Consider Phlebas

By: Iain M. Banks

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

The first book in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces readers to the utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.

The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender.

Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.

a difficult listen

dark, dense, often brutal. the story is good but not great. The performance is slightly better than average. I am not sure if I will continue listening to the series or not. I ended up not really caring about the main characters. in a way that mimicked the main character's behavior itself so perhaps that was a principal theme that the author wanted to convey. But ultimately it has turned me off to the rest of the series.

cosmic

I was not expecting an action filled, contemporary SciFi adventure but that is what I got. The book will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. You cannot aford to veg out on even one part of one chapter. It is all relevant and all provative. I found the audio sample a little misleading. If I recall correctly, the sample comes from a section about an individual sentenced to prison and subjected to torture. What happens as the story unfolds is something totally different. The prisoner becomes the protaganist and his jailor plays a very unusual but exciting role in his escapade.

My Second Culture Book

Consider Phlebas is my second Culture novel. As a science fiction buff, I’m fascinated with the idea of the Culture, a utopian, technologically advanced, far-future civilization, and how in the time frame in this novel it clashed with the less-advanced, more violent, religious-like race of the Idirans. The technology and society of the Culture were amazing. The story is told from the point of view of a shape-shifter Changer who is employed by the Idirans to retrieved a Culture mind (highly advanced AI which controls culture crafts) which is hiding on an abandoned planet after its ship was destroyed in an Idiran attack.

I rather liked this novel, although I thought it dragged in places and there were some overly disgusting parts which seemed way over the top and which put me off. I thought the Changer was a fascinating protagonist. It was interesting following his train of thought as he dealt with the predicaments he always found himself in. I was again impressed with Banks’ world building and the scale and detail in his universe. I’m looking forward to continuing on in his Culture series.

What was the point?

Long, lots of pointless sidebars and no overriding theme or plot detected. Eminently forgettable and not worth the time.

May I please emigrate to the Culture?

Consider Phlebas is amazingly well written and has a truly tremendous development of characters. The novel is a nearly unrivaled and sophisticated creation of a utopian world.