Excession - Iain M. Banks

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30 of 30 Ciao users found the following review helpful

gorvifal3

What could that mysterious black sphere be...... 24/04/2003

User recommends the product

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

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 ... more
15 of 15 Ciao users found the following review helpful

Andrew19111

Cultured 16/08/2001

User recommends the product

Advantages The most imaginative thing I've read for ages
Disadvantages Not to everybody's taste

I can’t be too knowledgeable about the bulk of this guy’s work as I’ve only encountered three of his books: Consider Phelebas, Excession and The Business. The first two are sci-fi and the second in the vein of Michael Crichton. I’m writing about the first two; more specifically about the setting they’re in and why I think it’s a work of near-genius. Consider Phelebas & Excession are set in what IMB calls the Culture Universe. Before I attempt to explain this, I’d like to point out to those of you might go off and get these books that IMB shares a trait ... more
2 of 3 Ciao users found the following review helpful

NeilHudson

Good but sometimes difficult - like the Minds 12/08/2000

User recommends the product

Advantages Original, well-plotted
Disadvantages Difficult to understand on its own

The inevitable has happened. Humans, after leaving so much of the running of the known universe to its powerful artificially intelligent Minds, are no longer interesting enough to form the basis of a plot. Excession is largely the story of machines. As Banks admits early on, the Minds occasionally “forgot to tell everybody else about finding entire stellar civilisations, or took it upon themselves to alter the course of a developed culture”. Such a conspiracy forms the real meat of the plot of Excession, as a rogue group uses the appearance of an inexplicable object (and you know from page 1 ... more
4 of 5 Ciao users found the following review helpful

chrissimpson

A Work of Genius 31/07/2000

User recommends the product

Advantages Look into the mind of a spacecraft
Disadvantages Requires much concentration

Anyone who believes this book is nonsense needs their head examining. This has to be one of the most truly original books I have ever read. Most of the dialogue is conducted between enormous sentient spacecraft which are thousands of light years away from each other. I'll admit it can be hard going at times but it's certainly worth it in the end. Amongst other insights, you are let in on the ambitions of these sentient craft who in their spare time devise universes based on different physical laws. The book revolves around an amomaly in space that intrigues the Culture and their investigations ... more
6 of 6 Ciao users found the following review helpful

Fearghul

Mental Agility... 18/03/2005

User recommends the product

Advantages Excellent plot and interesting twists...
Disadvantages Rather complex and not for everyone...

This book is a part of Iain Bank's series of "Culture" novels, it's a look at a future society run by Minds, super intelligent AI's that run all the stations and ships that make up a vast interstellar group. The novel starts with the apperance of a strange anomaly in a remote reigion of space and then follows the actions of both the Minds and the citizens of various races as they react to this stimuli. The book is complicated and involving to read, requiring some mental agility to understand in places. Some may find this a welcome challenge that adds to the joy of reading the book, but others ... more
7 of 7 Ciao users found the following review helpful

LeckyT

Space opera par excellence. 12/06/2003

User recommends the product

Advantages Great plot, good characters.
Disadvantages Technical, requires prior experience.

First, a slightly contraversial statement. Do not read this book if you are not a SciFi Banks fan. Not understanding the difference between Iain M. Banks and Iain Banks (of Wasp Factory fame) will cause extereme bewilderment. That said, this book caused me genuine emotion - largely complete and utter disbelief. How does he consistently manage to get so much into his mind at one time, and yet pull it out in a coherent manner? The story revolves around a conspiracy between the controlling AI of a community of spacecraft. Several communities, in fact. This conspiracy comes to light only because ... more
1 of 4 Ciao users found the following review helpful

markos3

Great story 24/08/2000

User recommends the product

Advantages Banks: Culture novel
Disadvantages None.

Iain M Banks is an science fiction author who also pens non science fiction under the name Iain Banks. Banks has created the Culture. This human society set in the far future has mastered technology to the extent that moon sized ships and planet sized 'orbitals' are created with ease. Artificial intelligence has reached the stage where the computers are far smarter than people and are considered Culture citizens. Excession concerns the appearance in the culture novel of an all powerful artifact, and the consequences of its arrival on the Culture universe. This book is hard to put down but it ... more
1 of 14 Ciao users found the following review helpful

TheZigStar

Extraordinary 15/12/2005

User recommends the product

Advantages Mindblowing, fantastic
Disadvantages None

Takes you into a whole new area of the Culture, where the AI minds discuss the problems that are occuring since the presence of an unidentified object. It is riddled with Banks' usual wit, imagination and depth. This gives many insights into areas of the Culture I'd not wondered about before. The is much intrigue with many twists along the way. This was book I'd heard many goods things said about it, and was not disappointed. You've heard books described as un-put-downable, and a page turner; well this is one of those. I love a book with a highly complex plot, as it makes me think all the more ... more
0 of 4 Ciao users found the following review helpful

dom00

Nonsense 17/07/2000

User doesn't recommend the product

Advantages Not Many
Disadvantages Nothing Happens

I'm not a fan of Banks and as Excession was the first book I read of his it's not likely that I ever will become a fan. How this was called Science Fiction I don't know because it contained little of either. The ships talking to each other in there own language is hard to comprehend (as a long time reader of SF I consider myself reasonably intelligent) and in the story very little happens and just as they are about to discover the main plot device a space anomaly it dissapears, some rubbish explanationis given but does little to make one feel that you haven't been cheated out of a real ... more