Admired, but did not love.
All of Iain. M. Banks' signature moves are here, in all their glory, in only his second outing into his twisted/admirable/utopian/dystopian post-scarcity and pure libertarian society, the Culture. So there's the dark humour, the snarky AIs, the rich world-building, the dizzying amorality of a society in which, almost literally, anything goes, and an unsparing understanding of the hidden costs of such "freedom."
But ... for me, this read wasn't pure pleasure, and I kept being dragged away from my immersion in the affairs of the Culture, and particularly in the trials and tribulations of the Player of Games, Jernau Morat Gurgeh, as I found myself constantly questioning the bigger picture, and asking, what is it for? Oh, yes, of course: to demonstrate that a "virtuous" post-scarcity, pure libertarian, utopian/dystopian, anything-goes society can be just as bad, just as devious and exploitative as an old-school fascist empire. Just as, in its own way, ... imperialistic, crushing the lives and choices of enemies and friends under its wheels.
But ... the real problem for me, from page 1, is Jernau Morat Gurgeh. A "poor little rich boy" (although, in the Culture, there's nothing to stop him being a "poor little rich girl" for while, if he fancies), at the beginning of the novel he is bored with his perfect life ... and completely and unutterably boring. That's fine, that's ok (if a little dragged out: do we really need to see the full "horror" of his ennui at his beautiful home, and loving friends, and lively social life, and professional success, at such length? We get it, he's bored with it all ...) It's a perfectly fine narrative strategy to present us with our protagonist when he/she is at rock bottom, and see where he/she goes from there.
But the problem is that Jernau Morat Gurgeh goes nowhere: he is bored by his life in the Culture, he is pretty bored and uninspired by the adventure that the Culture sends him on, to the Empire of Azad. He is mildly piqued by the game of Azad, the wildly complicated, "life as a game" metaphor that powers and organizes the Empire. Nothing real, outside the Game seems to move him, nothing seems to shake him out of his narrow-minded focus on playing the game, and the artificial consequences of the game for him.
And it doesn't help that he's pretty stupid, on the macro-level, with all his supposed skill and single-mindedness at his beloved game playing. Trying for no spoilers here, but let's just say who plays the player? But some of the "big reveals" were pretty obvious, and it seemed to me that the only one who didn't understand what the Culture was really up to was Jernau Morat Gurgeh, and the entire population of Azad.
Right, I've gotten that out of my system. The fact is, however, that I "enjoyed" being made a little cross by this, and I'm very glad I read it. It's another interesting insight in the workings of the Culture, and it just adds to my respect for Banks, for inventing a society that is theoretically admirable in so many ways, but not pure good. I adore his AI Minds, and I want to have one as a friend, please.
All of Iain. M. Banks' signature moves are here, in all their glory, in only his second outing into his twisted/admirable/utopian/dystopian post-scarcity and pure libertarian society, the Culture. So there's the dark humour, the snarky AIs, the rich world-building, the dizzying amorality of a society in which, almost literally, anything goes, and an unsparing understanding of the hidden costs of such "freedom."
But ... for me, this read wasn't pure pleasure, and I kept being dragged away from my immersion in the affairs of the Culture, and particularly in the trials and tribulations of the Player of Games, Jernau Morat Gurgeh, as I found myself constantly questioning the bigger picture, and asking, what is it for? Oh, yes, of course: to demonstrate that a "virtuous" post-scarcity, pure libertarian, utopian/dystopian, anything-goes society can be just as bad, just as devious and exploitative as an old-school fascist empire. Just as, in its own way, ... imperialistic, crushing the lives and choices of enemies and friends under its wheels.
But ... the real problem for me, from page 1, is Jernau Morat Gurgeh. A "poor little rich boy" (although, in the Culture, there's nothing to stop him being a "poor little rich girl" for while, if he fancies), at the beginning of the novel he is bored with his perfect life ... and completely and unutterably boring. That's fine, that's ok (if a little dragged out: do we really need to see the full "horror" of his ennui at his beautiful home, and loving friends, and lively social life, and professional success, at such length? We get it, he's bored with it all ...) It's a perfectly fine narrative strategy to present us with our protagonist when he/she is at rock bottom, and see where he/she goes from there.
But the problem is that Jernau Morat Gurgeh goes nowhere: he is bored by his life in the Culture, he is pretty bored and uninspired by the adventure that the Culture sends him on, to the Empire of Azad. He is mildly piqued by the game of Azad, the wildly complicated, "life as a game" metaphor that powers and organizes the Empire. Nothing real, outside the Game seems to move him, nothing seems to shake him out of his narrow-minded focus on playing the game, and the artificial consequences of the game for him.
And it doesn't help that he's pretty stupid, on the macro-level, with all his supposed skill and single-mindedness at his beloved game playing. Trying for no spoilers here, but let's just say who plays the player? But some of the "big reveals" were pretty obvious, and it seemed to me that the only one who didn't understand what the Culture was really up to was Jernau Morat Gurgeh, and the entire population of Azad.
Right, I've gotten that out of my system. The fact is, however, that I "enjoyed" being made a little cross by this, and I'm very glad I read it. It's another interesting insight in the workings of the Culture, and it just adds to my respect for Banks, for inventing a society that is theoretically admirable in so many ways, but not pure good. I adore his AI Minds, and I want to have one as a friend, please.
