Ben’s Virtual Sci-Fi Bookshelf

I enjoyed this novel very much, and I even bought a copy for one of my brothers.  He hasn’t said anything about it so maybe he didn’t like it, but then again he may not have read it.  I don’t think he likes sci-fi much… so why did I buy him an Iain M. Banks novel then?  Hmmm… Like Consider Phelbus which I seemed to be reviewing only minutes ago this novel has lots of detail.  In this case I think it gels better. We are treated to a good inside view of one of Banks’ space cities.  To me space cities makes sense – there’s so much real estate up there, why not use it?  There’s no gravity well, no friction to worry about, etc.  People these days always seem to be obsessed with finding habitable planets – but why?  Shouldn’t we be looking in the space between the planets?  This is the first book I read that really took this idea to heart, and described convincing space cities. Anyway, what are people to do in a future where machines are smarter than them and nurse over them and everything is geared towards them becoming decadent lotus eaters?  Well,…

I’m writing these reviews sometimes years after having read these books.  My bookshelf now though is overflowing with science fiction books and it’s time to start taking them to the second-hand bookshop.  Rather than loose them entirely at least I’ll have a photo and a few thoughts to remember them by… and you may have guessed by now that I don’t remember much about this book, and even the back cover isn’t helping to jog the memory. I do remember though that, as is often the case in modern sci-fi, the author successfully created a well threshed-out fantasy world brimming with detail.  Wait… I just remembered there was a space ship chase though some larger space city thing.  That was pretty good. On the whole I tend to prefer the older, shorter sci-fi books, but still I have to acknowledge the achievement.  Banks is not one of the most popular sci-fi authors for nothing. I also remember the end was like an action-packed action movie – full of visual imagery with vehicles crashing and so on.  I don’t think this sort of thing works at all well in novels. Novel action and movie action are different things – please don’t…