Look to Windward (Culture, #7)

Posted on 18 June 2018 by Iain M. Banks

The Twin Novae battle had been one of the last of the Idiran war, one of the most horrific Desperate to avert defeat, the Idirans had induced not one but two suns to explode, snuffing out worlds biospheres teeming with sentient life They were attacks of incredible proportion gigadeathcrimes But the war ended life went on Now, 800 years later, light from the 1st explosion is about to reach the Masaq Orbital, home to the Culture s most adventurous decadent souls There it will fall upon Masaq s 50 billion inhabitants, gathered to commemorate the deaths of the innocent to reflect, if only for a moment, on what some call the Culture s own complicity in the terrible event Also journeying to Masaq is Major Quilan, an emissary from the war ravaged world of Chel In the aftermath of the conflict that split his world apart, most believe he has come to Masaq to bring home Chel s most brilliant star self exiled dissident, the honored Composer Ziller Ziller claims he will do anything to avoid a meeting with Quilan, who he suspects has come to murder him But the Major s true assignment will have far greater consequences than the death of a mere political dissident, as part of a conspiracy ambitious than even he can know a mission his superiors have buried so deeply in his mind that even he can t remember it Hailed by SFX magazine as an excellent hopping on point if you ve never read a Banks SF novel before, Look to Windward is an awe inspiring immersion into the wildly original, vividly realized civilization Banks calls the Culture. Free Read [ Look to Windward (Culture, #7) ] By [ Iain M. Banks ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I.e., look to change, look to the future, look forward, etc In the introduction this book was dedicated to the Gulf War veterans, and that seems very appropriate after finishing it.It deals primarily with PTSD, suicide, revenge, apathy, and the effects of trauma the true cost of war both societally, and individually It accomplished this while also somehow being the most humorous novel in the series so far In a lot of ways it is a direct sequel to the first Culture book, Consider Phlebas , e I.e., look to change, look to the future, look forward, etc In the intr...Back to Iain M Banks phenomenal Culture series of space opera set in a post scarcity universe where humans are the most powerful known species Well, not really the humans, but the massive AI entities originally created by humans thousands of years ago It is quite unusual for humanity to sort of be the top dog, this is one of the most unusual features of the Culture universe Banks Culture setting bucks the current trend of dystopian fiction In this post scarcity society, all of humanity Back to Iain M Banks phenomenal Culture series of space opera set in a post scarcity universe where humans are the most powerful known species Well, not really th...Look no further if you re looking for a tale of fantastically huge sources and end results of regret, suicide, the negation of life affirmation, exploding suns, and excellent tales of love between non humanoid sentients and nearly god like Minds.This is a Culture novel Ian M Banks had ten of them before his death and he s known equally well for his hard SF as for his standard fiction, strangely enough.It shows in this one I have to admit that I was very impressed by the technological fantasti Look no further if you re looking for a tale of fantastically huge sources and end results of regret, suicide, the negation of life affirmation, exploding suns, and excellent tales of love between non humanoid sentients and nearly god like Minds.This is a Culture novel Ian M Banks had ten of them before his death and he s known equally well for his hard SF as for his standard fiction, strangely...heavy, heavy themes done with a light and benevolent touch the topics on display include suicide and suicide bombings, terrorism, genocide, imperialism cultural colonialism, the nature of war, the afterlife and feature a loveable cast of pretentious robot drones, adorable and often furry alien creatures, and one very melancholy Artificial Intelligence VAGUE SPOILERS the last four chapters are jaw dropping in scope, moving from an elegiac double suicide i teared up to a mind boggling che heavy, heavy themes done with a light and benevolent touch the topics on display include suicide and suicide bo...Brad If you were a GSV General Systems Vehicle , what would you call yourself Brad Sit Right Back and You ll Hear a Tale Brad If you were a GCV General Contact Vehicle , what would you call yourself Brad Inoculate by Means of BlanketsBrad If you were a GOV General Offensive Unit , what would you call yourself Brad Process of Peace and ReconciliationBrad If you were a VFP Very Fast Picket , what would you call yourself Brad Cerebrovascular AccidentBrad If you were an Orbital, what wo Brad If you were a GSV General Systems Vehicle , what would you call yourself Brad Sit Right Back and You ll Hear a Tale Brad If you were a GCV General Contact Vehicle , what would you call yourself Brad Inoculate by Means of BlanketsBrad If you were a GOV General Offensive Unit , what would you call yourself Brad Process of Peace and ReconciliationBrad If you were a VFP...Amazing My second Culture novel after The Player of Games, and I think I m at a point where I m going to be ravenously devouring them Like many others have mentioned, this is a novel about loss and mourning thinking back on the events of the book, not much actually happens, but Banks uses enough narrative shift and experiments with perspective that it always remains fascinating Part of the joy in reading these books is just for the world building, honestly And as always, his aliens are a Amazing My second Culture novel after The Player of Games, and I think I m at a point where I m going to be ravenously devouring them Like many others have mentioned, this is a novel about loss and mourning thinking back on the events of the book, not much actually happens, but Banks uses enough narrative shift and exper...Say hello to Kabe pronounced Ka beh , a tripedal, three and a half meter tall triangular bulk of politely plodding philosophical awesomeness, who can stand so perfectly still while lost in thought that silly humans often mistake him for some sort of humongous, statuesque work of art Also, mistakenly, even though he s a Homondon a vegetarian species , Kabe s very large mouth makes the sight of him eating distinctly alarming These outwardly endearing qualities are hardly the extent of adorab Say hello to Kabe pronounced Ka beh , a tripedal, three and a half meter tall triangular bulk of politely plodding philosophical awesomeness, who can stand so perfectly still while lost in thought that silly humans often mistake him for some sort of humongous, statuesque work of art Also, mistakenly, even though he s a Homondon a vegetarian species , Kabe s very large mouth makes the sight of him eating distinctly alarming These outwardly endearing qualities are hardly the extent of adorableness that is Ambassador Kabe Ischloear Here s an excerpt of him traipsing through the snow He could hear his own footsteps as they sank into the untouched whiteness Each step made a creaking noise He looked back at his tracks in the sow covering the canal path Three lines of footprints He wondered what a human what any bipedal would make of such a trail Probably, he suspected, they would not ...This is a book about mourning and regret, set in the universe of Banks s Culture series There are several interwoven subplots, two of which display remarkable technical virtuosity The first is a moving love story between completely non human extraterrestrial creatures I think it s the only successful example I ve ever come across Some of the flashbacks where Quilan recalls his lost love brought tears to my eyes I m not sure how the author did it, and I liked it enough that I d rather not pi This is a book about mourning and regret, set in the universe of Banks s Culture series There are several interwoven subplots, two of which display remarkable technical virtuosity The first is a moving love story between completely non human extraterrestrial creatures I think it s the only successful example I ve ever come across Some of the flashbacks where Quilan recalls his lost love brought tears to my eyes I m not sure how the author did it, and I liked it enough that I d rather not pick at the illus...Iain Banks died earlier this year, and what a huge loss to the science fiction community it was Out of all the Culture novels he had written, I had read all but onethis one I figured I d end the year by visiting his wonderful universe again for one last new adventure something that will never happen again.If you re interested in his Culture series you should be , don t start here, as it is actually a loosely connected sequel to Consider Phlebas, the very first Culture novel, and shock wa Iain Banks died earlier this year, and what a huge loss to the science fiction community it was Out of all the Culture novels he had written, I had read all but onethis one I figured I d end the year by visiting his wonderful universe again for one last new adventure something that will never happen again.If you re interested in his Culture series you should be , don t start here, as it is actually a loosely connected sequel to Consider Phlebas, the very first Culture novel, and shock waves literally from that book are... Look to windward I think is book in which Banks goes back to what he does best i.e tell a engrossing story which has a lot of twists and turns This time the story exclusively takes place on Masaq orbital and the descriptions of the orbital is another point which made this book really fascinating for me.Some of the strong points of the book for me where1 Masaq orbital.2 The varied species with their background story.3 Subliming concept.Let me elaborate on above points of the book1 Masaq orbita Look to windward I think is book in which Banks goes back to what he does best i.e tell a engrossing story which has a lot of twists and turns This time the story exclusively takes place on Masaq orbital and the descriptions of the orbital is another point which made this book really fascinating for me.Some of the strong points of the book for me where1 Masaq orbital.2 The varied species with their background story.3 Subliming concept.Let me elaborate on above points of the book1 Masaq orbital.Although throughout the culture series we have seen lot of orbitals, but they were lacking complete description in order to visualize them clearly Banks gives detailed description of orbital in this book The orbitals ar...

English
18 June 2018

Iain M. Banks