The Algebraist

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It is 4034 Humanity has made it to the stars Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young fighting pointless formal wars Seconded to a military religious order he s barely heard of part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years But with each day that passes a war draws closer a war threatening to overwhelm everything everyone he s ever known. Best Read [ The Algebraist ] by [ Iain M. Banks ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I ve been reading through all of Banks novels these last few years, mostly focusing on The Culture series and working my way outward through his other M novels, and into his non M writing This is my fourteenth Banks book, and my second non culture M novel Banks had such an interesting way of writing his novels so that the real story unfolds in the background the whole time, mostly hidden He did this in Consider Phlebas, and again here in T...a non Culture sci fi adventure from Banks, one whose intriguing major topic is the relativity of morality the aliens are pretty much humans in alien form not much attempt to convey a truly alien viewpoint but it is all fascinating nonetheless, and many of the characters alien and otherwise are sympathetic or fearful creations expansive world universe building, per usual some real narrative surprises from beginning to end the novel s Villain with a capital V is almost a parody, as if t a non Culture sci fi adventure from Banks, one whose intriguing major topic is the relativity of morality the aliens are pretty much humans in alien form not much attempt to convey a truly alien viewpoint but it is all fascinating nonetheless, and many of the characters alien and otherwise are sympathetic or fearful creations expansive world universe building, per usual some real narrative surprises from beginning to end the novel s Villain with a capital V is almost a parody, as if this character and his eventual purpose in the...The Algebraist Endlessly creative, perhaps overly soI ve had The Algebraist on the shelf for quite a few years, patiently waiting its turn in the reading rotation But since Iain M Banks is most famous for his post scarcity AI dominated Culture space opera series, I suspect his non Culture novels often get less attention In particular, The Algebraist is a fairly hefty tome, so I hesitated to tackle it However, I discovered an audio version on Audible UK many of his books are strangely unava The Algebrais...As I write this review Iain M Banks has passed away about three weeks ago It makes me sad that our genre has lost another great writer So I picked The Algebraist to be my tribute read , alas I find that prefer his Culture novels That said The Algebraist is not at all shabby The Algebraist correct me if I m wrong is Mr Banks only non Culture sci fi novel, it does have some of the magnificent madness that you get in his Culture books but after reading it for a while I started wishing the As I write this review Iain M Banks has passed away about three weeks ago It makes me sad that our genre has lost another great writer So I picked The Algebraist to be my tribute read , alas I find that prefer his Culture novels That said The Algebraist is not at all shabby The Algebraist correct me if I m wrong is Mr Banks only non Culture sci fi novel, it does have some of the magnificent madness that you get in his Culture books but after reading it for a while I started wishing the Minds or the drones would crash the party, the Banksness of the writing style just goes so well with the Culture elements OK, nomentioning of the Culture from this point In a nutshell the story mainly concerns the search for a secret system of wormholes which makes FTL space flight p...That is hours and hours of my life I will never get back My experience is that this book is the most boring book on the face of the planet okay, there are a few that could beat it and I can t for the life of me imagine why it was nominated for a Hugo However, I do have friends that like it, so I m going with this wasn t to my taste.There was this weird secondary plot too that seemed entirely unnecessary, and in a book that was bloated with confusing flashbacks, lengthy sentences, excessive u That is hours and hours of my life I will never get back My experience is that this book is the most boring book on the face of the planet okay, there are a few that could beat it and I can t for the life of me imagine why it...Meh.Well, better than that 3 stars but not as good as I d hoped.There were two major problems The first I could almost forgive as simply not being to my taste, the same way I don t enjoy the silliness of Terry Pratchett The Algebraist tossed together rather high concept themes persecution of AIs, morally ambiguous revolution against a powerful hegemon, mass death tragedy and silliness bordering on stupidity The major alien race is depicted as bumbling Woosters enjoying the life of a Gil Meh.Well, better than that 3 stars but not as good as I d hoped.There were two major problems The first I could almost forgive as simply not being to my taste, the same way I don t enjoy the silliness of Terry Pratchett The Algebraist tossed together rather high concept themes persecution of AIs, morally ambiguous revolution against a powerful hegemon, mass death tragedy and silliness bordering on stupidity The major alien race is depicted as bumbling Woosters enjoying the life of a Gilbert Sullivan farce except when it is convenient for one orto suddenly turn into James Bond The high and low concept was like a radicchio marshmallow salad.The other problem was simple carelessness For exampleOur hero spends most of the novel inside his micro spaceship It is described as about five metres long, four across the beam if you included the outboard manoeuvering nacells and a little under two metres in height S...THE ALGEBRAIST by IAIN M BANKS An extremely rewarding though very complex read rating a 10 on all the scales of complexity due to writing style, amount of characters to follow, and the number and variation of cultures and species The fast paced action takes place on several planets all around the universe, includes one major character wit... Warning This review contains spoilers about the review Continue reading only if you have already read this review or if you are unconcerned about ruining the ending of this review.Open with a joke about the size and weight of this book making it good for a number of non reading related purposes Go on to comment on the excessive amounts of esoteric terminology.That s probably how most reviews of this book begin, and they re probably right in doing so Of course, plenty of books are justified i Warning This review contains spoilers about the review Continue reading only if you have already read this review or if you are unconcerned about ruining the ending of this review.Open with a joke about the size and weight of this book making it good for a number of non reading related purposes Go on to comment on the excessive amounts of esoteric terminology.That s probably how most reviews of this book begin, and they re probably right in doing so Of course, plenty of books are justified in their length or at least, we tell them they re justified for fear that they ll sneak off our shelves and kill us in our sleep if we say otherwise And I see plenty of reviews that go on to say that they like Banks no holds barred use of terminology, counting it as a sign of good worldbuilding I m not as convinced that The Algebraist is satisfactory in either regard, but let s give it the benefit of a doubt Let s assume that Banks is justified in both these respects and go on to addres...It s all a bit too much, isn t it I mean, every page sometimes every paragraph on every page of The Algebraist throws in the names of new planets, principalities and vast empires lost races and common aliens of endlessly inventive forms, habitats and abilities unheard of technologies, world sized starships and robots smaller than grains of sand, automated castles, weapons of both mass and intimate destruction clans, clades and clubs cross generational romance bizarre medicines and food It s all a bit too much, isn t it I mean, every page sometimes every paragraph on every page of The Algebraist throws in the names of new planets, principalities and vast empires lost races and common aliens of endlessly inventive forms, habitats and abilities unheard of technologies, world sized starships and robots smaller than grains of sand, automated castles, weapons of both mass and intimate destruction clans, clades and clubs cross generational romance bizarre medicines and foods and drugs and sensations it s exhausting And, perversely, this very flood of specificity seems to have made this particular book less memorable, at least for me ...I keep hearing about what a great author Iain Banks is This book was a book of the month last year for a reading group I belong to I didn t like it It had so much potential, but it was simultaneously underwritten and overwritten, if that s even possible Probably my biggest beef with the book was the liberal use of the f...

The Algebraist
  • English
  • 13 September 2018
  • Paperback
  • 434 pages
  • 1597800449
  • Iain M. Banks
  • The Algebraist