The plot of Consider Phlebas represents nothing less than one of the greatest societal events Banks’ futuristic Culture society has ever known.

For anyone else, that level itself would probably be out of reach. But it does mean that in 2011, we can appreciate Consider Phlebas as what it is Banks writing at what was - for him - at an adolescent level.

Its entrance into the science fiction genre in 1987 immediately established Banks as a master of that genre, and one of its most creative thinkers and best writers. None of this is to take anything away from the book. What it does have is all of these things in places too much of one, in other places not enough of another. It does not go into the right level of detail as Excession does, and it does not contain the balanced level of nostalgic emotion that Use of Weapons does. It does not have the neat completeness of The Player of Games, nor does it have the contained pathos evident in Look to Windward. However, read in the context of Banks’ other Culture novels, it is clear that when the author published Consider Phlebas, he was struggling with both the form of the novel itself, as well as the need to tell a finite story in the world of infinite complexity and interest that he imagined in the Culture.Īs a novel, Consider Phlebas sprawls. In any other popular science fiction writer’s arsenal, the novel would no doubt be seen as their masterpiece its engrossing narration, the consideration to which its author gave the world he built in it and the characters he portrays would combine to make the book one of the greats. Read 24 years after it was first published in 1987, it is apparent that Consider Phlebas is what might be termed a flawed gem of modern science fiction. Banks’ first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, is an incredibly complex book, in which the author packs a massive amount of ideas detailing his startling vision of the future of humanity and the universe itself ideas that were fated to only grow to complete maturity over the next two decades as he fleshed that vision out into what has become his epic series of Culture novels. Tech.O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,Ĭonsider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.” of society, phenomena (tech), places 20% Tone of book - depressing/sadįANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story of chases or violence 20% planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 40% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 20% Descript. Click on a plot link to find similar books! Plot & Themes Composition of Book Descript.

Consider phlebas by iain banks