Excession by Iain M. Banks (a review)

Iain M. Banks was a master of world building, or perhaps I should say Galaxy building since The Culture series by Banks takes place over pretty much the entire Galaxy over thousands of years. I have been reading the Culture books out of order, just because I happened upon them in the order I did. But since of the scope of the series is so vast with so many characters, I really don’t think it matters much in what order you read them.

Much of the heavy lifting of running a galactic civilization is given over to artificial intelligence. The AIs that attain great prowess are called Minds (Minds with a capital M). Each gigantic ship that is nearly a world to itself, is run by a Mind. The Mind is the ship. The humans can kick back and enjoy themselves. But sometimes the humans get caught up into the intrigue of the Minds.

No spoilers here. I don’t think it would be possible for me to explain enough to generate a spoiler. But the Minds do have their own agendas. Some involve helping the humans. Some involve messing things up to see what happens. And some just go off to do their own thing. Banks is good at developing personalities. And by personalities, I mean humans, aliens, and Minds. The artificial intelligences prove themselves to be just as petty, brave, wily, caring, manipulative, or dysfunctional as we are. There are plenty of human characters, but I think in this novel in particular, it is the Minds who take center stage. It can be difficult to keep track of who’s who. The ships/Minds all have wonderfully Banksian names like Shoot Them Later, or Fate Amenable to Change, or Serious Callers Only, or Anticipation of a New Lover’s Arrival (yes, these are ship’s names). There are so many of them and they have many conversations. It is impossible to determine what side they are on (and that’s the point. It all has to unfold in good time).

At the center of it all is an enigma, an anomaly in space. It is an “excession.” Is it a key to other universes, to untold power, or to utter destruction? The ships each have their own opinions. In the end we see the full spectrum of the human condition (because what are the Minds, if not an extension of humanity?) The good guys are not all good, and the bad guys are not all bad. And there are some that we can never characterize. It did keep me engaged through all the twists and turns. That is the talent of a master world builder.

Star Liner

Comments

Retired

I retired this week. So, big lifestyle changes for me? Not so much. I retired on Thursday. My office had an amazing party for me on Wednesday, lots of food, lots of cards, lots of personal connections. Gifts too, I wish I had told them, no gifts. I really don’t need anything. But all this does make one feel appreciated. It also makes me feel appreciated that they want me to come back on a contractual basis every now and then to impart my institutional knowledge. It is always the case when someone retires, knowledge is lost to the organization. Things have to be relearned by the next generation. This is somewhat offset by the fact that the world is changing through advancing technology etc. So, the knowledge that the retiring person has might eventually become obsolete anyway. Better to go out while you are still on top. We have all seen professional athletes who stayed on well beyond their prime. It would have been better to go out while still on top. But it is a hard thing to ...

All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu

My first experience with cyberpunk as a genre of science fiction was Neuromancer by William Gibson. Neuromancer was one of the early works that defined the cyberpunk genre. It was insanely influential. It won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award. But for me, it just did not resonate. I had a hard time visualizing the concepts. It left a bad taste in my mouth for cyberpunk. I mostly avoided the genre. Then a couple of years ago I read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson which is cyberpunk (although some people say it is a parody of cyberpunk). Whatever, I liked it. I recently picked up All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu and it immediately became apparent to me that this was cyberpunk. Julia Z is the main character, and I think this is going to be the start of a series following her. She is a hacker (hence cyberpunk). She has got herself in trouble and so she lives on the margins, barely making it. Then a lawyer asks her for her help. His wife has been kidnapped. The ...

Darkness

There was a moment when I discovered that l liked dark music. I do like dark music. I like minor keys and a haunting theme. I like other kinds of music too, but that darkness speaks to me in a special way. What does that say about me? Am I messed up? I don’t think so. Maybe I am just built that way that haunting tunes or lyrics imparts some inner truth to me. It resonates. I know precisely when I discovered this about myself. It was Summer of 1971. I was 12 years old. I was on a plane with my family heading to Illinois. Airplanes back then did not have much in the way of entertainment, but what they did have were headphones and music channels you could listen to. I was listening to a channel of popular current hits, and a song came on called “That’s the Way I Always Heard it Should Be” by Carly Simon. I had never heard of Carly Simon. This was before “Anticipation” and “You’re so Vain.” She was not yet famous. But this song came on and, I don’t know, it did something to me. It...

A speculative mind

Search This Blog