It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.
It begins with a murder.
And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.
Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching - is …
It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.
It begins with a murder.
And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.
Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching - is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.
It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the center of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.
SURFACE DETAIL is Iain M. Banks' new Culture novel, a breathtaking achievement from a writer whose body of work is without parallel in the modern history of science fiction.
This is the first novel in the Culture universe that I've read. There is rich world-building, and some very good characters in here. For the most part, I was kept enthralled with the story as it unfolded, however, the thing came apart near the end for me as it just sort of ended. While the main plotline was addressed satisfactorily, I thought there were a number of other threads left unpulled a bit.
Review of 'Surface Detail (Culture #9)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It's hard to say if I'm getting more into the Culture universe and thus forgiving Banks his imperfections or if the books get better. Nevertheless, this was a very enjoyable piece of science-fiction action adventure. In a lot of other of Banks' books I find the switching point of view annoying and find myself reading some characters quickly to get back to what I consider the main, and more interesting plot line. In Surface Detail I found myself interested in every character's storyline. There's not really much more to say without spoiling the story, and this is a very story-driven book.
Unlike a lot of other Culture novels this one contains multiple references to rape. It wasn't particularly graphic and made sense as a means of advancing the plot, so I didn't object to it as a story point. However, it does merit a warning for folks who don't wish …
It's hard to say if I'm getting more into the Culture universe and thus forgiving Banks his imperfections or if the books get better. Nevertheless, this was a very enjoyable piece of science-fiction action adventure. In a lot of other of Banks' books I find the switching point of view annoying and find myself reading some characters quickly to get back to what I consider the main, and more interesting plot line. In Surface Detail I found myself interested in every character's storyline. There's not really much more to say without spoiling the story, and this is a very story-driven book.
Unlike a lot of other Culture novels this one contains multiple references to rape. It wasn't particularly graphic and made sense as a means of advancing the plot, so I didn't object to it as a story point. However, it does merit a warning for folks who don't wish to read that kind of thing.
Some quotes I particularly liked:
"All you ever were was a little bit of the universe, thinking to itself. Very specific; this bit, here, right now. All the rest was fantasy. Nothing was ever identical to anything else because it didn’t share the same spacial coordinates; nothing could be identical to anything else because you couldn’t share the property of uniqueness."
"Normal Culture ships either went for maximum efficiency or the always popular let’s-see-what-we-can-squeeze-out-of-these-babies approach."
“Though it has to be said that those inclined to the fuck-up theory of history maintain that the Disk has no such planned purpose and is essentially the result of something between a minor Monopathic Hegemonising Event and an instance of colossal military over-ordering.”
