So after a long wait for the new Culture book by Iain M. Banks, I finally got done with it last night. I'd been so eager to get my hands on it that I had this ordered long before I even know what it was about. The words "Iain. M. Banks" and "new Culture novel" just triggered a "here, have my money" response.
Thankfully, it was well worth it. While not one of his best, Surface Detail is a fairly exciting and somewhat unpredictable adventure story set a few hundred years after the last Culture book. To begin with it's a revenge tale. An enslaved woman, back from the dead thanks to Culture technology, considers hunting down her former owner and murderer and taking revenge. While the Culture will not help her with this, a Culture warship is willing to bend the rules a little to see her on her way.
And while that's happening a war is reaching a climax. And this reinforces one of the things I love about the Culture novels. So many sci-fi books have amazing technology but never follow through on the logical uses and implications of the tech. But many civilisations in these books have the tech to capture and store mind-states so that people can be resurrected or live on in virtual worlds after death. And so Surface Detail picks up on uses of this tech brought up in earlier books to expand on this idea. Various civilisations had used this tech to create Heaven, and when their people die, they are uploaded into a VR Heaven. Eventually, over time, Heavens of different races were linked together.
And on the flip side, other civilisations used the same tech to create Hells to hold over people as a threat to get them to behave. Like Heavens before them, the Hells started to get linked together so the damned could be tortured by alien demons. And inevitably a conflict escalated between the pro-Hell and anti-Hell civilisations. But what with all concerned being enlightened space faring races, the war is to be fought in a virtual universe so no chaos or havoc is inflicted on the Real. And so, amongst a typical Iain Banks sci-fi novel, we have the War Between Heavens and Hells. To further complicate things, the anti-Hell side is losing and preparing to take the conflict into the Real as a desperation move to finish the war.
With all that set up, the plot begins to unfold in what appears to be an uncoordinated fashion. At first, I thought that the plot was just wandering or was simply set of unconnected stories. But as the story continues, the plots weave together in a somewhat coherent fashion. There do seem to be several loose ends or dropped plotlines, but nonetheless it comes together by the end.
Highlights in the book are some of the characters - the villain of the piece, Jolier Veppers, is an entertainingly evil son of a bitch. But best of all if you ask me, is the Abominator class General Offensive Unit Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints. This Culture warship is one of the biggest, baddest ships they have ever built and it's purpose - like all others of that class - is to sit around in space and act as a deterrent to prevent any other race starting trouble. The FOTNMC's excitement at the prospect of some idiot starting a shooting war is infectious and the moment when it gets to cut loose and do what it was made for for the first time in it's life... well, it was a thrill to read. And reinforcing that Banks also probably knew the FOTNMC was the best characert, when it's not part of what's going on, it's avatar - Av Demeisen - is usually somewhere nearby so we can get more of it/him in the story. Demeisen's a amusing little bastard, though if I spent more than a few days in his company I'd probably want to punch him in the face. Technically, the same exact character as the ship, Demeisen comes across a little different when left to his own devices by the FOTNMC.
The other major attraction for me in this story is that we get to see the Culture involved in an incident with other races who operate at the same level. There was the Affront back in Excession, but they were never much of a credible threat. It always seemed to me that the Affront might have caused some short term damage, but they'd never be a real threat. The other Level 8 civilisations in this book though could easily mess with the Culture and it's plans. The proverbial 800 pound gorilla finally has to deal with some other heavyweights.
The ending is a little weak, which surprised me a little. Endings are one of the hardest things to get right, but two or three times before Banks has knocked it clean out of the park. Endings like those in Use of Weapons in particular, but also Excession, Player of Games and Feersum Endjinn were amazing. This is a little weak. It's still a thoroughly enjoyable book - just not one of his best.
Though for long time Culture fans? The last sentence is a real shocker. In a good way. :)
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