Consider Phlebas

De: Iain M. Banks

Narrado por: 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.

Very Original

Enjoyable book that is very original. Good guys and bad guys are difficult to distinquish, except when it's a monster, and even then one might just get the feeling that the victim had it coming. Author calls the epilogue "the appendices", and unfortunately you have to sit through them or you'll miss the biggish finish. It's the kind of book you think maybe should be rated a 5, but somehow not.

A flawed introduction to a great series?

I've heard good things about the Culture series so I thought I would give this a shot. The plot revolves around a war between the Culture and the Idirans... the former being a large collection of advanced humans who want for nothing and the latter being a conquering, violent, religious race. The main character is a human changer named Horza who sides with the Idirans due to their shared dislike of machine intelligences.

It took me a while to get into the book, and many of the concepts are just mentioned in passing so it is sometimes confusing on what something is or why something is the way it is. While there is a lot of entertaining action, there is also a lot of slow parts that really could have been tightened up to make a better story. Indeed, most of the middle of the book is a bit superfluous. Horza is a very interesting character, and he makes the reader want to see him succeed, even if he may make morally questionable choices and be on the same of a rather unpleasant alien race. Most of the other characters though are rather shallow and many of them end up being just cannon fodder.

Overall, this book may be pretty good as a part of the Culture series. As a standalone book, it is a bit lacking, but probably still worth reading for the story.

The narrator did a great job with no issues that I heard.

Wonderful introductary effort

Would you listen to Consider Phlebas again? Why?

Yes. Excellent writing.

What does Peter Kenny bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Any additional comments?

Inventive world personalized by author.

never finished

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The audio issues annoyed me too much to finish........After every sentence, there was an extended pause. After the first 30 minutes, i couldn't take it anymore.

What was most disappointing about Iain M. Banks’s story?

I have heard good things about the story, i just must wait until another version of the audio book is out, or......read it.

Jazz or Cacophony

I was tempted many times not to finish this book. While many of you quite enjoy an author taking three pages to describe the events of one minute, I generally find such padding to be a complete slog, especially in a volume of pointless episodes which seem to lead nowhere. It is hard to imagine any but the most ravenous idea-junkies making it through this book when it appeared in 1987. I personally only endured because so many have lauded the work of Iaian Banks. I was indeed rewarded at the end.

It seems the utter pointlessness was an intentional Samuel Becket-style device. The best Jazz is merely cacophony until skill is discerned and intention assured. I did not love this book, but I do look forward to trying more of Banks' work to see if it is intention or accident which guides him.