Surface Detail

A Culture Novel

By: Iain M. Banks

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. And it begins with a murder.

Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right, she will need the help of the Culture.

Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching - is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.

©2010 Iain M. Banks (P)2010 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Banks's labyrinthine and devious ninth Culture space opera novel adeptly shifts perspective between vast concepts and individual passions....New readers may be taken aback by the rapid pace, but fans will dive right in and won't come up for air until the final page." ( Publishers Weekly)

Peter Kenny is the master!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely! Peter Kenny gives a brilliant performance of a good story.

Any additional comments?

The story is good. Its a good for SF in general and a good Culture series book. I find, however, that's its actually narrator that keeps me riveted. There are points where I felt the words were not as good as the delivery. Great job, Peter!

Weaker culture book. Still worth reading.

kicking around a lot of interesting ideas, but the book lacks narrative cohesion. Feels more like 3 half finished novels jammed together than anything else. Still, its got good ideas, some great scenes and A+ voice acting delivery. Definitely worth your time if you like the culture series, but not a good introduction to the series

Fantastic

This was a fantastic Culture story, the setting and characters were engrossing. Post my favorite of the series.

Gotta listen close to the last sentence!

Normal Awesome Iain Banks novel! Main character is a little thin by Banksian standards. Support characters are well fleshed out. Ships are conniving and moral, to a point. Listen to the last sentence.

Awesome

This and the Hydrogen Sonata are the best of the culture novels. Highly recommend. Great.

Top 3 Culture Books for sure!

Most of the Culture books do, but this one really made me contemplative. What does it mean to be human? What does hell mean, and if it exists, what are its implications? What's the difference between retribution, revenge, and justice?

An enjoyable but not stunning intro to Banks

This was my first Iain M. Banks novel, and I enjoyed the experience, though it didn't knock my socks off the way it seems to have for other readers. Fans of contemporary "hard" science fiction will find a lot familiar elements here: sentient AIs, extremely advanced physical technology, a swarming pan-galactic meta-civilization filled with biological and machine-based societies (or those that have gone from one to the other), and the uploading of consciousness into virtual realities or new bodies. However, Banks' stories feature The Culture, a highly advanced, benevolent society that has a way of guiding affairs in the galaxy, but not interfering with the self-determination other societies without good cause. The drama of his novels usually plays off the question of what the utopian Culture will do in ambiguous cases, since it can't become involved in an obvious way.

This time, the matter is "Hells", virtual realities into which the consciousnesses of the dead are uploaded, subjecting them to terrible torment for their crimes in "the Real". Naturally, the more progressive cultures and factions in the galaxy are firmly against the Hells, while more traditional ones wish to keep them. A war is in progress to decide the outcome, taking place mostly in VR, but with risk of spilling over into the Real. Banks tells the interlocking stories of several different characters caught up in various parts of this conflict, each with a stake of some sort.

I will say that the writing is smart and imaginative, with some interesting speculation and questions. I enjoyed the creative virtual reality battle sequences and the grotesque horror of a Hell. There are also a handful of amusing characters, such as the roguish AI that commands the Culture warship Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints, who reminded me more than a little of the Christopher Eccleston version of Doctor Who.

That said, I eventually lost interest in what was going on in the war or who was playing for which side (possibly while pretending to play for the other). Beyond some characters trapped in a Hell and a "conservative politician" figure, it never felt very personal to anyone. I thought Banks might have done something deeper with the idea of the "rights" of a consciousness trapped in virtual reality, unable to escape or die, and not relied as much on ham-fisted literalisms involving demons and pitchforks. Also, I feel that Banks does a better job with side characters than main characters; I found the protagonists in this story pretty bland.

All in all, I enjoyed Surface Detail well enough that I'll be seeking out some of Banks' other works in the near future. He's certainly a good SF writer and has a lot of intriguing ideas. That said, this wasn't quite as enthralling a work as all the glowing reviews had let me to hope.

Excellent.

Ian M banks is another one of those authors that I have been hoping to see on Audible for years.


The basic premise of this book is as follows: All civilizations start out with a belief in some kind of Heaven and Hell.


All civilizations that survive long enough advance to the point where they can recreate their myths in virtual afterlife's for the souls of their dead, aka the Matrix but for disembodied minds.


Some civilizations feel the need to create Hells to torture some members of their societies after they die.


The over arching plot of the book concerns a battle between factions of the galactic community who want to abolish hells and the ones that want to keep them. The war is fought both virtually and physically on many fronts.


Of course, being an Ian M. Banks book their is much more going on.


Please audible, bring us the rest of his books!

Solid sound and story

Iain Banks gives us a culture novel with several merging story lines. Its a satisfying romp through the culture universe. Peter Kenny is an amazing voice actor, maybe my new favorite.

Dynamic Post-Cyberpunk Overture

Genre: Sci-Fi, Post-Cyberpunk (computerized consciousness in a developed world; rather than in a dystopia)

Rated: R Very graphic torture and violence, strong sexual themes and abuse

Static or Dynamic: Dynamic! The story entices you along from experience to experience with little time to get bored with any of it. Each setting that is generated is thought provoking and exciting to resume when the story swings back to it.

1st or 3rd Person: 3rd person, there are 8+ characters to follow.

Abstract or Concrete: Mainly abstract. There are very few parts of the book that are strongly mechanical and descriptive. Most of the book is an existential question wandering through the lives of many characters. The argument of "what is real?" comes up a lot sense a main element of the book is virtual existences and virtual people. The book is concept heavy and will require some in depth thought to fully appreciate.

Linear or Non-Linear: Linear; the same story progresses on multiple fronts in radically different situations.

Narrator: OMFG this guy is good. The playful characters with playful and the dark characters were dark. The scope of this guys abilities is splendidly vast.

Plot Outline: If you could live forever in a virtual environment, what becomes the meaning of death? If you die, should you be judged? If you are punished or rewarded, does it mean anything? These are themes that are sewn into the book in a variety of different settings. Because virtual life, or in some cases sufficiently technologically advanced biological life, can render a certain level of immortality, how do people act when they have this option? A large disturbing part of the book goes through a virtual hell, literally, and the concepts of whether or not that fate means anything are highlighted. Other parts are more dubious and political but still settle around the same concept. If you lose your mind in hell, can you still be the same person that needs to be punished? If you live long enough in heaven that you no longer remember the life that you lived, are you still the same person? Fun stuff :) Oh yeah and artificial intelligences are awesome!