The genre of space opera has gone through many ups and downs. Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke worked to ground their grand storytelling with scientific ideas. A bunch of folks like Roger Zelazny and Philip K. Dick in the new wave pushed back with more emotional and psychological concepts. George Lucas shook things up again in the 1970s with Star Wars.
So by the time Scottish writer Iain Banks arrived on the scene in the late 1980s, there were a lot of ways to go. Banks opted for some high concepts and grandiosity but also sought to explore the implications of AI amid futuristic warfare, diplomacy, and espionage. He also had a wry sense of humor similar to–but not as silly as–Douglas Adams. I am a huge fan of the long series of sci-fi novels he produced set in a fictional universe dubbed “The Culture.” And it all started with Consider Phlebas in 1987.
The title refers to a character in T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” who died at sea. “O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you,” Eliot writes. The main character of Banks’ novel, Bora Horza Gobuchul, survives space battles, space pirates, and a space cult all while on a mission to recover an AI hiding on a forbidden planet. Did I mention Banks was into high concept sci-fi? At the end, the reader is left to ponder the meaning of the events and the final outcome and perhaps to consider Horza. If you liked this one, Banks has a bunch more good ones to read next.
Try if you liked/If you liked try: All of Douglas Adams, Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, Vernor Vinge’s Fire Upon the Deep, Larry Niven’s Ringworld.
Where I shelved it: A1, eye level (for explanation of my weird rating and shelving system, see the library page)
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