Book Review: Consider Phlebas

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks is the first novel in the hugely successful Culture series.

I was very late to the Culture party. The first time I heard of Iain M. Banks was when The Hydrogen Sonata came out in 2012, and that, only in passing. Years went by and I kept hearing snippets of things about the Culture series, from people who respected it highly. So on the strength of that, I decided to pick up one of the books, and what better place to start, I thought, than at the very beginning?

Summary

Consider Phlebas introduces us to the Culture, a ludicrously advanced interstellar civilisation somewhat akin to, but also a tongue-in-cheek critique of, the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek. It consists mostly of various types of humans living in a post-scarcity society, in which the task of running things is turned over to sentient AIs called Minds. Normally we’d expect this kind of great humanitarian, free-thinking, utopian vision for humanity to be the hero of the story. But this is not the case in Consider Phlebas. Instead, our introduction to this civilisation is from the outside; from the perspective of those who are in opposition to its ideals. We are thrust into the middle of a centuries-long war between the Idirans - a non-human species of religious zealots - and the Culture. The story is told through the eyes of Horza, the Changer; a pan-human agent of the Idirans, as he traverses the galaxy with a motley crew of mercenaries to capture a fugitive Culture Mind which has buried itself deep within a Planet of the Dead.

Review

Consider Phlebas was a pretty enjoyable read. It’s got a lot going for it: a great concept masterfully realised, a high-stakes adventure across space, an interstellar war, space pirates, and a compelling story with fun characters. Overall, it was a good read, and I can see why so many people love the series. There are, however, a few things that bothered me about it.

This is a long book. At least, it felt long. Considering how many (or how few) plot points there are in this book, some sections stay well past their welcome. Don’t get me wrong, here. The story is engaging, there are great set-pieces, the Culture is intriguing, and the action is exciting… for the most part.
I enjoy worldbuilding. I think it’s fascinating. There’s deep lore here, and the Minds of the Culture are incredible, iconic characters. Their off-beat personalities are some of the best parts of the story, from their one-to-one interactions with the organic characters, to their humorous but always slightly sinister starship names. There’s a lot to love about the Minds. The implications their supreme intelligences bring to the world of the Culture and the wider universe are wonderfully realised. Under the Minds, the Culture is pretty much the most powerful force in Banks’ universe.
On a meta-level, the Culture is also routinely held up as one of the most powerful civilisations in all of science-fiction, alongside the Imperium of Man from the Warhammer 40K universe, and with good reason - they have a seemingly total mastery of everything to do with the quantum fields that make up the fabric of the universe (here called “the Grid”). But there’s a lot of worldbuilding to get through - a first novel in a series tends to need to do a lot of heavy lifting in that regard - and it bogs the story down in quite a few places.
As an example, there are four long chapters in this book that are taken outside of the normal chapter rotation. Much as I loved the rest of the book, these “State of Play” chapters are mind-bogglingly dull. They follow an agent of the Culture and her companion Mind (not entirely separately of the main story, but very tenuously linked). Their purpose is essentially to tell you more about the culture of the Culture, from the perspective of someone inside the Culture. Without putting too fine a point on it, there’s a lot that felt like it didn’t have to be here. I appreciate there’s a lot to do to bring this concept to life properly, but it really slowed the book down.

Moving on to characterisation. The organic characters pale in comparison to the Minds. And… That’s a shame, really. Horza is an interesting fellow, though; very much a morally-grey character, and at times a real arsehole, which is great! He holds distaste for the Culture because they’re stuck-up, holier-than-thou, and insufferable in their tolerance and efforts to be understanding. This is largely what pushed him to fall in with the Idirans on their side of the war. But to be fair, that seems to be the prevailing thought of everyone who lives outside of the Culture in Banks’ universe.
The other characters are not quite so good. There are the members of Kraiklyn’s Free Company who - with the exception of Yalson and, perhaps, Kraiklyn himself - all sort of blur together, and we don’t get to spend quality time with any of them. This is where I would have preferred some of the worldbuilding to take a backseat to more character development.

I would briefly like to touch on the action scenes in the book. The action is well-written and engaging generally, but I found it could be exhausting. Some of the scenes do go on for many, many pages. There’s one particular part that involves an ex-Culture GSV, the Ends of Invention, and I had to read it a few times through with my writer’s hat on, just to try to comprehend how Banks managed to make it last nearly ten pages! Some of the earlier action sequences - the raids with the crew of the Clear Air Turbulence (the Free Company’s vessel which Horza finds himself upon) - are a little difficult to follow, and I’m not entirely sure whether it’s because they’re still too vague for the amount that happens, or way over-described for comparatively little happening (I’m leaning towards the latter).

The story itself is coherent and held my interest, and it moves along from one thing to another well enough (perhaps a little slowly due to the unnecessary length of some sections). Horza’s secret mission to locate the Mind and his biding time until he can convince the crew of the Clear Air Turbulance to go where he needs to, is well done.

A short note about names… The names that the Minds in their massive GSVs, GCUs and other ships choose for themselves are flawless. Absolute perfection. Names like the Nervous Energy, the Eschatologist and the No More Mr Nice Guy, really capture this essence of AIs trying to name themselves, but not quite matching the tone right. These warships are powerful, intimidating and capable of obliterating entire star systems using nothing but the aforementioned Grid as a weapon. The tonal difference gives them such a delightfully, unintentionally sinister note.
The names of the organics, however… I really made an effort to pronounce some of them. But some, like Jandraligeli were really hard to read through quickly.

Despite the issues I enjoyed the book quite a bit, though I think it was mostly in the strength of the concept. And even with all these things, it hasn’t put me off the series. In fact, I look forward to eventually reading more in the Culture universe, and I have since discovered that the books do not need to be read in the order they were released, as each book is a standalone story. To go with that revelation came some recommendations for the better Culture novels from someone who has read many of them. I have seen that many find Consider Phlebas to be one of the weaker entries.

And that’s all from me for now.