The State of the Art (Culture, #4)

Posted on 24 June 2018 by Iain M. Banks

The first ever collection of Iain Banks short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark coated fantasy to morality tale All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks staggering talent. Download The State of the Art (Culture, #4) by Iain M. Banks – kino-fada.fr There are some authors whose short fiction I enjoy muchthan their novels Iain Banks is not one of them A couple of these are great, but I think for the most part that he really excels when he has maximum literary space to explore a story and develop his characters A Gift from the Culture and The State of the Art are definite high points in the collection.Individual stories Road of Skulls 2 5Nothing particularly special.A Gift From the Culture 4 5I dug this one a lot It had a noir There are some authors whose short fiction I enjoy muchthan their novels Iain Banks is not one of them A couple of these are great, but I think for the most part that he really excels when h...My husband overheard me muttering to myself about this book being out of print in the US, so he secretly ordered it for me from the UK When it arrived, I somehow assumed I d ordered it for myself and forgotten about it, so I just tossed it on the to read stack without comment He had to hint and prod a bit before admitting he d bought it for me as a gift He s sweet I m a dork Anyway.Every Culture book I ve read so far has been better than the last Though this one is actually a short story c My husband overheard me muttering to myself about this book being out of print in the US, so he secretly ordered it for me from the UK Wh...The first two stories are OK, but nothing special.The third one is quite funny I can t count the number of times I ve seen a hapless spaceman get rent limb from limb by a bug eyed monster But what s the monster s motivation Banks comes up with a lovely answer 4 is also a nice perspective flip in a classic SF scenario The guy in the space suit needs to walk a long way across the surface of a hostile planet to reach safety We always see it from the guy s point of view How about the suit 5 The first two stories are OK, but nothing special.The third one is quite funny I can t count the number of times I ve seen a hapless spaceman get rent limb from limb by a bug eyed monster But what s the monster s motivation Banks comes up with a lovely answer 4 is also a nice perspective flip in a classic SF scenario The guy in the space suit needs to walk a long way across the surface of a hostile planet to reach safety We always see it from the guy s point of view How about the suit 5 is amusing too I liked the alien speech translator First person singular obtaining colloquial orgasm within a Caledonian sandwich, it said, then looked annoyed, and spoke incoherently into a grille set in its belly, which replied It looked up and said, Sorry As I was saying, I come in peace We re alwa...The only other Banks book I have read is Player of Games which I loved I think, as a compilation, this book fell a little short for me I actually love short stories, so I was left feeling a little disappointed.A couple thoughts on the individual stories Road of Skulls I felt like this wasn t quite long enough or focused enough.A Gift From the Culture I ...The State of the Art is a collection of short stories, some of which relate to the Culture novels and some of which don t or at least, don t overtly I actually wasn t much impressed by Iain M Banks as a short story writer, it seems the best of the stories was the titular story itself, which is both a Culture story and rather longer than the other stories in the collection, which gave itspace to interest me, andspace for him to set up the kind of story that s grabbed me in his no T...A thoroughly interesting read The State of the Art isn t all sci fi, and only a couple of the stories included here make mention of the Culture and its related technologies There is also a rather chilling story to be discovered in Piece , which I shall not spoil here.I found that I enjoyed the short stories of a misunderstood vegetable life form, a traveller writing, a journey across a war zone, a Culture exile and clumsy interstellar bin menthan the title piece They re admirably A thoroughly interesting read The State of the Art isn t all sci fi, and only a couple of the stories included here make mention of the Culture and its related technologies There is also a rather chilling story to be discovered in Piece , which I shall not spoil here.I found that I enjoyed the short stories of a misunderstood vegetable life form, a traveller writing, a journey across a war zone, a Culture exile and clumsy interstellar bin menthan the title piece They re admirably detailed pieces of short fiction, many of which highlight the best features of all Banks writing The State of the Art itself felt like a tribute to L Ron Hubbard In it, Diziet Sma from Use of Weapons visits Earth of the 1970s, thus revealing that the Culture is a human civilisation far disconnected from our own The story is essentially a study, examining our culture in a critical and satiric...It took me quite some time to get really into this collection because you ll laugh I didn t actually realise it was a collection of short stories when I grabbed it from the library I saw the author, the title and the fact that it was Culture 4.So the first chapter takes us along a road that has been paved in the skulls of defeated enemies in a cart, only it bears no resemblance to the second chapter which is about a culture citizen who has joined another civilisation covertly Well, maybe It took me quite some time to get really into this collection because you ll laugh I didn t actually realise it was a collection of short stories when I grabbed it from the library I saw the author, the title and the fact that it was Culture 4.So the first chapter takes us along a road that has been paved in the skulls of defeated enemies in a cart, only it bears no resemblance to the secon... From BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama The State of The ArtBy Iain M BanksDramatised by Paul CornellThe Culture ship Arbitrary arrives on Earth in 1977 and finds a planet obsessed with alien concepts like property and money and on the edge of self destruction When Agent Dervley Linter, decides to go native can Diziet Sma chang...view spoiler Bettie s Books hide spoilerI finished this short story novella collection one day before Luke returns from Brazil So we will record a podcast about this part of our book club very soon

English
24 June 2018

Iain M. Banks