Excession - Iain M. Banks

Author's product rating:   

Would you read it again?	Yes
Story	Good
Characters	Outstanding
Readability	Excellent
How does it compare to other works by the same author?	Very good

Advantages:	Highly imaginative, interesting characters, original story and concepts
Disadvantages:	Complicated plot, complicated technical discussions

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Iain M.Banks is the name used by the author Iain Banks who has written novels such as the Wasp Factory, Canal Dreams and the Crow Road. Banks has added the middle initial to his name to distinguish books that would be classed as science fiction. Excession is one of Banks’ later science fiction novels, for this reason you would need to have read some of his earlier works as the book is quite complicated. Excession assumes the reader already knows about certain concepts and ideas that Banks has dreamed up. For this reason I can’t recommend reading Excession unless you have read some of the earlier sci-fi novels such as Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games (see earlier review).

The story of Excession takes place in Banks’ imaginary interstellar civilization known as the Culture. The Culture is a utopia where humans generally lead a hedonistic lifestyle, but at the same time co-exist with machines, advanced technology and artificial intelligence. Because the Culture is such a technologically advanced society, most humans can do, have and be whatever they want. Because the humans in the Culture are so free the civilization is therefore very egalitarian. The technology in the Culture tends to present itself in the form of drones and Minds, drones are floating robots which tend to do the dirty work (e.g. cleaning, fighting wars) and Minds are highly intelligent entities that make decisions for the Culture as a whole. (Please see Player of Games review for a more detailed explanation of drones and minds).

One of the main reasons Excession is such a complicated book is because of the fact that the overall story is made up of smaller stories which at first you do not think are related. The smaller stories eventually all become intertwined as the book progresses. The main feature in Excession is a strange artefact that has appeared in space, the artefact is in the form of a mysterious black sphere orbiting around an ancient sun. The Culture Minds have monitored this sphere, but have gained very little data about it. The sphere is relatively weightless, attempts have been made to get inside of it but to no avail, what could this sphere be? Mysterious occurrences have happened to space craft orbiting the sphere for any length of time such as the crew aboard turning very eccentric or the spacecraft completely disappearing. Trying to find out what this mysterious sphere might be makes Excession quite a compulsive read once you have started. The Culture Minds decide that the sphere is probably a threat to the Culture as a whole, therefore the Minds decide to class the sphere as an “outside context problem” or “Excession”, hence the name of the book. Another reason the book is such a complicated read is that much of it is about the communication between the minds. Following the Minds “conversations” is a little like reading a string of e-mail attachments or following a conversation on “Yahoo messenger”, you have to pay attention to who is saying what and remember the names of the Minds (which Mind is which). Sometimes some of the Minds have highly technical discussions which can be very difficult to follow, at the same time you have to have a memory for names of the minds themselves. I think a large part of Excession is not about humans and human interaction, but about interactions between artificial intelligence and machines.

Another key theme to Excession is the threat to the Culture from an Alien civilization known as the “Affront”. The “Affront” sound like a very strange species of aliens, I imagined them to look a bit like giant squids, they have beaks, tentacles, eyes on stalks and gas sacs. Unfortunately the “Affront” possesses a great deal more intelligence than your average squid and they get most of their pleasure and enjoyment out of hunting, killing and causing suffering to other forms of life that live in the same part of the galaxy as them. The “Affront” eventually becomes involved with the Excession after the Culture tricks them, this is quite a twist to the story and I won’t spoil it for you.

Another key theme that occurs in Excession is a story of infidelity that occurs between two humans from the Culture, the two humans are named Dajeil Gelian and Genar Hofoen. Personally I found this part of the story, the weakest and a bit unbelievable in a civilization that is meant to be so hedonistic. Humans in the Culture tend to live for about 400 years on average, marriage and lifetime partnership is very unusual in the Culture, instead humans in the Culture express love for one another in a very strange way that involves changing gender and producing a child. All culture humans have the ability to change gender by simply going into a trance, the process is totally painless but does take some time. I won’t try to explain any more about this strange process of sex changing as it is quite complicated, you would really need to read the book. Anyway Genar Hofoen the male in the partnership cheats on Dajeil Gelian during the process of changing sex, this leads to a whole chain of events that are key to the story.

I quite liked some of the characters that Banks had created in Excession, because of this I have decided to do a summary of some of the key characters and some of my favourite characters.

The “Sleeper Service” – This character is actually a Mind aboard one of the largest classes of space craft that exist in the Culture. The “Sleeper Service” is ever present throughout most of the smaller stories in Excession. The “Sleeper Service” has been classed as an eccentric ship by other Culture Minds, the reason being that it is basically doing its own thing and not communicating with other Culture Minds. The “Sleeper Service” has special interests in both the story of the Affront, the black sphere and the story of infidelity. The “Sleeper Service” is a major player in the story of Excession.

Genar Hofoen – Genar Hofoen was a former ladies man in his earlier years until he met Dajeil Gelian who he thought was someone he could at last fall in love with. However, he found making a commitment to Dajeil very hard and ended up being unfaithful to her, disastrous consequences then followed and the couple split up. He then decides to stop having so much contact with other humans from the Culture and becomes an ambassador to the Affront. Genar Hofoen seems like a character with a genuine love of life and very gregarious due to the fact that he could gain acceptance and make friends with “Affront” officials and leaders.

Dajeil Gelian – Dajeil Gelian has decided to go on a 40 year sulk after splitting up with Genar Hofoen. However the “Sleeper Service” was particularly fond of her and has decided to look after her, she doesn’t have such a fun loving approach to life as Genar Hofoen. Personally I was not particularly keen on her character she was a bit too melancholic for me.

The “Grey Area” – I would say that the Grey Area is probably one of my personal favourites in Excession. The “Grey Area” is a Mind aboard a space craft that has been shunned from the Culture by other Minds, the “Grey Area” is basically a pariah Mind. The reason the “Grey Area” has been shunned is because the Mind has adopted methods of getting into intelligent life forms and thoughts and dreams (mind reading) using it’s specialized electromagnetic equipment. Most Culture Minds are capable of mind reading but it is generally considered to be an unethical activity as it is highly intrusive. However, mind reading does have its uses, especially when dealing with particularly evil aliens or regimes. The use of mind reading to deal with enemies is in general a better method than using brute force and therefore not entirely unethical, hence the name “Grey Area” for this Mind. A certain group of Minds decide the “Grey Area” will come in useful for doing the dirty work when it comes to dealing with the “Affront” and the black sphere.

Ulver Seich – Ulver Seich is another one of my favourite characters in the story, she is used by the “Sleeper Service” in a plot to seduce Genar Hofoen. Ulver Seich has managed to achieve IT girl status in the Culture, this is quite an achievement in a civilization that is so egalitarian. Ulver Seich is one of the ancestors of the founders of the Culture civilization and she normally lives aboard a giant rocket propelled asteroid. Ulver Seich is in general quite a feisty character and she sounded like quite a fox, she has long dark hair, quite dark skin and blue eyes.

Unfortunately Excession is probably a great deal more complicated than my opinion would suggest, I have tried my best to keep it simple. I don’t often have to re-read novels, but I think that at some point in the future I will have to read Excession again to get a better understanding of what is going on (the conversations between Minds). If you personally don’t like complicated novels, then I couldn’t recommend Excession to you. I think that if you are willing to persevere, have read other Banks sci-fi novels or other authors such as Asimov then you will find Excession an extremely rewarding book. I have tried not to give too much of the story away in this opinion and I am sorry if I have. If you decide to read Excession after reading my opinion then I hope you have an enjoyable read!

Thanks for reading!