Iain M. Banks

Roughly three years ago I was browsing one of the bookstores of the Seattle airport, getting ready to catch a flight with my boss. I wasn't reading anything at the time and the selection was decent. My boss was into science fiction and she picked out a few different book selections. The one I chose was Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games because the cover was a purdy blue color and the synopsis got my mind grapes working. Although I bought it for the trip, I don't remember having a chance to break it out until I got back home - after that I couldn't put it down. It was a good one.

I occasionally think about the story and wish I could have more of that. Unfortunately, many of the things I loved about The Player of Games weren't reflected in the next Banks novel I've picked up.

Consider Phlebas was the predecessor to The Player of Games, so it should have at least been half as good, right? I wanted just a taste of that same atmosphere and charm, but instead the reader follows a shape-shifting main character who should have been interesting but instead became increasingly dull and unlikeable, and ultimately stumbled his way to a downer ending. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that while downer endings can be acceptable in a lot of circumstances, this one felt more like being slapped in the ear while searching for a lost pair of glasses in a dark room. When you turn on the light, Iain M. Banks is grinning in front of you with sunglasses on.

So I continued my search for the Culture feel found in Player of Games: clean and infinitely advanced technology - a space utopia where everyone had little iPhones floating around next to them, and quirky hovering droids as neighbors. That's some really fun material. Maybe if Banks' previous book didn't have those elements, the stories after Player of Games would.

It's not fair (or reasonable) to expect an author's next book to be just like the last one. It would also be boring as hell. Variety is great. Some say variety is the gom jabbar of life. Inconsistency of quality is the problem I'm running into. Banks could have gone on to describe a lot more about life in the Culture itself, but it seems like a lot of the characters in his stories are actively trying to avoid that society. Banks has a lot of really remarkable ideas which never go anywhere.

I picked up Use of Weapons but didn't make it far. After six chapters, nothing had happened story-wise and I suddenly felt like the most impatient reader on the planet.

State of the Art's "Descendant" and "A Gift from the Culture" were nice short stories that came close, but neither one took place within the Culture's network of Orbitals. I wanted sentient mega-city ships full of genetically altered humans. There was a lot in Player that was well ahead of its time, but none of it seemed to stick in Banks' head like it did in mine.

If I'm saying anything about Banks' writing, it's that it generated a huge expectation in my mind that hasn't been followed through. That said, I don't think he's a one-hit wonder and I'm willing to give him another shot. I have an unread copy of Matter, I can try re-reading Use of Weapons, and he has a new book coming out this year called The Hydrogen Sonata. The Algebraist is also supposed to be good. I plan to briefly review these as I go.


EDIT: Here's a recent and relevant Reddit (PrintSF) thread discussing the Culture. There are spoilers. Also very few people seem to like The Player of Games.