Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Orbit (1993), Paperback
Description
Iain M. Banks' only short-story collection, never before published in the US. Contents: * Road of Skulls * A Gift from the Culture * Odd Attachment * Descendant * Cleaning Up * Piece * The State of the Art * Scratch * A Few Notes On the Culture Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RobertDay
Iain Banks was not noted as a short-story writer; this book collects together most of his published short fiction up to 1989. Of the stories in this collection, only two are definitely set in the Culture ('A Gift from the Culture' and 'The State of the Art'); a third story, 'Descendent', does not
As I was re-reading this book as a part of a memorial Banks Culture re-read, I concentrated on those three stories. The shorter examples are adequate but little more. The third, 'The State of the Art', is a bit more interesting but equally problematical. It describes a survey of Earth in 1977 by a Culture team from Contact, trying to decide whether or not to admit Earth to the Culture. One of their number goes native. In the course of this, we meet Diziet Sma, one of the main characters from 'Use of Weapons', in the time before she joined Special Circumstances and became Cheradanine Zakalwe's principal.
This story was first published in 1989, after 'The Player of Games' but before 'Use of Weapons' (Wikipedia erroneously identifies the story with this book's publication date rather than its first appearance); but it actually feels older, rather like an early draft of a Culture story. It is quite didactic; characters (biological and AI) spend a lot of time discussing the Culture and its differences from Earth. And although there is some action in it and something of a twist ending, it is nonetheless a fairly wordy tale.
But it is important, because it does give the reader a clear description of what the Culture is about. For that reason alone, anyone looking to understand the Culture should read this story. Otherwise, it is one for completists only.
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specifically state that it is set in the Culture, but the technology in it, which plays a major part in the story, seems very much like Culture technology (a man is marooned on a hostile world in a failing spacesuit equipped with a sentient AI).As I was re-reading this book as a part of a memorial Banks Culture re-read, I concentrated on those three stories. The shorter examples are adequate but little more. The third, 'The State of the Art', is a bit more interesting but equally problematical. It describes a survey of Earth in 1977 by a Culture team from Contact, trying to decide whether or not to admit Earth to the Culture. One of their number goes native. In the course of this, we meet Diziet Sma, one of the main characters from 'Use of Weapons', in the time before she joined Special Circumstances and became Cheradanine Zakalwe's principal.
This story was first published in 1989, after 'The Player of Games' but before 'Use of Weapons' (Wikipedia erroneously identifies the story with this book's publication date rather than its first appearance); but it actually feels older, rather like an early draft of a Culture story. It is quite didactic; characters (biological and AI) spend a lot of time discussing the Culture and its differences from Earth. And although there is some action in it and something of a twist ending, it is nonetheless a fairly wordy tale.
But it is important, because it does give the reader a clear description of what the Culture is about. For that reason alone, anyone looking to understand the Culture should read this story. Otherwise, it is one for completists only.
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LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
The jacket copy boasts that The State of the Art is "the only collection of Iain Banks' short fiction," and it appears that it does account for most of the short fiction that he ever published. Three of the eight stories, including the novella that makes up about half of the eponymous book, are
The novella brings the Culture's exploratory agency Contact to 1970s Earth, thus linking Banks' science fiction to the hardly sfnal "Piece"--a meditation on censorship and violence with an arch irony--and to the quite terrestrial prose poem "Scratch." The narrator of "The State of the Art" is even Diziet Sma, the Special Circumstances operative from Use of Weapons.
I had wondered before about the genealogical relationship of the Culture's posthumans to our own population. Banks clearly implies that we are a not-especially-remarkable instance of a galactically ubiquitous pan-humanity, products of parallel evolution it appears. The differences between the Culture's phenotype and ours are briefly described in what Sma needs in order to pass for Earth-human: "I got a couple of extra toes, a joint removed from each finger, and a rather generalized ear, nose, and cheekbone job. The ship insisted on teaching me to walk differently as well" (106-7).
The story "Cleaning Up" involved an extraterrestrial influence that was almost certainly not the Culture. It seemed like Banks' take on the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, playing up the comical elements of that work. The comedy in all of these stories tends towards the decidedly dark.
There is a full-page illustration by Nick Day for the frontispiece and one for each story. These are all in black-and-white and seem to be linocuts. The style is more diagrammatic than representational. By refusing to offer more eidetic images, these made me conscious of their lack in the larger Culture corpus, where the cover art tends to be abstract and symbolic. A quick 'net search for art depicting the Culture revealed that just last week saw the posthumous publication of The Culture: The Drawings reproducing Banks' own diagrams and sketches of Culture environments and technology.
Despite The State of the Art being a quick read, I think I'll likely take a breather from the Culture for a little while, since I don't have a copy of Excession, and I am also engaged with a couple of other series that seem to have more urgent plot continuity between volumes.
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explicitly Culture tales, and several of the others seem to sit comfortably in the Culture's universe. It is thus figured as the fourth book of the Culture series, and I read it as such. The novella brings the Culture's exploratory agency Contact to 1970s Earth, thus linking Banks' science fiction to the hardly sfnal "Piece"--a meditation on censorship and violence with an arch irony--and to the quite terrestrial prose poem "Scratch." The narrator of "The State of the Art" is even Diziet Sma, the Special Circumstances operative from Use of Weapons.
I had wondered before about the genealogical relationship of the Culture's posthumans to our own population. Banks clearly implies that we are a not-especially-remarkable instance of a galactically ubiquitous pan-humanity, products of parallel evolution it appears. The differences between the Culture's phenotype and ours are briefly described in what Sma needs in order to pass for Earth-human: "I got a couple of extra toes, a joint removed from each finger, and a rather generalized ear, nose, and cheekbone job. The ship insisted on teaching me to walk differently as well" (106-7).
The story "Cleaning Up" involved an extraterrestrial influence that was almost certainly not the Culture. It seemed like Banks' take on the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, playing up the comical elements of that work. The comedy in all of these stories tends towards the decidedly dark.
There is a full-page illustration by Nick Day for the frontispiece and one for each story. These are all in black-and-white and seem to be linocuts. The style is more diagrammatic than representational. By refusing to offer more eidetic images, these made me conscious of their lack in the larger Culture corpus, where the cover art tends to be abstract and symbolic. A quick 'net search for art depicting the Culture revealed that just last week saw the posthumous publication of The Culture: The Drawings reproducing Banks' own diagrams and sketches of Culture environments and technology.
Despite The State of the Art being a quick read, I think I'll likely take a breather from the Culture for a little while, since I don't have a copy of Excession, and I am also engaged with a couple of other series that seem to have more urgent plot continuity between volumes.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
Now, the Arbitrary wasn't actually insane; it did its job very well, and as far as I know none of its pranks ever actually hurt anybody, at least not physically. But you have to be a bit wary of a ship that collects snowflakes.
A book containing seven short stories and a novella. In the title story,
A book containing seven short stories and a novella. In the title story,
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it is 1977 and a General Contact Unit ship from the Culture is in orbit around Earth. The ship and the Contact agents it carries are studying Earth and its inhabitants in minute details in order to decide whether the Culture should make contact with the people of Earth or just continue to observe us. I liked this novella a lot, especially the sarky footnotes by the drone who translated it into English, but the other stories were a bit of a mixed bag. Show Less
LibraryThing member M.Campanella
I don’t feel like Banks is my kind of writer. His style leaves something to be craved.
Stories like ‘Piece’, ‘Road of Skulls’ and ‘a gift from the culture’ left me without much by their end. ‘Road of Skulls’ felt like it should have been the first chapter of a novel.
The short story holding its own best was ‘Scratch’, a piece holding the world up to the eye of William S Burroughs in a fairly novel way.
But the novella included in the collection, ‘The State of the Art’ deserves some reflection. Above and beyond just another story from his ‘Culture’ series, there is certainly some pretty valid social criticism in that mix. Taken at face value, you have the story of some aliens who discovered Earth – our Earth – and set about it learning all the cultural values our planet has to offer so that they can make a decision on what to do with our planet. With fresh eyes they go about and discover all the things – largely bad – about the world we live in (this was written in the 80’s. I got the feeling the aliens went to a Sex pistols concert or two). And there was exactly what I enjoyed about it; the way aliens perceived and discussed the Earth is exactly the way we all at some point are forced to understand the world around us if we want to live in it with any sense of education about what is going on in it. At some point we all do have to look around and decide whether we live in a fundamentally good or bad world. We, however do not have the option of jumping ship and going elsewhere.
Still, the technology of the visitors is overplayed and their culture (perhaps in this story) is a bit underplayed, which is sad considering their name and sad considering what I tend to find interesting in fiction.
The novella made the collection worth it.
Stories like ‘Piece’, ‘Road of Skulls’ and ‘a gift from the culture’ left me without much by their end. ‘Road of Skulls’ felt like it should have been the first chapter of a novel.
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‘Descendant’ ‘Odd Attachment’ and ‘Cleaning Up’ had an interesting but very Philip K Dick sense or irony to them, with Descendant feeling like the most unique of the lot.The short story holding its own best was ‘Scratch’, a piece holding the world up to the eye of William S Burroughs in a fairly novel way.
But the novella included in the collection, ‘The State of the Art’ deserves some reflection. Above and beyond just another story from his ‘Culture’ series, there is certainly some pretty valid social criticism in that mix. Taken at face value, you have the story of some aliens who discovered Earth – our Earth – and set about it learning all the cultural values our planet has to offer so that they can make a decision on what to do with our planet. With fresh eyes they go about and discover all the things – largely bad – about the world we live in (this was written in the 80’s. I got the feeling the aliens went to a Sex pistols concert or two). And there was exactly what I enjoyed about it; the way aliens perceived and discussed the Earth is exactly the way we all at some point are forced to understand the world around us if we want to live in it with any sense of education about what is going on in it. At some point we all do have to look around and decide whether we live in a fundamentally good or bad world. We, however do not have the option of jumping ship and going elsewhere.
Still, the technology of the visitors is overplayed and their culture (perhaps in this story) is a bit underplayed, which is sad considering their name and sad considering what I tend to find interesting in fiction.
The novella made the collection worth it.
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LibraryThing member imyril
I don't much care for Banks' short stories. They lack the flair of character that I enjoy in his novels, and as such failed to suck me in. Best in collection goes to Descendant, in which the survivor of a downed module must walk across a desolate planet in his sentient spacesuit. State of the Art
[NB plenty of non-Culture short stories here too - I just didn't enjoy them]
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(a play on words here, as a Contact agent muses on whether the Culture can create great Art without the inspiration of sickness, pain and tragedy) is practically polemic as a GCU observes life on Earth for a year and contends with the mixed reaction of its human crew. Sadly this is less effective than it could have been, as it feels like cardboard cut outs reading speeches rather than characters having real conversations - and Earth is so much less awful than other unContacted planets in the Culture's sphere that the arguments all fall a bit flat. Yes, we could be a better planet. No, we're really not as bad as it gets. There's hope for us yet.[NB plenty of non-Culture short stories here too - I just didn't enjoy them]
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LibraryThing member PiyushC
Finally a review! Even if I am the only one getting excited over the fact! This was the fourth book in the Culture Series, the version I read consisted of a number of short stories culminating with the novella titled "The State of the Art".
Short stories, as a rule, don't agree much with me, and
Short stories, as a rule, don't agree much with me, and
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this one proved to be no exception. Some of the stories and a few scenes were quite shocking, in their grotesqueness - that however, is far from being a reason for me not liking this installment as much as the last two. It is just that more than a few stories failed to resonate any kind of chord with me, and while some of them were quite good, on an average, I found the book, average! Show Less
LibraryThing member wissamktb
I read this collection primarily for the two Culture stories A Gift from the Culture and the titular The State of the Art. The first one was actually pretty good until it ended abruptly and kind of pointlessly. The State of the Art wasn't the best Culture story I've read, but it gets points for
As for the rest of the collection, Odd Attachment and Cleaning Up are both very funny and intelligent. Two more serious and darker stories are Piece and Descendant, both very good and memorable.
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featuring one of my favorite Culture characters yet--Diziet Sma from Use of Weapons.As for the rest of the collection, Odd Attachment and Cleaning Up are both very funny and intelligent. Two more serious and darker stories are Piece and Descendant, both very good and memorable.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
A collection, including the title novella and some assorted short fiction from banks.
Road of Skulls - more an introduction than a story,this short prelude is chock full of references, 'in'-jokes and served its purpose of making me go "OH YEAH! I am totally thrilled to be starting another book by
A Gift from the Culture - set in the 'Culture' universe (as one might have guessed from the title; most of the stories here can be construed to be set in the same universe, although they don't all specify it), this story introduces us to an individual who has chosen to leave the privileges and luxuries of that advanced, space-faring milieu behind in favor of living on a much more backward, violent planet. The conjunction of an ill-advised love affair and a mafia-like gang leads to the narrator being pressured to commit an act of terrorism. It's a great story, but it also feels like it only touches on the edge of things... I would not have been disappointed if this were the introduction to a novel.
Odd Attachment - It's a bit of a one-note joke story - but at the same time, it's genuinely funny, and awfully twisted. In a good way. And then, it also has the deeper theme of different perspectives...
Descendant - A spaceman is stranded far from his base. He has thousands of miles to walk to reach an uncertain refuge. He is alone - except for his spacesuit, which is so technologically advanced that it is a sentient intelligence in its own right. But it is damaged.
Cleaning Up - Mysterious and befuddling 'packages' containing alien technology start arriving on Earth. The government frantically tries to figure out how to deconstruct the technology; and what the purpose of these 'gifts' is. Can they be used to military advantage?
Nicely ironic.
Piece - A non-sci-fi short on the topics of religion, science, and terrorism. Well-crafted.
The State of the Art - Sharing many of the same themes as "A Gift From the Culture"; this story also features a Culture citizen who wants to 'go native' and join life on a backwater planet. Only this time, the planet in question is Earth, circa 1977. The starship 'Arbitrary' is in orbit, considering whether or not to make contact. The ship insists that Diziet Sma (from 'Use of Weapons') go 'talk' to Dervley, who is on-planet, and has been refusing to check in or return to the ship. The bulk of the story is really a philosophical argument between the two characters points of view: Sma sees the benefits and privileges of living in the Culture; Dervley has fallen in love with the 'realness' of hardship and poverty, and sees 'aliveness' and beauty in the contrasts of Earth, in addition to being attracted to religious concepts. Banks, in this story, tries really, really hard not to construct straw-man arguments, and I believe he really does try to see Dervley's point of view and to present it fairly. But it's pretty clear, at the end of the day, that he's with Sma and the Culture. I think perhaps the strongest part of the story is the clear portrayal of that tragic feeling you're left with when faced with someone you love and care for who just does not see things from your point of view; and you believe that they are just utterly wrong; and moreover that their wrongness is self-destructive and harmful.
Scratch - The final piece in the book. Another non-sci-fi piece, giving another perspective on those aspects of life-on-Earth that Dervley found value in, and Sma did not. This is an experimental-almost-poem about English poverty and poverty of culture. It's not my usual kind of thing, but it's far better done than many writings of this type.
Road of Skulls - more an introduction than a story,this short prelude is chock full of references, 'in'-jokes and served its purpose of making me go "OH YEAH! I am totally thrilled to be starting another book by
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Iain Banks!"A Gift from the Culture - set in the 'Culture' universe (as one might have guessed from the title; most of the stories here can be construed to be set in the same universe, although they don't all specify it), this story introduces us to an individual who has chosen to leave the privileges and luxuries of that advanced, space-faring milieu behind in favor of living on a much more backward, violent planet. The conjunction of an ill-advised love affair and a mafia-like gang leads to the narrator being pressured to commit an act of terrorism. It's a great story, but it also feels like it only touches on the edge of things... I would not have been disappointed if this were the introduction to a novel.
Odd Attachment - It's a bit of a one-note joke story - but at the same time, it's genuinely funny, and awfully twisted. In a good way. And then, it also has the deeper theme of different perspectives...
Descendant - A spaceman is stranded far from his base. He has thousands of miles to walk to reach an uncertain refuge. He is alone - except for his spacesuit, which is so technologically advanced that it is a sentient intelligence in its own right. But it is damaged.
Cleaning Up - Mysterious and befuddling 'packages' containing alien technology start arriving on Earth. The government frantically tries to figure out how to deconstruct the technology; and what the purpose of these 'gifts' is. Can they be used to military advantage?
Nicely ironic.
Piece - A non-sci-fi short on the topics of religion, science, and terrorism. Well-crafted.
The State of the Art - Sharing many of the same themes as "A Gift From the Culture"; this story also features a Culture citizen who wants to 'go native' and join life on a backwater planet. Only this time, the planet in question is Earth, circa 1977. The starship 'Arbitrary' is in orbit, considering whether or not to make contact. The ship insists that Diziet Sma (from 'Use of Weapons') go 'talk' to Dervley, who is on-planet, and has been refusing to check in or return to the ship. The bulk of the story is really a philosophical argument between the two characters points of view: Sma sees the benefits and privileges of living in the Culture; Dervley has fallen in love with the 'realness' of hardship and poverty, and sees 'aliveness' and beauty in the contrasts of Earth, in addition to being attracted to religious concepts. Banks, in this story, tries really, really hard not to construct straw-man arguments, and I believe he really does try to see Dervley's point of view and to present it fairly. But it's pretty clear, at the end of the day, that he's with Sma and the Culture. I think perhaps the strongest part of the story is the clear portrayal of that tragic feeling you're left with when faced with someone you love and care for who just does not see things from your point of view; and you believe that they are just utterly wrong; and moreover that their wrongness is self-destructive and harmful.
Scratch - The final piece in the book. Another non-sci-fi piece, giving another perspective on those aspects of life-on-Earth that Dervley found value in, and Sma did not. This is an experimental-almost-poem about English poverty and poverty of culture. It's not my usual kind of thing, but it's far better done than many writings of this type.
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LibraryThing member Stevil2001
I picked up this book a couple years ago, looking for a science fiction story from the late twentieth century to teach in a college survey of British literature from 1800 to the present; I assigned my students the Culture novella "The State of the Art." I had actually never read a Culture story
So this month I finally read the rest of the volume (and reread "State of the Art": it's still good). The stories are eclectic. Two or three more seem to be about the Culture, from what I know of it. "Descendant," about a crash victim who has a difficult relationship with his spacesuit was neat, but I particularly enjoyed "Cleaning Up," a fun story where the very technologically advanced trash of an alien civilization is accidentally being deposited on Earth. There are lots of funny bits, some good black comedy, and an ending I didn't see coming. (If the advanced civilization here is the Culture, though, this book is definitely not in continuity with "State of the Art.")
There was some non-sf, too, most notably "Piece," which is about religious radicalism. It also had an unexpected ending, though I think I would have seen it coming if I was less ignorant. I'm not sure what to think about it, to be honest: it feels a very earnest and off-the-cuff response to tragedy, with all the positives and negatives that implies.
I should say there were a couple tales I bounced off. "A Gift from the Culture" sort of meandered and didn't say much of interest, while "Odd Attachment" was just baffling. But you could have just put "The State of the Art" in here and this book would have been worth it, so I'm glad for the chance to experience the Culture for the first time, and to see this snapshot of the early Iain M. Banks.
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before. I've been reading Banks's literary fiction on-and-off for a few years, and I harbored a sort of compulsion that I ought to read all his literary fiction, and then move onto his sf. "The State of the Art" is a great tale: funny and thought-provoking, it both questions our cultural narratives, and the idea that questioning our cultural narratives is enough to then just readopt them: "there is an osmosis from fiction to reality, a constant contamination which distorts the truth behind both and fuzzes the telling distinctions in life itself [...]. They always had too many stories, I believe" (201-2). This is a story about being seduced by the nobility of suffering when in fact suffering is completely nonessential. If you exist in a perfect world, there might be no hope, but that's because things are so good you don't need hope. I would happily lose hope in exchange for living in a world that was literally perfect. Sadly, I failed to convince a single student of this. But it remains a provocative and interesting story.So this month I finally read the rest of the volume (and reread "State of the Art": it's still good). The stories are eclectic. Two or three more seem to be about the Culture, from what I know of it. "Descendant," about a crash victim who has a difficult relationship with his spacesuit was neat, but I particularly enjoyed "Cleaning Up," a fun story where the very technologically advanced trash of an alien civilization is accidentally being deposited on Earth. There are lots of funny bits, some good black comedy, and an ending I didn't see coming. (If the advanced civilization here is the Culture, though, this book is definitely not in continuity with "State of the Art.")
There was some non-sf, too, most notably "Piece," which is about religious radicalism. It also had an unexpected ending, though I think I would have seen it coming if I was less ignorant. I'm not sure what to think about it, to be honest: it feels a very earnest and off-the-cuff response to tragedy, with all the positives and negatives that implies.
I should say there were a couple tales I bounced off. "A Gift from the Culture" sort of meandered and didn't say much of interest, while "Odd Attachment" was just baffling. But you could have just put "The State of the Art" in here and this book would have been worth it, so I'm glad for the chance to experience the Culture for the first time, and to see this snapshot of the early Iain M. Banks.
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LibraryThing member livingtech
I think I enjoyed a few of the stories in this collection such that I would rate them a 4 or so, but the namesake of the book, which was by far the longest, was definitely only a 3 for me. It had moments that were interesting, and seeing the culture so brazenly clash with the earth of our time
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(more or less) was fascinating, but overall it was rather dull. I also didn’t agree with the culture’s ultimate decision to watch the earth without interfering. Maybe wishful thinking on my part, but I would like to think a civilization as advanced as the culture would (at least!) try and intervene on behalf of all the oppressed and exploited, destitute and suffering individuals on the planet. Show Less
LibraryThing member Mind_Booster_Noori
Great collection of Iain M. Banks short stories. Important read for anyone following "The Culture" saga.
LibraryThing member m.a.harding
Some of the stories are perhaps a bit ropey. But 'State Of the Art' has to be one of the great SF novellas. And 'Piece' is a great mainstream short story.
LibraryThing member pauliharman
An interesting collection of stories by the new master of Space Opera
LibraryThing member DRFP
These shorts feel a lot like throw away pieces. They're not bad but they feel too loose to have had any real effort put into them. Even the titular novella is lacking in surprises. It's a decent yarn but it ticks all the boxes you'd expect of a Culture story set on Earth without throwing up
As a result I'm not sure there's anything really "must read" in this collection, even for fans of the Culture. People wanting to dip their toe into the water and see if Banks is for them should try his novels which, even the flawed ones, feel more accomplished that this collection.
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anything too unexpected (perhaps with the exception of it showcasing a rather nasty side to the Culture on occasion). The novella was interesting but felt rather by the book.As a result I'm not sure there's anything really "must read" in this collection, even for fans of the Culture. People wanting to dip their toe into the water and see if Banks is for them should try his novels which, even the flawed ones, feel more accomplished that this collection.
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LibraryThing member name99
Oh god, horrible, horrible, horrible.
The short stories are mostly pretentious literary crap.
The novella feels like an Ayn Rand rant (not the content but the ultra-didactice style).
If you avoid just one Iain M Banks book in your life, make sure this is it.
The short stories are mostly pretentious literary crap.
The novella feels like an Ayn Rand rant (not the content but the ultra-didactice style).
If you avoid just one Iain M Banks book in your life, make sure this is it.
LibraryThing member KateSherrod
The audio adaptation of the title story is EXCEPTIONAL.
LibraryThing member endolith
Pretty good stories.
My favorite story was Descendant: man and his spacesuit trying to save each other's lives. I think it could make a good film. One actor, a spacesuit, a voice actor, and the desert. Nothing else. It's got a lot of internal monologue, but I think it could be made to work.
The
Stream of consciousness stuff at the end was a difficult slog. It's good when he does small bits of this in the middle of a story, but not a whole story of it.
My favorite story was Descendant: man and his spacesuit trying to save each other's lives. I think it could make a good film. One actor, a spacesuit, a voice actor, and the desert. Nothing else. It's got a lot of internal monologue, but I think it could be made to work.
The
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campaign for captain of the ship in State of the Art was kind of out of place and annoying to read.Stream of consciousness stuff at the end was a difficult slog. It's good when he does small bits of this in the middle of a story, but not a whole story of it.
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LibraryThing member rivkat
This collection of stories includes a novella of the Culture about a Culture ship’s visit to 1970s Earth. I found it mostly devoid of the humor and complexity that Banks offers at his best; the shorter stories, in particular, tended towards gotcha-type affairs with nothing much to offer – a
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plant intelligence encounters an explorer (human or humanoid) new to the planet and, not even considering the possibility of communication, plucks its extremities off in a “loves me, loves me not�Â? childâÂÂs game. And thatâÂÂs it. I guess the concept is okay â a version of âÂÂboys throw stones at frogs for sport, but the frogs die in earnestâÂ? â but the execution offered nothing more subtle than my one-sentence summary. Show Less
LibraryThing member santhony
This is a collection of short stories written by Iain Banks. The title work, State of the Art, approaches novella length, and is one of two stories in the collection that can be identified as Culture. As a result, it is included in the Culture series, though its inclusion is debatable. There are
Road of Skulls- Five pages long. The story is about nothing and goes nowhere.
A Gift from the Culture- As the name implies, this story takes place in the Culture universe. A Culture man has denounced his Culture “citizenship” and settled on a non-Culture planet. By virtue of his Culture “status”, he is uniquely qualified to commit an act of terrorism using a Culture weapon.
Odd Attachment- Six pages long. Nothing special.
Descendant- This is a very good story about the survivor of a spaceship crash that is forced to walk across a planet to reach civilization. He is assisted by an AI space suit. This is the best story in the collection.
Cleaning Up- A technologically superior civilization mistakenly transports its “trash” to 20th century Cold War Earth. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Pretty good story.
Piece- Eight page long look at religious fundamentalism and terrorism with a nice twist at the end.
The State of the Art- The title work, and by far the longest in the collection. The Contact section of Culture discovers and assesses 20th century Earth, for possible “contact”. Diziet Sma, a character in Use of Weapons, is the main protagonist in the story.
Scratch- Stream of consciousness garbage.
In assigning a rating for the work as a whole, it is not enough to simply average the ratings of the stories, since the worst pieces are the shortest. There is one VERY good short story, four decent efforts, and three throw aways, all of which are very short, hence the overall rating of 7/10.
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eight stories in the collection, some far too short to engage the reader.Road of Skulls- Five pages long. The story is about nothing and goes nowhere.
A Gift from the Culture- As the name implies, this story takes place in the Culture universe. A Culture man has denounced his Culture “citizenship” and settled on a non-Culture planet. By virtue of his Culture “status”, he is uniquely qualified to commit an act of terrorism using a Culture weapon.
Odd Attachment- Six pages long. Nothing special.
Descendant- This is a very good story about the survivor of a spaceship crash that is forced to walk across a planet to reach civilization. He is assisted by an AI space suit. This is the best story in the collection.
Cleaning Up- A technologically superior civilization mistakenly transports its “trash” to 20th century Cold War Earth. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Pretty good story.
Piece- Eight page long look at religious fundamentalism and terrorism with a nice twist at the end.
The State of the Art- The title work, and by far the longest in the collection. The Contact section of Culture discovers and assesses 20th century Earth, for possible “contact”. Diziet Sma, a character in Use of Weapons, is the main protagonist in the story.
Scratch- Stream of consciousness garbage.
In assigning a rating for the work as a whole, it is not enough to simply average the ratings of the stories, since the worst pieces are the shortest. There is one VERY good short story, four decent efforts, and three throw aways, all of which are very short, hence the overall rating of 7/10.
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LibraryThing member elenchus
THE CULTURE: BOOK 4 | The State Of The Art
In lieu of a Culture novel, a collection of short stories, two explicitly set in the Culture universe, a third including strong parallels without stating the connection, plus (in some editions) an essay.
The narrative perspectives vary by individual story;
Evidently most editions omit the essay "A Few Notes On The Culture", for me the chief reason for seeking out this collection. It was included in a limited US edition of the story collection, and a Canadian trade edition, accounting for my belief it was included generally. Separately it was posted on an online public message board. I'll review the essay separately as it was not included in the edition I read. (The essay "A Few Notes On Marain" was never included in any edition of The State Of The Art.)
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A plasma weapon is given a Brain Value rating, indicative of its level of AI functionality. Some weapons evidently are sentient or near-sentient.
Sma claims there are a million or so GCUs in existence, and that a certain shipyard makes odd ones and names several examples: do any appear in Culture novels?
Cantankerous / Only Slightly Bent / I Thought He Was With You / Space Monster / A Series Of Unlikely Explanations / Big Sexy Beast / Never Talk To Strangers / It'll Be Over By Christmas / Funny, It Worked Last Time… / Boo! / Ultimate Ship The Second
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SYNOPSIS | Both confirmed Culture stories address a basic problem in post-scarcity Culture (for its individual citizens): making one's life meaningful, and the concomitant preoccupation with flexibility and variation in order to avoid boredom. Because immortality effectively is available to every (?) Culture citizen, boredom recurs among various characters over the course of the novels and stories.
● "A Gift From The Culture"
Wrobik, a Culture citizen who voluntarily left out of frustration (essentially choosing to leave the situation providing the choice) is manipulated into political violence by using a Culture weapon (the titular gift) to pay off her gambling debts.
● "Descendant"
Not explicitly Culture but references standard technology such as knife missiles and orbitals; a poignant scenario featuring a marooned human and its sentient suit.
● "State Of The Art"
Mind visiting Earth decides against intervention, leaving it as part of the Control Group in its research on Culture interference. The Earth depicted evidently is not an alternate history or future timeline, as various historical events (primarily calamities and occurrences of genocide and terror) are discussed. The story embodies my preoccupation with the outlines of the Culture itself, and the moral implications of living in it.
In lieu of a Culture novel, a collection of short stories, two explicitly set in the Culture universe, a third including strong parallels without stating the connection, plus (in some editions) an essay.
The narrative perspectives vary by individual story;
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and, several stories were published or presented prior to inclusion here. No over-arching structure, nor did Banks create any "connecting tissue" linking the stories or commenting upon them. Banks does insert some meta-content into perspectives used for both Culture stories, similar to his playing with genre expectations in prior Culture novels. In the novella, for example, the basic story is narrated by Diziet Sma, but the reader finds at the end it has been transcribed (and edited?) by Skaffen-Amtiskaw, both characters from the novel, Use of Weapons.Evidently most editions omit the essay "A Few Notes On The Culture", for me the chief reason for seeking out this collection. It was included in a limited US edition of the story collection, and a Canadian trade edition, accounting for my belief it was included generally. Separately it was posted on an online public message board. I'll review the essay separately as it was not included in the edition I read. (The essay "A Few Notes On Marain" was never included in any edition of The State Of The Art.)
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A plasma weapon is given a Brain Value rating, indicative of its level of AI functionality. Some weapons evidently are sentient or near-sentient.
Sma claims there are a million or so GCUs in existence, and that a certain shipyard makes odd ones and names several examples: do any appear in Culture novels?
Cantankerous / Only Slightly Bent / I Thought He Was With You / Space Monster / A Series Of Unlikely Explanations / Big Sexy Beast / Never Talk To Strangers / It'll Be Over By Christmas / Funny, It Worked Last Time… / Boo! / Ultimate Ship The Second
//
SYNOPSIS | Both confirmed Culture stories address a basic problem in post-scarcity Culture (for its individual citizens): making one's life meaningful, and the concomitant preoccupation with flexibility and variation in order to avoid boredom. Because immortality effectively is available to every (?) Culture citizen, boredom recurs among various characters over the course of the novels and stories.
● "A Gift From The Culture"
Wrobik, a Culture citizen who voluntarily left out of frustration (essentially choosing to leave the situation providing the choice) is manipulated into political violence by using a Culture weapon (the titular gift) to pay off her gambling debts.
● "Descendant"
Not explicitly Culture but references standard technology such as knife missiles and orbitals; a poignant scenario featuring a marooned human and its sentient suit.
● "State Of The Art"
Mind visiting Earth decides against intervention, leaving it as part of the Control Group in its research on Culture interference. The Earth depicted evidently is not an alternate history or future timeline, as various historical events (primarily calamities and occurrences of genocide and terror) are discussed. The story embodies my preoccupation with the outlines of the Culture itself, and the moral implications of living in it.
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LibraryThing member Kavinay
Banks has this unique ability to unflinchingly drop you into disorienting contexts and let you make sense of the alien where most authors would just bombard you with exposition.
LibraryThing member elahrairah
A fine collection of stories, but not a perfect one! Road of Skulls is funny. A Gift From the Culture is dark and depressing. Odd Attachment is silly. Descendant is dark and beautiful. Cleaning Up is silly and funny. Piece is noteworthy only for the punchline. The State of the Art is a good piece
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but situating Earth within the Culture universe so early in the Culture's run meant that he lost the chance to make better points later on. Finally Scratch is nonsense and that's the point. Show Less
LibraryThing member CraigGoodwin
When its good it is very good, but some fairly patchy stories (probably deliberately so).
Some genuinely engaging characters and an enjoyable read overall.
Some genuinely engaging characters and an enjoyable read overall.
LibraryThing member jercox
Collection of short stories. None were outstanding, and the culture novella the collection is named from was one of his least compelling stories that I have read in that world.
LibraryThing member sundowneruk
A great collection of very varied stories. I really enjoyed this book
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1991
Physical description
224 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
1857230302 / 9781857230307