to start slow, Inversions doesn't. The bifurcated storyline keeps the reader involved until the well thought out payoff at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Clever structure but less compelling than usual
Review: An unusual `Culture' novel, and I wonder if some of the pleasures for the reader have been sacrificed to Banks' ingenious if perhaps less satisfying structure.

We have the standard covert interplay between the vastly technologically superior, superlatively `civilised' culture, and backwards societies still mired in greedy, patriarchal and militaristic abuses of human rights. But this time we see it from the perspective of people within the latter society who only have hints of the culture (hints, of course, that resonate far more strongly for those of us who have read other culture novels!).

Thus, in one sense if read alone it's not SF at all (despite the differentiating `M.' appearing in the author's name). There's only one (crucial) incident (OK, perhaps two) where the culture is forced to reveal itself, but, as the medieval-type narrator says, he just recounts, and doesn't even begin to speculate. I wonder if someone who hadn't read any other Banks would assume this was a fantasy novel, and that the good Doctor Vossill was actually a sorceress. I think Banks would enjoy this perception, putting the reader in the place of his old world characters.

There's plenty of fooling with the narrator, with stories in stories (DeWar's Hiliti and Sechroom, Perrund's incomplete tragic personal history), and Oelph as eye-witness forced to speculate (or not) on incidents he can't explain. Indeed, Banks highlights his teasing of the reader to put together the clues for themselves by interspersing (inverting, if you like) the two inter-related main stories with every second chapter being entitled `The Doctor' or `The Bodyguard'. There is some pleasure in this, but I'm still unsure whether it's too clever for its own good (or perhaps just for *my* own good). My favourite culture novel, The Use of Weapons, likewise leaves the reader to fill in gaps (in that case around an odd non-chronological structure), but I found the individual chapters there more compelling. The climax, too, in both books cleverly forces us to reconsider much that's gone before. Very much a `win' for the ladies, with poor old DeWar, as he's been warned from the start, so busily trying to protect the `Protector' that he loses sight of the bigger game. [Spoiler warning] And just how deep is our missionary-soldier Doctor working: somehow her friends all prosper to the happiest of endings while her foes all die (and often from the sort of poison one with her chemical skills could provide - including the sort applied to Lattens' pacifier) and the realm moves upward to greater welfare and egalitarian government (very Confucian in outlook: get the king straightened out and everything else will come good). I'm not quite so sure why DeWar was so desperate to protect UrLeyn: was the idea for Hiliti and Sechroom to pick one backwater dictator each and see who could drag these peasants towards enlightenment first?

There are plenty of standard culture resonances here, hopefully facing the educated and relatively fabulously wealthy 1st world reader with his similar towering relation to those still essentially centuries behind in living standards and freedom in the 3rd world. How do we interact? What are our obligations? What is our best course? Banks doesn't eulogise the noble savage either - his bleak picture of life in a medieval world cries out for rescue for the neglect, abuse and even torture of innocents.

So, pertinent themes, likeable characters, clever structure, powerfully surprising and plausible climax ... but I wasn't nearly as drawn in to this story as I am used to with Banks - I felt more distant than usual. Moreover I didn't relish the writing style this time - perhaps because so much of it was done as the character Oelph - although the `Bodyguard' narrative was generally even less gripping. Banks can be good, even great, but I feel this book is more a curiosity for the fans than something I recommend stand alone. Indeed, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who hadn't read some of his other books for fear that on this impression they'd miss out on some really excellent books.

Rating:
Summary: Banks is a freaking genius
Review: And I never say stuff like that.

This is a very good book in lots of ways that other people have already pointed out. One that particularly strikes me, though, is that some lucky people can read it twice and get two different novels out of it. If you haven't read anything in Banks' "Culture" series, read this *first*. It'll be enjoyable and mysterious and engrossing, and satisfying despite the unresolve conundra.

Then read the other "Culture" books. You'll think "oh, is *that* what was going on in 'Inversions'!" and you'll be able to go back and read it again for another entirely good time.

This is one of those all too rare books that tantalize the reader with a deep and interesting mystery, and then when the mystery is finally revealed (in this case, by reading a different book entirely), the solution to the mystery is fully as rich and interesting as the mystery itself was.

Read it at once.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy, not Science Fiction.
Review: As a huge Banks fan I came to this book with high expectations but was rather disappointed. I consider "Player of Games" and "Excession" as some of the best books I have ever read and in particular loved the details of life in the Culture, the ships, the names, the drones etc. This book is set in the context of the Culture in a very subtle manner. Only people who had read "Use of Weapons" for example would have any hope of picking up the fingerprints of Special Circumstances in the plot. Inversions is not a bad book by any means but it is most assuredly NOT a science fiction book - it is pure Fantasy (Kings, castles, swords etc). Buy this book for the genius of Banks, but not for the high-tech thrill of his genuine Culture novels.

Rating:
Summary: The more you put in, the more you'll get out.
Review: Being an Iain M Banks' work, the reader naturally expects this to be a further episode of the Culture sci-fi series. At first sight however, Inversions appears to be a straightforward tale of love, war and Machiavellian intrigue set in a brutal medieval environment. The story unfolds in separate but strangely complimentary alternate instalments, describing the adventures of the beautiful, vastly knowledgeable but mysteriously other-worldly Dr. Vosill and the powerful and lethal but profoundly sensitive bodyguard DeWar. The plot is further complicated by the questionable veracity of the narrator. Thus we have stories within stories, and when DeWar starts speaking in allegories things become decidedly complex! After each chunk of story I found myself speculating on whether to take the narrative at face value or dredge for hidden depths. Sometimes I felt obliged to revisit earlier chapters in case I'd missed a clue, sometimes a flash of realisation would hit me hours later. There are tantalising but elusive echoes of scenes from earlier IMB novels and believe me, you will get far more from Inversions if you have also read Consider Phlebus, Player of Games, State of the Art and Use of Weapons. So what drove DeWar's obsession with the fables about the fantasy land? Who were Sechroom and Hiliti? Was Vosill a Culture dilettante, covert ambassador, or simply a love-struck foreigner? Was sorcery, sheer chance or a miniature Culture self-defence drone the architect of the astonishing scenes that led to Oelph's and Vosill's salvation in the torture chamber? Which of the alternative endings is most plausible or satisfying? IMB forces the reader to think long and hard about these conundrums and much more. Inversions is never an easy read, demanding much from the reader, lest the subtle undercurrents essential to a comprehensible conclusion be overlooked. If, however you possess an adventurous and inquisitive spirit, I am sure you, like I, will find Inversions immensely satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: a midrange banks, billed as SF but is too limited
Review: billed as sci fi on the back cover, i found myself waiting and waiting for something other than a rather mundane medieval story to unfold. where is the scope, the feelings of vast possibility that pervade the other culture novels? at least this story was readable. it was nothing compared to my favorite banks-- feersum endjiin, use of weapons, and the player of games. by the end i was annoyed at being stuck in this backward place for so long.

Rating:
Summary: Subtle mysteries mean more to old fans than new
Review: British writer Iain Banks, known for such edgy, thoughtful novels as "The Wasp Factory" and "A Song of Stone," writes science fiction as Iain M. Banks ("Excession," "Against a Dark Background").

"Inversions," while set on a planet with two sons and six moons, is more of a medieval parable than sci-fi, despite the mysterious properties surrounding Dr. Vosill, physician to the king, and a female and foreigner in a realm which despises both. Politically wise and humane as well as amazingly skillful medically, Vosill dodges the hatreds and strategems of a conspiracy of jealous courtiers. Her story is narrated by the spy Oelph, her apprentice, who also falls hopelessly in love with her.

Meanwhile, related in alternating chapters by a deliberately obscured narrator, violence is an ever present danger in the events unfolding in a post revolutionary government palace in a distant realm. Bodyguard DeWar frets over the new Protector's safety (a victorious regicide) while falling chastely in love with the crippled concubine who saved the Protector from his last assassin. As war breaks out in the provinces, The Protector's beloved son falls seriously ill with a mysterious malady. Distracted by worry, he ignores conspiring factions.

Both leaders have enemies they are unaware of. While there are parrallels in the narratives, the connections are subtle and unapparent until late in the novel. Even then, questions remain. Well-written and absorbing, "Inversions" draws the reader on but does not really satisfy. The conclusion does not seem to warrant all the mystery, despite the delicate interplay of viewpoints and sinister maneuvering.

Still, I'm told old fans familiar with previous books will understand what he's done here. Doesn't do us casual readers much good though, nor does it make me want to immerse myself in his philosophical construct.

Rating:
Summary: Culture Shmulture
Review: I have read several reviews of inversions which claim that it would be impossible to comprehend this book without reading ian m banks's earlier culture series, but i read this book without any knowedge of its allusions to the other series and thouroughly enjoyed it. I wonder what it is in particular that i am suppossedly unable to grasp; surely it is not the realtionship between the doctor and dewar, as the signifigance of dewar's stories is pretty obvious. Perhaps it is the true motives of the two main characters which are supposedly elusive, though i got pretty good idea of their general nature, mabey they are spelled out thouroughly in one of the culture books. Frankly i am dissapointed that inversions isn't an entirely stand-alone novel, as its connection to bank's other works deprives you of the pleasure of contemplating your own expalnations of the book's open end.