This morning I finished reading the science fiction novel Consider Phlebas, or actually re-reading it, this time in Finnish. I used to be a great fan of The Culture novels, but then I got bored with the space opera genre, and stopped reading them.
On the second reading Consider Phlebas isn't bad, even though the concept of a machine civilization that Iain M. Banks presents isn't believable. Fortunately, the Minds of The Culture are very much in the background in the novel.
I liked the black humour, and the complex relations between the characters. But I also noticed several trivial mistakes in the story, as if it had been written in a bit of a hurry. Anyway, maybe I'll continue re-reading the other books in the series, or some of the first ones at least.
The photographs were taken on December 24th, 2014.
(Posting title is from the poem The Waste Land by John Beer. The connection to Consider Phlebas is left as an exercise for the reader; it is trivial to a Mind.)
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2 comments:
Hi Juha
Funny, I am just reading Use of Weapons, working my way through the Culture series (having read Consider Phlebas and Player of Games recently). I never read these before but I like Iain Banks' writing style and after he died, I decided to dig up more of him. Suspension of Disbelief is required when reading Sci-Fi novels anyway - my wife is unable to ;-)
Hope your flu leaves you soon so that you can capture the world outside again in great detail. Love those posts.
Cheers, Eric
Thanks, Eric, the flu seems to be easing.
I reserved Player of Games from the library, even though I'm not yet quite sure whether I want to continue re-reading the rest of the Culture novels.
I was thinking about going for a walk today but it is raining heavily and I'm not keen on getting wet in this condition. Well, tomorrow should be a dry day.
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