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

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