As I remember it, they were written at least well enough that I didn't notice the language, and the story and world were great.
I think I might try the inheritance trilogy, but when looking up the first book (the hundred thousand kingdoms) on the Danish library site my search also returned a bunch of 1600s titles, from when book titles could be an entire paragraph long:
Theologicall questions, dogmaticall observations, and evangelicall essays, vpon the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to St. Matthew : Wherein, about two thousand six hundred and fifty necessary, and profitable questions are discussed; and five hundred and eighty speciall points of doctrine noted; and five hundred and fifty errours confuted, or objections answered: together with divers arguments, whereby divers truths, and true tenents are confirmed. By Richard VVard, sometimes student in the famous vniversities of Cambridge in England: St. Andrews in Scotland: and Master of Arts of both the kingdoms; and now a preacher in the famous city of London
Proposals for printing, by subscribtion, a work, intitled, encyclopd̆ia britannica; or, A new and complete dictionary of arts and sciences, : Composed in the form of distinct treatises or systems. With accurate defitnitions and explanations of all the terms as they occur in the order of the alphabet; also full descriptions of the various machines, insruments, tools, figures, &c. necessary for illustrating them; and of the classes, kinds, preparations, and uses of natural productions, whether animals, vegetables, minerals, fossils, or fluids. Together with the account of the kingdoms provinces, cities, towns, and other remarkable places throughout the world. Illustrated with above one hundred and fifty large copperplates, exhibiting several thousand figures, accurately engraven. By a Society of Gentlemen in Scotland. To be dedicated, by permission, to Sir Laurence Dundas of kerse, baronet, member of Parliament for the city of Edinburgh
A concise introduction to the knowledge of the most eminent painters. : By which every lover of the art of painting may instantly know the names, the years, and places of the birth of above two thousand four hundred of the most celebrated artists, .... and also the subjects painted by each artist; ... Intended to instruct ... those gentlemen and connoisseurs, who either travel abroad for the improvement of their taste, or intend to view the curious collections in these kingdoms
I just finished Fools Assassin, i liked it a lot. I dunno why but I love her assassin books but couldn't get into her other stuff.
The Assassin books benefitted from a single narrator. Strong 1st person narration is a rarity in fantasy
Her other stuff is good but less focused on one character so they felt a little less unique.
The new one is two very different narrations. One is Fitz, written as usual, and the other is a child, it's written as a young adult kind of style. Getting two perspectives can sometimes be redundant but it works very well here.
I just finished Fools Assassin, i liked it a lot. I dunno why but I love her assassin books but couldn't get into her other stuff.
The Assassin books benefitted from a single narrator. Strong 1st person narration is a rarity in fantasy
Her other stuff is good but less focused on one character so they felt a little less unique.
I think she really needs the first-person voice to write well. Her prose really suffers in the third person. Her books have declined more or less monotonically from that trilogy.
I liked Live Ship Traders more than Assassins -- but I read them out of order, and I think part of the charm was dropping into a previously-developed world without context, so.
Her Assassin trilogy is really good imo. Often brutal and sad but in a meaningful way.
Liveship is in many ways better, but it's also really bloated imo.
Tawny Man trilogy is bad fanfiction. Rain Wilds is bloated as all hell.
The thing that I'm learning as I finally make my way through Banks' Culture series, is that it's good to have an author who, when promising to hit the darkest reaches of the human soul, can actually deliver that.
In other, completely related news, I'm near the end of Use of Weapons, and yeah, it got pretty Banks.
The thing that I'm learning as I finally make my way through Banks' Culture series, is that it's good to have an author who, when promising to hit the darkest reaches of the human soul, can actually deliver that.
In other, completely related news, I'm near the end of Use of Weapons, and yeah, it got pretty Banks.
Can deliver it when he tries.
Really doesn't try all that frequently especially in his culture and other sci-fi books.
Seems a little more frequent in the non-sci-fi, but I haven't read alll of those yet.
Yeah, I didn't mean that I expect all the Culture books to be a dark trek through utter despair, just that it's nice to have someone who actually knows how to deliver it when they spend the whole book building up to some big, terrible reveal. I'm too used to having the reaction of "oh, a murder, how terrifying". But yes, in general I like that the tone seems to be more.. eclectic and contemplative, with a mind to just how absurd it can all be.
Funnily enough, Against A Dark Background was the last Banks book I tried reading before I stopped for years, and eventually picked him up again this year. I'd read Consider Phlebas many years ago and while I enjoyed it, I couldn't now tell you anything about it except that it took me a long time to get through it, and it felt like a slog. AADB I picked up a few years later wanting to try him again, and stopped about half-way through because I just wasn't feeling it, and decided that while his books were probably great, they just weren't for me. Then recently, I read Ancillary Justice which put me in a mood for some far-future space opera, so figured I'd give Banks one last shot. Turns out, Player of Games was a really good book, so I've kept going.
Funnily enough, Against A Dark Background was the last Banks book I tried reading before I stopped for years, and eventually picked him up again this year. I'd read Consider Phlebas many years ago and while I enjoyed it, I couldn't now tell you anything about it except that it took me a long time to get through it, and it felt like a slog. AADB I picked up a few years later wanting to try him again, and stopped about half-way through because I just wasn't feeling it, and decided that while his books were probably great, they just weren't for me. Then recently, I read Ancillary Justice which put me in a mood for some far-future space opera, so figured I'd give Banks one last shot. Turns out, Player of Games was a really good book, so I've kept going.
Consider Phlebas is like half travelog touring the seedier bits of The Culture's fringe societies. It could be more focused.
They moistly come out at night, moistly.
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
Is Player of Games a good place to start with the Culture books? Banks' older stuff is kind of hard to find where I'm at so I snatched it up when I found it but haven't started reading it yet.
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Is Player of Games a good place to start with the Culture books? Banks' older stuff is kind of hard to find where I'm at so I snatched it up when I found it but haven't started reading it yet.
Yes.
It's actually one of the starting books I'd recommend. You mostly learn about the Culture by how it isn't the setting of most of the book, but that works and it's a good story.
Is Player of Games a good place to start with the Culture books? Banks' older stuff is kind of hard to find where I'm at so I snatched it up when I found it but haven't started reading it yet.
Only, like, 2 chapters take place in the culture. They go over to a backwater and contrast the culture against it.
Excession or Look to Windward... Might be better. Surface Detail? (That has like 3 non culture cultures, but at least it has more than one ship).
Shrug, a lot of the Culture Books take place largely outside The Culture, and I'm sort of hesitant to say start with one of those.
I'm just going to read it and not worry too much about Culture.
I forgot that every time someone asks about the Culture it's like asking about which order to read Terry Pratchett books in.
Good plan.
Also, only like two Culture books have any connection to each other and those are super tenuous and not the least bit required for enjoyment. So order isn't really a thing that matters.
I'm just going to read it and not worry too much about Culture.
I forgot that every time someone asks about the Culture it's like asking about which order to read Terry Pratchett books in.
Good plan.
Also, only like two Culture books have any connection to each other and those are super tenuous and not the least bit required for enjoyment. So order isn't really a thing that matters.
At most there are some of the same ships involved in events separated by several centuries or totally separate events happening during the same war.
I'm just going to read it and not worry too much about Culture.
I forgot that every time someone asks about the Culture it's like asking about which order to read Terry Pratchett books in.
Good plan.
Also, only like two Culture books have any connection to each other and those are super tenuous and not the least bit required for enjoyment. So order isn't really a thing that matters.
At most there are some of the same ships involved in events separated by several centuries or totally separate events happening during the same war.
Order really means little.
I've probably missed most of those, there is one big one that is really just a fan thing and really only a single sentence between Use of Weapons and Surface Detail.
Cheradenine Zakalwe, the asshole in Use of Weapons is the protagonist in the confliction scenes in Surface Detail. It is only mentioned on like the last page and only by giving his name.
I'm just going to read it and not worry too much about Culture.
I forgot that every time someone asks about the Culture it's like asking about which order to read Terry Pratchett books in.
Good plan.
Also, only like two Culture books have any connection to each other and those are super tenuous and not the least bit required for enjoyment. So order isn't really a thing that matters.
There is some continuity, but its not the kind that you need to read in order to appreciate. All of the books are isolated stories that explore connected themes across The Culture's long history.
If you've read Consider Phlebas, you know a little more about the war that they're putting on an anniversary concert for in Look to Windward, but that's not necessary to understand the story. And for the connecting themes - particularly the ones surrounding the less noble aspects of the Culture - it doesn't matter which order you encounter the stories for the ideas to resonate.
Something else I'd love to say about Banks, is that even from the little that I've read, he was so good with names. A huge problem I have with the sci-fi that I read, is where everyone in a far-flung distant future is still called Gary or Jane, or where the author has obviously decided to make 'future' names by cutting-and-shutting two other names, like "Amanabelle brandished her blaster at Davathon..." and it feels so forced. Banks' names are so good! Cheradenine, Elethiomel, Diziet, Jernau; they just all feel so correct to the universe. Not to mention how I find the names of his books to be, I guess for want of a better word, lovely.
Shrug, a lot of the Culture Books take place largely outside The Culture, and I'm sort of hesitant to say start with one of those.
Much like Star Trek, where 400 pages set inside the Culture would be lots of hedonistic partying in a post-scarcity society. Look To Windward probably has the largest chunk of actual Culture setting, a lot in the form of little slices of life.
I loved the bit where two Culture citizens are having a ship naming contest. 8->
The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests.
Banks had been playing a lot of the original Civilization when he wrote the book.
ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
I just finished Aziz Ansari's new book, Modern Romance. He didn't want to do the standard comedy book, so he got together with Eric Klinenberg to do a sociological study on modern dating. It's the most amusing social sciences paper I've ever read.
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hmmmm, files away the long price quartet
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
As I remember it, they were written at least well enough that I didn't notice the language, and the story and world were great.
I think I might try the inheritance trilogy, but when looking up the first book (the hundred thousand kingdoms) on the Danish library site my search also returned a bunch of 1600s titles, from when book titles could be an entire paragraph long:
And more!
The new one is two very different narrations. One is Fitz, written as usual, and the other is a child, it's written as a young adult kind of style. Getting two perspectives can sometimes be redundant but it works very well here.
I think she really needs the first-person voice to write well. Her prose really suffers in the third person. Her books have declined more or less monotonically from that trilogy.
the Golden Fool Trilogy was pretty dull to me
never read past that
I liked Live Ship Traders more than Assassins -- but I read them out of order, and I think part of the charm was dropping into a previously-developed world without context, so.
Liveship is in many ways better, but it's also really bloated imo.
Tawny Man trilogy is bad fanfiction. Rain Wilds is bloated as all hell.
In other, completely related news, I'm near the end of Use of Weapons, and yeah, it got pretty Banks.
Can deliver it when he tries.
Really doesn't try all that frequently especially in his culture and other sci-fi books.
Seems a little more frequent in the non-sci-fi, but I haven't read alll of those yet.
Though Use of Weapons is a pretty clear exception.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Banks does like his revenge porn sometimes. And torture.
Overall tone is more hopeful though, yeah.
Not a Culture novel IIRC. Matter was pretty dark though.
But all in all, Banks first book was the Wasp Factory, so pretty much everything is up from that.
To the library mobile!
Yep. Look to Windward:
With a vicious revenge epilogue.
Yeah that was pretty eyebrow-raising.
Consider Phlebas is like half travelog touring the seedier bits of The Culture's fringe societies. It could be more focused.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Yes.
It's actually one of the starting books I'd recommend. You mostly learn about the Culture by how it isn't the setting of most of the book, but that works and it's a good story.
Only, like, 2 chapters take place in the culture. They go over to a backwater and contrast the culture against it.
Excession or Look to Windward... Might be better. Surface Detail? (That has like 3 non culture cultures, but at least it has more than one ship).
Shrug, a lot of the Culture Books take place largely outside The Culture, and I'm sort of hesitant to say start with one of those.
I forgot that every time someone asks about the Culture it's like asking about which order to read Terry Pratchett books in.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Good plan.
Also, only like two Culture books have any connection to each other and those are super tenuous and not the least bit required for enjoyment. So order isn't really a thing that matters.
At most there are some of the same ships involved in events separated by several centuries or totally separate events happening during the same war.
Order really means little.
Theres the Watch and Death and whatnot serieses which all do kinda build on each other. So it does make some sense to start at particular points.
I've probably missed most of those, there is one big one that is really just a fan thing and really only a single sentence between Use of Weapons and Surface Detail.
There is some continuity, but its not the kind that you need to read in order to appreciate. All of the books are isolated stories that explore connected themes across The Culture's long history.
If you've read Consider Phlebas, you know a little more about the war that they're putting on an anniversary concert for in Look to Windward, but that's not necessary to understand the story. And for the connecting themes - particularly the ones surrounding the less noble aspects of the Culture - it doesn't matter which order you encounter the stories for the ideas to resonate.
Much like Star Trek, where 400 pages set inside the Culture would be lots of hedonistic partying in a post-scarcity society. Look To Windward probably has the largest chunk of actual Culture setting, a lot in the form of little slices of life.
I loved the bit where two Culture citizens are having a ship naming contest. 8->
Banks had been playing a lot of the original Civilization when he wrote the book.
It's a few of his books.