The State of the Art

Culture Series, Book 4

By: Iain M. Banks

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

The works of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.

The State of the Art is the only collection of Iain M. Banks's short ­fiction and includes the acclaimed Culture novella of the same name.

From science ­fiction to horror, dark fantasy to twisted comedy, all eight stories bear the inde­finable stamp of Banks's staggering talent.

The novels of Iain M. Banks:

The Culture series
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

©1991 Iain M. Banks (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson

May require hospital grade painkillers...

Had been quite some time since I had read this collection of short stories, I'd forgotten about it's existence. But I managed to get this downloaded shortly before being wheeled in for an emergency appendectomy. So please consider my review through the eyes of post-operation medical quality opiates.
First story, isn't that nice.
Second story, what? Listen again. Oh yes that is good.
A few more stories which are rather good, but as I find with Peter Kenny's reading, he is the unsung star of this generation of Banks' publishing. Even if one doesn't necessarily *enjoy* the story, of which there was one in here that honestly after my hospital release I can't recall which one, Kenny's reading is a joy to listen to (and trust me, even more so under the influence of opiates). His attention to tone, character and timing is I think impeccable.
I must give a warning about the title short story. There is one scene, the dinner scene, where you may laugh so hard that you do yourself an injury. Sure, I had recently been sliced open and should have controlled myself. But, the extra morphone that was required due to the additional injury was not unwelcome.
This review is rambling? Sure, I'm out of hospital and still on painkillers.
The book? Oh yes, I'm reviewing the book and not the opiates. The book's a must have for the Banks completist. And a great little introduction of the differing styles for which Banks was well known. Kenny again delivers. My only niggle would be that it sounded like it was recorded in a small room and not a acoustically dead (ie, no reverb) room. However I'm fairly certain this was only noticeable at 4am on the ward with headphones when the only noises to be heard was the nurses footsteps checking on the patients. This isn't to say it's bad, but more to say why the 'overall' score I've given it doesn't match the performance and story scores.
OK, I'm out. Not editing this review. I need some more codeine based stuff...

You should probably skip this.

These srories were pretty boring and pointless. The only take away from this is that the culture are not from earth, are taller than humans and have less than 5 toes.

The title story and most of the others were just plain dull. The last one was a garbled mess and actively painful to listen to.

Wtf

Really liked the first two books in the series. The third one was not available on audible so skipped to this one and the onlly reaction is WTF is this. A couple of short stories are OK, the rest is best ignored. Hope the next book is more like the first 2.