Iain M. Banks : Consider Phelbas : Review: AWESOME September 9, 2009
Posted by showmescifi in scifi.Tags: Consider Phelbas, Culture, Horza, Ian M. Banks, science fiction, scifi
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While I read a lot of science fiction, somehow I had never read Iain M. Banks.
I know, I know i’m a frakking nugget.
So over the summer I picked up Banks’ first SciFi novel (and first Culture novel) Consider Phelbas.
What an incredible ride. Sure there is the larger setting space opera stuff that is the Culture – which is cool
But it’s the story itself, Horza the Changer, the minds, the Idirans that plot twists and the incredible scenes that make this book one of my top three all time scifi novels.
The destruction of the Vavatch orbital with the Damage Game – wow. That could’ve been a book on its own.
The final battle in the caves of the dead world was such a page turner that i read for 10 hours straight till the end.
The end, well it seemed sudden and shocking to me in a way. I didn’t want this book to end.
While epilogues and appendices are usually items that are supplementary, in this case they are part of the story and are the true ending.
Yes this was my first Banks novel, my first culture novel, but it won’t be the last.
Show Me SciFi 
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