Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Orbit (1992), Edition: New Ed, Paperback
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks and military action. The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought. The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a lost cause. But not even its machine could see the horrors in his past. Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, USE OF WEAPONS is a masterpiece of science fiction..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member LizzieD
Oh my! I finished Iain M. Banks's Use of Weapons yesterday, and I'm still blown away. I enjoyed it as much as [u]Excession[/] which had been my favorite up to this point and for different reasons. *E* is much more "about" the Culture. This book is "about" the Culture indirectly in how it
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manipulates other cultures in their wars and government. Cheradenine Zakalwe (I'm trying to spell these names without looking at the book. Didn't work; I got it wrong. Like other good writers Banks makes characters' names just that little bit unlike naturally occurring syllables in English which gives them an alien edge.) is the weapon of the Culture's Special Circumstances division that handles "moral espionage." His handler is Diziet Sma, who with her snarky drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw, puts him into and pulls him out of military actions. Through flashbacks which occur every other chapter, we learn more and more about Zakalwe's past, and so learn more and more about what has shaped him. The appeal of this book is in the character of Zakalwe. He isn't necessarily appealing, but I did find myself pulling for him and hoping that he might find some peace in the end. The climax came as a complete surprise. If I had five stars to give, I'd give this one six! Show Less
LibraryThing member RobertDay
In my memorial re-read of Banks' Culture novels, I came to 'Use of Weapons' after a gap of more than twenty years. It remains a tour de force. The alternating timelines do take a little getting used to, but the trick is not to worry about the historical timeline running backwards through the novel
As with 'Consider Phlebas', re-reading the novel brought out aspects that would not be so clear on a a first read. In "Consider Phlebas", it was the opening sentence "The ship didn't even have a name", which means nothing on a first read, but knowing what we now do about Culture ships and the peculiarities of their naming, becomes a jaw-dropper. In "Use of weapons", the re-reader's senses aren't sledgehammered in quite the same way, but the chair motif becomes very obvious once you know to look for it. (And in case you failed to appreciate it, the UK paperback has actually got a chair on the cover. Nought out of ten for not spoon-feeding the reader, there...)
Cheradanine Zakalwe is the ultimate mercenary, a man of resourcefulness mixed with martial skills, wit and not a little compassion - though that compassion does have its limits, and other characters do well not to cross those limits. Yet I found many aspects of him echoed Banks' own personality - the dry humour, the hotel explorations (this I can personally vouch for) and the attempts to write poetry. There is a lot of humour in this book - the Culture operative Diziet Sma and her side-kick drone Skeffan-Amtiskaw are a great double act.
As with so many Banks novels, there is a twist at the end (a double twist, in fact), though Zakalwe's choice of alias in the middle of the book does make one wonder a little, and might be considered to be a bit of a spoiler. But Banks plays a blinder with one of the books' other motifs and the resolution of that motif, and the kernel of the character, still comes as a shock and a surprise.
My Orbit 2nd impression hardback was not proof-read; someone ran a spell-checker on the MS but didn't understand the limitations spell-checkers have. In a few places, I had to read back over a couple of lines to get the context so I could figure out the likeliest word that Banks meant to put instead of what the publisher ended up printing. Still, despite my muttering darkly over some of the errors, it did not spoil my enjoyment of what I suspect Banks himself thought of as "a humongous great Culture romp". This is certainly one of the prime candidates for that honour.
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because I very quickly got used to it; and, like human memory, past events referred to in the present don't have to fit into a framework but exist quite happily on their own.As with 'Consider Phlebas', re-reading the novel brought out aspects that would not be so clear on a a first read. In "Consider Phlebas", it was the opening sentence "The ship didn't even have a name", which means nothing on a first read, but knowing what we now do about Culture ships and the peculiarities of their naming, becomes a jaw-dropper. In "Use of weapons", the re-reader's senses aren't sledgehammered in quite the same way, but the chair motif becomes very obvious once you know to look for it. (And in case you failed to appreciate it, the UK paperback has actually got a chair on the cover. Nought out of ten for not spoon-feeding the reader, there...)
Cheradanine Zakalwe is the ultimate mercenary, a man of resourcefulness mixed with martial skills, wit and not a little compassion - though that compassion does have its limits, and other characters do well not to cross those limits. Yet I found many aspects of him echoed Banks' own personality - the dry humour, the hotel explorations (this I can personally vouch for) and the attempts to write poetry. There is a lot of humour in this book - the Culture operative Diziet Sma and her side-kick drone Skeffan-Amtiskaw are a great double act.
As with so many Banks novels, there is a twist at the end (a double twist, in fact), though Zakalwe's choice of alias in the middle of the book does make one wonder a little, and might be considered to be a bit of a spoiler. But Banks plays a blinder with one of the books' other motifs and the resolution of that motif, and the kernel of the character, still comes as a shock and a surprise.
My Orbit 2nd impression hardback was not proof-read; someone ran a spell-checker on the MS but didn't understand the limitations spell-checkers have. In a few places, I had to read back over a couple of lines to get the context so I could figure out the likeliest word that Banks meant to put instead of what the publisher ended up printing. Still, despite my muttering darkly over some of the errors, it did not spoil my enjoyment of what I suspect Banks himself thought of as "a humongous great Culture romp". This is certainly one of the prime candidates for that honour.
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LibraryThing member trandism
Cheradenine Zakalwe is a mercenary, an expert on soldiering and commanding armies who works occasionally for Special Circmustances - the Culture's equivalent of Secret Services - interfering incognito into the affairs of other lesser civilizations. His price stays the same throughout the years.
His latest mission involves finding and bringing out an old scholar who lives like a hermit in the University of an old City. He is the key figure in order to avoid a full scale war, ideological at its source, between those who believe machines have souls and those who don't. A war that threatens to drive a whole Cluster of stars and planets to chaos.
But Zakalwe's past is full of horrors that haunt his very existence. Missions from the past, the way he got Contacted by the Culture's agents and above all his family story and a war he fought himself - his first war -, not for the Culture, but for the existence and prosperity of his own people.
A superbly written story with an unexpected twist in the end. Space Opera at its finest!
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Money, youth and the chance to meet his sister Livueta, a ghost from his past.His latest mission involves finding and bringing out an old scholar who lives like a hermit in the University of an old City. He is the key figure in order to avoid a full scale war, ideological at its source, between those who believe machines have souls and those who don't. A war that threatens to drive a whole Cluster of stars and planets to chaos.
But Zakalwe's past is full of horrors that haunt his very existence. Missions from the past, the way he got Contacted by the Culture's agents and above all his family story and a war he fought himself - his first war -, not for the Culture, but for the existence and prosperity of his own people.
A superbly written story with an unexpected twist in the end. Space Opera at its finest!
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LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
Another solid, well-written, and often thoughtful novel in the "Culture" series. This time our protagonist is a mercenary called Zakalwe who makes his living doing the Culture's dirty work. He finds himself in a dusty outpost of a planet fighting a relatively low-tech, low-stakes conflict, haunted
I also rather liked the fact that "Use of Weapons" resembles many other modern war stories in that, despite our main characters' centrality to his own story and his heroic efforts, he finds himself, at the end of the day, to be something of a bit player in a conflict he cannot influence or understand. This is a pretty subtle take on what I suspect is often the reality of mechanized warfare, and it's a welcome contrast to a book that, despite its best efforts, often seems too loud and flashy for its own good. I think, honestly, that my beef might be with the science fiction genre as a whole. Despite the writer's obvious talent and the obvious care that he put into his narrative, Zakalwe comes off as terribly similar to many other modern science fiction heroes: that is, a near-invincible cybernetic superman troubled by a tragic past whose scars won't heal. It doesn't sound so bad when you put it that way, but there aren't any emotions here that aren't amped up to eleven and, after a while, that gets sort of wearying. The best I can say is that Banks's talent for describing the more mundane aspects of a super-advanced society and his decision to set "Use of Weapons" on an arid planet in a sleepy, distant part of the galaxy does tend to even things out. I liked this one, sure, but I may be approaching my limit for these kinds of books. Maybe I should go read some Dickens or something.
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by past failures and a troubled, tragic childhood marred by unspeakable violence. There are, as usual, lots of nice touches here. Along with his curiously fascinating accounts of wartime strategy and bureaucratic maneuvering, the author's account of his main character's backstory allows him to describe a dreamlike privileged childhood and, eventually, some especially grisly body horror. Mutilation's a theme that recurs throughout this book, so readers with weak stomachs are duly warned. We also get a formidable alpha female boss character and a touching sequence in which Zakalwe becomes a hermit to cope with the tragic outcome of a mission gone wrong. Banks's prose here is as flowing and as pleasing as ever.I also rather liked the fact that "Use of Weapons" resembles many other modern war stories in that, despite our main characters' centrality to his own story and his heroic efforts, he finds himself, at the end of the day, to be something of a bit player in a conflict he cannot influence or understand. This is a pretty subtle take on what I suspect is often the reality of mechanized warfare, and it's a welcome contrast to a book that, despite its best efforts, often seems too loud and flashy for its own good. I think, honestly, that my beef might be with the science fiction genre as a whole. Despite the writer's obvious talent and the obvious care that he put into his narrative, Zakalwe comes off as terribly similar to many other modern science fiction heroes: that is, a near-invincible cybernetic superman troubled by a tragic past whose scars won't heal. It doesn't sound so bad when you put it that way, but there aren't any emotions here that aren't amped up to eleven and, after a while, that gets sort of wearying. The best I can say is that Banks's talent for describing the more mundane aspects of a super-advanced society and his decision to set "Use of Weapons" on an arid planet in a sleepy, distant part of the galaxy does tend to even things out. I liked this one, sure, but I may be approaching my limit for these kinds of books. Maybe I should go read some Dickens or something.
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LibraryThing member baswood
The third book in Bank’s Culture science fiction series and a book that I had read perhaps twenty years ago. Unfortunately as soon as I started reading I remembered the twist at the end and so that element of the novel held no surprise for me. However knowing the ending enables the reader to
Cheradenine Zakalwe is the agent in this story and his minders are Diziet Sma a human operative and the drone (highly sophisticated thinking macine) Skaffen-Amtiskaw as in other books in the series the humans have a love/hate relationship with the machines. This particular novel in the series is more concerned with telling an exciting story than exploring the relationship between the humans and the machines. Banks fills in the back story of Zakalwe by telling stories within the central story of some of his previous missions and they are exciting tales in their own write and build up to the climax of the final twist in the tale. Banks is a good thriller writer and his hero’s have to undergo extreme physical privations; usually viscerally described before they can be allowed to escape: in this novel Zakalwe is decapitated before eventually being rescued.
It has to be said that some of the stories are starting to get a bit familiar, but perhaps the strong central story is enough to see this book through. I was hoping that Banks would explore further the relationship between the machines and the humans, but apart from a conversation between Zakalwe and Tsoldrin (the man who he is on a mission to rescue) any deeper probing gives way to the adventure story with Zakalwe shrugging his shoulders and saying “I never try to second guess the Culture” There was enough in the imaginative writing of Banks to keep me interested, but only just for this second reading of the novel. Twenty years ago I would have probably rated this novel as 3.5 stars but today only three.
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search for clues as one reads, but I did not discover much that was new. Having read the first two books in the series I was able to appreciate the world view of the Culture and how it operated. A force for good perhaps where humans species are heavily reliant on the thinking machines that they had created, but who now seemed to be used by the machines rather than being in control themselves. Much like the previous two books the story concerns a human agent who is employed by the Culture to carry out missions in the galaxy, he has little knowledge of the bigger picture and his objectives are not always clear. Banks has created an interesting scenario in which to place his stories and his hero’s struggle to make sense of what they are trying to achieve, but know that the superior technology of the Culture may be able to whisk them away if events turn very nasty.Cheradenine Zakalwe is the agent in this story and his minders are Diziet Sma a human operative and the drone (highly sophisticated thinking macine) Skaffen-Amtiskaw as in other books in the series the humans have a love/hate relationship with the machines. This particular novel in the series is more concerned with telling an exciting story than exploring the relationship between the humans and the machines. Banks fills in the back story of Zakalwe by telling stories within the central story of some of his previous missions and they are exciting tales in their own write and build up to the climax of the final twist in the tale. Banks is a good thriller writer and his hero’s have to undergo extreme physical privations; usually viscerally described before they can be allowed to escape: in this novel Zakalwe is decapitated before eventually being rescued.
It has to be said that some of the stories are starting to get a bit familiar, but perhaps the strong central story is enough to see this book through. I was hoping that Banks would explore further the relationship between the machines and the humans, but apart from a conversation between Zakalwe and Tsoldrin (the man who he is on a mission to rescue) any deeper probing gives way to the adventure story with Zakalwe shrugging his shoulders and saying “I never try to second guess the Culture” There was enough in the imaginative writing of Banks to keep me interested, but only just for this second reading of the novel. Twenty years ago I would have probably rated this novel as 3.5 stars but today only three.
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LibraryThing member crop
For a novel in the Culture series, the events in the book don't particularly rely on happening of and within the Culture; most of the story really could have been set in any generic future (or even present) setting. (Turns out that most of it was written before the author had even fully conceived
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the Culture, and it shows.) The book's construction, a Tarantino-style disjunct chronology, serves it well enough (even though I'm not fond of the technique), but by the time the big reveal came around, I just didn't care all that much for the main characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member Vvolodymyr
This was my second book by Iain M. Banks. The first one being The Algebraist which I liked.
I made 2 crucial mistakes! :
1) I did not check to see that this was a 3rd book in a series, which robbed me of the not necessarily obligatory, but at least orientating background information on the Culture
2) I did not take a good look at the Contents page!
The Author alternated the pieces of the main story and flashbacks into the past. Except the flashbacks are going backwards in time from more recent going towards the beginning of the main character's ordeal.
Therefore it was very confusing until about halfway when I more or less got my bearings (and only later discovering the contents page LOL).
In the end though, I did realize the value in structuring book that way.
As far as the story goes, - the author did try to paint a wide picture across many worlds, many conflicts (in the "flashback" portions), but in my mind they did not gel together into one cohesive whole, and only the main story-line went on smoothly. But towards the last chapters - the story really triumphed, melded together, and then surprised me quite unexpectedly (even disturbed a bit).
And only upon completing the book did I start liking it a lot, and went back thinking to different moments of the story, trying to tease out more connections, meanings, reasons.
So - YES - it IS worth persevering towards the very end!
I made 2 crucial mistakes! :
1) I did not check to see that this was a 3rd book in a series, which robbed me of the not necessarily obligatory, but at least orientating background information on the Culture
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universe.2) I did not take a good look at the Contents page!
The Author alternated the pieces of the main story and flashbacks into the past. Except the flashbacks are going backwards in time from more recent going towards the beginning of the main character's ordeal.
Therefore it was very confusing until about halfway when I more or less got my bearings (and only later discovering the contents page LOL).
In the end though, I did realize the value in structuring book that way.
As far as the story goes, - the author did try to paint a wide picture across many worlds, many conflicts (in the "flashback" portions), but in my mind they did not gel together into one cohesive whole, and only the main story-line went on smoothly. But towards the last chapters - the story really triumphed, melded together, and then surprised me quite unexpectedly (even disturbed a bit).
And only upon completing the book did I start liking it a lot, and went back thinking to different moments of the story, trying to tease out more connections, meanings, reasons.
So - YES - it IS worth persevering towards the very end!
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LibraryThing member brightcopy
While the ending is quite a payoff, I felt that a lot of the story leading up to it is a bit too scattershot. The book tells the story of the main character by alternating between several different time periods in his life. I took less than a month to read the book; if I had read it over a longer
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period of time I feel like I might have easily lost the various threads. And this would be a shame due to the ending. These threads also effected the pacing. They made it difficult to really feel much of a plot building as the book progressed. I can understand the effect the author was going for, but I don't think it was completely successful. That said, persevering to the end makes up for a lot of these shortcomings. Show Less
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
The third of Ian Banks' Culture novels concerns an agent Zakalwe recruited for chiefly military work by the Culture's Special Circumstances operative Sma. Zakalwe is not himself a Culture man, nor is he especially sympathetic at his best, and in some ways this book felt like a return to the form of
The chronological structure of Use of Weapons is curious and effective. It alternates two series of numbered chapters, one running forward in time and counting up (One, Two, Three ...), the other running backward and counting down (XIII, XII, XI ...). The earliest episode of the novel takes place at its midpoint in chapter VII during a set of flashbacks, but these are not given their full context until the end of the book. The most recent events are set into bracketing Prologue and Epilogue passages, along with a short postfactory chapter "States of War."
This volume was for some reason longer than I had expected it to be, and although it read at a good pace, it took a lot of attention to complete. I'm looking forward to the change of tempo offered by the next in the series, State of the Art, which collects short stories in the Culture setting.
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the first book Consider Phlebas, with the viewpoint agent working for the Culture this time rather than against it. The chapter IV that described Zakalwe's first integration into the Culture was the most straightforward of such passages in the books so far. The chronological structure of Use of Weapons is curious and effective. It alternates two series of numbered chapters, one running forward in time and counting up (One, Two, Three ...), the other running backward and counting down (XIII, XII, XI ...). The earliest episode of the novel takes place at its midpoint in chapter VII during a set of flashbacks, but these are not given their full context until the end of the book. The most recent events are set into bracketing Prologue and Epilogue passages, along with a short postfactory chapter "States of War."
This volume was for some reason longer than I had expected it to be, and although it read at a good pace, it took a lot of attention to complete. I'm looking forward to the change of tempo offered by the next in the series, State of the Art, which collects short stories in the Culture setting.
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LibraryThing member NormalMostly
What a mess. Love the first two books, hate this one. Could not care less about the characters or the conflict, and the big reveal at the end? So what? Highly rated but I just don't get it. Painful 1 star.
LibraryThing member psiloiordinary
Now well into his "Culture" universe stride.
Clever, violent and intensely ambiguous at times, Banks is now perfecting his technique. Time in the story always seems to pass at "real time" rates for me. Perhaps it's because the writing draws me in and I end up whizzing through the book very quickly,
A slightly confusing mixed up narrative flow with flash backs and flash forwards, didn't add anything to the read for me.
He now starts to touch on morality with a deft flourish which he will use more in later works.
A cracking good read
Clever, violent and intensely ambiguous at times, Banks is now perfecting his technique. Time in the story always seems to pass at "real time" rates for me. Perhaps it's because the writing draws me in and I end up whizzing through the book very quickly,
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perhaps it is the fact that his descriptions are so realistic and almost diligent without being unduly detailed.A slightly confusing mixed up narrative flow with flash backs and flash forwards, didn't add anything to the read for me.
He now starts to touch on morality with a deft flourish which he will use more in later works.
A cracking good read
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LibraryThing member Cecrow
Not at all what I was expecting (a military clash among the stars), instead it's similar to the second book. This is another case study of a particular operative, with a heavier slant on revealing who the Culture likes to use and why, and not just what the missions cost that person but what it
I've got a couple of problems with the ending, but I never would have made it that far without enjoying the journey to get there so no real harm done. My problems:(1) I'm supposed to believe that a psychotic murderer who is capable of those horrors suddenly gives his head a shake and grows a large enough regret streak, a propos of nothing, to punish himself for 200 years. Also, taking the name of your world's most famous and now very dead general is not likely to be a successful disguise. Although calling yourself Napoleon does fit with being psychotic. Wait, forgot, you're not psychotic anymore, somehow. Or you've become the good kind of psychotic who's learned where to draw the line? How? Why? (2) This one's far more technical. British fiction makes an allowance for point-of-view changes mid-paragraph that North American editors don't tolerate. As an NA reader I'm not fond of it so, when Banks employs it, I grimace but overlook it. Turns out the trick ending hinges on how he used this style. The very thing I was supposed to pay attention to for maximum enjoyment of that ending, I was purposely not doing so for the sake of maximum enjoyment during. On the good side, Banks makes a strong case here for how confusing and silly it is to allow an author to switch points of view so haphazardly. It practically asks to be taken unfair advantage of, which is exactly what he did.
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costs to be qualified in the first place. It's a slow burner but Banks is endlessly creative at expanding and deepening his universe. His drones are always my favourite characters, and it's no exception here.I've got a couple of problems with the ending, but I never would have made it that far without enjoying the journey to get there so no real harm done. My problems:
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LibraryThing member Phrim
Use of Weapons tells the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe, a secret agent for a utopian society known as the Culture. His job is to infiltrate less-advanced civilizations and steer their society ideals to align more with those of the Culture. It becomes clear early on that the "weapon" referred to by
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the title is Zakalwe himself, as the narrative flips back and forth between his current mission and his past exploits. While the Culture itself presents itself as utopian, it flagrantly abuses both the other civilizations it comes in contact with, as well as its own agents like Zakalwe whose mental health can be described as questionable on his best day. The effect surfaces the question of whether the end justifies the means. The end features a twist that took me by surprise, but further made the point as one realizes that the Culture likely does not care one bit. On the whole, this was a bit of a difficult read both because it was pretty depressing and because the narrative time jumps were a bit hard to follow, but it certainly did make its point. Show Less
LibraryThing member grizzly.anderson
Re-reading this after many, many years, I had completely forgotten the ending, and most of the story. As a result the ending pretty well blind sided me, and I think makes its point very well.
The story takes place within the universe of The Culture, but the ships and the manipulative cliques don't
The story takes place within the universe of The Culture, but the ships and the manipulative cliques don't
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play much of a role in the story. Instead it is an analysis of the morality of the ends justify the means. Zakalwe, the main character is an agent for Special Circumstances, helping to "fix" civilizations make things go the way The Culture and SC want. To do that, he uses whatever weapons - people, events, resources - are available. And SC uses him as a weapon. In the end, you have to ask, how responsible is the wielder for what a weapon does, especially when the weapon has a will of its own, and how valid is a result achieved at any cost? Show Less
LibraryThing member elenchus
THE CULTURE: BOOK 3 | Use Of Weapons
Like the preceding books, Weapons is narrated in 3P omniscient, primarily following two sets of characters: the first a mercenary hired by Special Circumstances (so complicit with Culture and to a significant extent of it, but not precisely for it); the second,
I read from the 1992 UK edition (Orbit paperback), no supplements. Allegedly Banks wrote the basic story prior to inventing the Culture universe, and retconned it for publication; there was no editorial commentary providing detail on that.
Originally believed this to be my first Culture novel, read circa 2005; but upon finishing think I had not read this one. Precisely my decision to read through Culture in order.
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Banks continues with the unorthodox format in this third Culture novel, this time interleaving chapters from two separate storylines, and sequencing the second storyline back to front. He's clever about it: no explicit mention or accounting of it, but the storylines are numbered separately (one in Arabic, the other in Roman numerals), and the second storyline's opening chapter is Chapter XIII. Not all Culture books have a Table of Contents, I suspect this one does to help clarify this structure. (I was reminded of Michel Gondry's striking music video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" but could never quite wrap my head around Banks's intertwined plot lines, to ascertain whether anything similar was happening.)
Banks adds a few wrinkles, perhaps prompted when editing the story to fit the Culture universe. There are a confusing number of prologues and epilogues; and one (a prologue) situated "out of place", as it were. For reference, characters named in these include: Diziet Sma; Cullis & Zakalwe (unclear if the original or the "enfranchised" version of the mercenary); Shias Engin (relating the same vignette between Cullis & Zakalwe); Diziet Sma & Mr Escoerea. The shifts in narration between these separate bits suggest that one or more of these names may refer to the same person, or persons.
But the use of any weapon raises moral questions. {1} Phrased this way, the title is clever and pointed, not entirely "what it says on the tin", but a nod to Banks's continued reflection on the place of coercion and violence in a society purporting to be peaceful and inclusive. Flashbacks and characters telling stories offer plenty of opportunity to comment on various moral dilemmas and scenarios. [viz 160] At one point, a vignette in which Zakalwe becomes a reclusive poet, peaceful, and accidentally kills a bird's eggs so then mercy-kills the hen, subsequently giving up being a poet as futile -- and wraps all this up, just before abandoning his reclusive life, by killing an overseer whom he had watched beat & mutilate an enslaved person attempting to escape. This entire episode echoes an earlier part of Zakalwe's backstory, with a human despot replacing the bird. The novel is rife with these moral-tales-on-morality, or parables, both large and small.
As the Culture looks out at the less-sophisticated parts of the galaxy, it sees so much unnecessary misery and cruelty. War, despotism, disease, violence. Occasionally, the opportunity arises to help - discreetly, with carefully placed interventions.
and
helping other societies seems to go along with imposing the Culture's values on them. {1} This novel (it is early in the series) suggests that Culture's mission statements are marketing and aspirational, more than they are descriptions of standard procedure. Certainly, we meet many characters who appear to believe precisely that.
Some additional details on Culture tech, including body augmentation and glanding (snap, calm, and recall mentioned specifically); and colour-denoted emotions for drones ("olive & purple" a favourite, indicating awe). Evidently CSV's are large and complex enough that not one but three Minds control it. New ship configurations included a Demilitarised Rapid Offensive Unit (Xenophobe); and other named Minds include GSVs Congenital Optimist and What Are The Civilian Applications; CSV Size Isn't Everything; GOV Sweet And Full Of Grace; GCU Very Little Gravitas Indeed; and unspecified classes Just Testing and Absent Friends.
At one point it's stated that Culture doesn't have (economic) inflation -- which I suppose is implied by the post-scarcity structure, but I would not have inferred that on my own. At two points, Earth is referenced explicitly (a date in the "Khmer calendar" in a Prologue, a reference to U.S. corporal punishment in Chapter V) -- the first confirmation that Earth is included in the Culture universe.
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SYNOPSIS | A Culture mercenary, Zakalwe, is brought out of retirement to help avoid interstellar war following collapse in negotiations. In flashback we get backstory from some of Zakalwe's prior missions, as well as something that happened before he worked for Diziet Sma and Skaffen-Amtiskaw, his Culture handlers. It all comes crashing together at the end, a twist with a sting in its tale.
{1} dukedom_enough LT review for Use of Weapons
Like the preceding books, Weapons is narrated in 3P omniscient, primarily following two sets of characters: the first a mercenary hired by Special Circumstances (so complicit with Culture and to a significant extent of it, but not precisely for it); the second,
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the mercenary's SC handlers. One of these is pan-human, the other a drone. With the mercenary, Banks continues the precedent of narrating a Culture story from POV of someone not entirely aligned with the Culture, similar to Book 2. I vaguely recall a few brief sections which do not feature any of these three characters. I read from the 1992 UK edition (Orbit paperback), no supplements. Allegedly Banks wrote the basic story prior to inventing the Culture universe, and retconned it for publication; there was no editorial commentary providing detail on that.
Originally believed this to be my first Culture novel, read circa 2005; but upon finishing think I had not read this one. Precisely my decision to read through Culture in order.
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Banks continues with the unorthodox format in this third Culture novel, this time interleaving chapters from two separate storylines, and sequencing the second storyline back to front. He's clever about it: no explicit mention or accounting of it, but the storylines are numbered separately (one in Arabic, the other in Roman numerals), and the second storyline's opening chapter is Chapter XIII. Not all Culture books have a Table of Contents, I suspect this one does to help clarify this structure. (I was reminded of Michel Gondry's striking music video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" but could never quite wrap my head around Banks's intertwined plot lines, to ascertain whether anything similar was happening.)
Banks adds a few wrinkles, perhaps prompted when editing the story to fit the Culture universe. There are a confusing number of prologues and epilogues; and one (a prologue) situated "out of place", as it were. For reference, characters named in these include: Diziet Sma; Cullis & Zakalwe (unclear if the original or the "enfranchised" version of the mercenary); Shias Engin (relating the same vignette between Cullis & Zakalwe); Diziet Sma & Mr Escoerea. The shifts in narration between these separate bits suggest that one or more of these names may refer to the same person, or persons.
But the use of any weapon raises moral questions. {1} Phrased this way, the title is clever and pointed, not entirely "what it says on the tin", but a nod to Banks's continued reflection on the place of coercion and violence in a society purporting to be peaceful and inclusive. Flashbacks and characters telling stories offer plenty of opportunity to comment on various moral dilemmas and scenarios. [viz 160] At one point, a vignette in which Zakalwe becomes a reclusive poet, peaceful, and accidentally kills a bird's eggs so then mercy-kills the hen, subsequently giving up being a poet as futile -- and wraps all this up, just before abandoning his reclusive life, by killing an overseer whom he had watched beat & mutilate an enslaved person attempting to escape. This entire episode echoes an earlier part of Zakalwe's backstory, with a human despot replacing the bird. The novel is rife with these moral-tales-on-morality, or parables, both large and small.
As the Culture looks out at the less-sophisticated parts of the galaxy, it sees so much unnecessary misery and cruelty. War, despotism, disease, violence. Occasionally, the opportunity arises to help - discreetly, with carefully placed interventions.
and
helping other societies seems to go along with imposing the Culture's values on them. {1} This novel (it is early in the series) suggests that Culture's mission statements are marketing and aspirational, more than they are descriptions of standard procedure. Certainly, we meet many characters who appear to believe precisely that.
Some additional details on Culture tech, including body augmentation and glanding (snap, calm, and recall mentioned specifically); and colour-denoted emotions for drones ("olive & purple" a favourite, indicating awe). Evidently CSV's are large and complex enough that not one but three Minds control it. New ship configurations included a Demilitarised Rapid Offensive Unit (Xenophobe); and other named Minds include GSVs Congenital Optimist and What Are The Civilian Applications; CSV Size Isn't Everything; GOV Sweet And Full Of Grace; GCU Very Little Gravitas Indeed; and unspecified classes Just Testing and Absent Friends.
At one point it's stated that Culture doesn't have (economic) inflation -- which I suppose is implied by the post-scarcity structure, but I would not have inferred that on my own. At two points, Earth is referenced explicitly (a date in the "Khmer calendar" in a Prologue, a reference to U.S. corporal punishment in Chapter V) -- the first confirmation that Earth is included in the Culture universe.
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SYNOPSIS | A Culture mercenary, Zakalwe, is brought out of retirement to help avoid interstellar war following collapse in negotiations. In flashback we get backstory from some of Zakalwe's prior missions, as well as something that happened before he worked for Diziet Sma and Skaffen-Amtiskaw, his Culture handlers. It all comes crashing together at the end, a twist with a sting in its tale.
{1} dukedom_enough LT review for Use of Weapons
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LibraryThing member santhony
This is my second Culture novel, having recently finished A Player of Games. It would seem that these books largely stand on their own, so I’m not sure there is any value in reading them “in order”, or even reading all of them if one gets poor reviews. I felt A Player of Games gave a very
The Culture is a civilization set far in the future. It is utopian, with everlasting life and no scarcity of resources. In addition to humanoids, the Culture is populated by sentient artificial intelligence, both in the form of bots and ships. Any needs and even desires are met instantly. Interstellar travel is the norm, though there is no explanation for how this occurs or why there is no time dilation, as communication occurs easily, over many light years.
This novel largely focuses on two people. Most prominently featured is Cheradenine Zakalwe, a mercenary operating under the Special Circumstances branch of Culture. Zakalwe is called in whenever some especially dirty work needs to be done, primarily militarily, as “official” Culture operatives are seemingly disallowed from behaving in such a manner.
The second character is Diziet Sma, Zakalwe’s Culture handler, who dispatches and then frequently is forced to rescue him at the end of his assignments.
The book is a little bit hard to follow, as chapters alternate between the “current” assignment and flashbacks into Zakalwe’s past, which feature previous adventures and childhood memories. This became a problem for me, as I frequently read 20-30 pages/night, sometimes missing a day or two. That doesn’t work well with this book, which needs to be consumed in larger chunks over a shorter period of time, if one wants to maintain a grasp on the storyline.
Bottom line, I enjoyed A Player of Games quite a bit more, but will proceed with additional Culture novels.
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good background on the Culture universe, perhaps more so than this book, which actually had very little Culture background.The Culture is a civilization set far in the future. It is utopian, with everlasting life and no scarcity of resources. In addition to humanoids, the Culture is populated by sentient artificial intelligence, both in the form of bots and ships. Any needs and even desires are met instantly. Interstellar travel is the norm, though there is no explanation for how this occurs or why there is no time dilation, as communication occurs easily, over many light years.
This novel largely focuses on two people. Most prominently featured is Cheradenine Zakalwe, a mercenary operating under the Special Circumstances branch of Culture. Zakalwe is called in whenever some especially dirty work needs to be done, primarily militarily, as “official” Culture operatives are seemingly disallowed from behaving in such a manner.
The second character is Diziet Sma, Zakalwe’s Culture handler, who dispatches and then frequently is forced to rescue him at the end of his assignments.
The book is a little bit hard to follow, as chapters alternate between the “current” assignment and flashbacks into Zakalwe’s past, which feature previous adventures and childhood memories. This became a problem for me, as I frequently read 20-30 pages/night, sometimes missing a day or two. That doesn’t work well with this book, which needs to be consumed in larger chunks over a shorter period of time, if one wants to maintain a grasp on the storyline.
Bottom line, I enjoyed A Player of Games quite a bit more, but will proceed with additional Culture novels.
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LibraryThing member satanburger
Bam! Member # 2500. I enjoyed the first two novels in this series, but I enjoy this one even more so far. To be fair I haven't finished it, but I will re-review once that happens.
As it stands, this one seems a little more complex, although that might have something to do with the way the chapters
As it stands, this one seems a little more complex, although that might have something to do with the way the chapters
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are delved out to the reader. Needless to say I wish I could have fantasy perv'd out in the crew orgy to Sma's tender red genitalia. Show Less
LibraryThing member Zare
When it comes to Banks there are only two things that truly annoy me - unpronounceable character names and insistence on some weird elements of the future society. Fortunately this is not the case in this novel.
Like "Consider Phlebas" this one is action packed novel following a rather tragical
Excellent adventure. Highly recommended.
Like "Consider Phlebas" this one is action packed novel following a rather tragical
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character used as gun-for-hire by the Cultures equivalent of secret service. Story line is broken into two - one that goes from point A into the future and one that goes from the point A into the past - but nevertheless it is not difficult to follow and understand.Excellent adventure. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member DRFP
This seemed a step back after the excellent, The Player of Games, though an effort still better than the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas.
I thought the novel never quite gripped in the way it seemed it should. Zakalwe is never developed enough and the surprise near the end raises as many
Sma and Skaffen-Amtiskaw are the only other characters present throughout the novel but they're sadly under used. Sma never develops into the sort of dark character she could and, sadly, simply too little is seen of Skaffen-Amtiskaw whose (fully authorised) violent tendencies could have sat nicely next to Mawhrin-Skel's (from the previous Culture novel).
If poor use of its main characters is Use of Weapons' biggest failing then the plot isn't great either. Honestly, very little reason is given to care about what happens in Beychae's system. Full scale war might break out but so what? With the greater personal involvement of its characters the small scale events of TPoG felt much more important. Even Consider Phlebas, which I am not that keen on, felt like it had a plot with more at stake (even if that book admits that's not the case).
As mentioned above, Zakalwe's chapters aren't always that interesting either. Instead it's the odd good bit here and there that keeps you pushing through the novel. For instance, I very much enjoyed the all too brief time spent on the Xenophobe or the time spent with Zakalwe in the eyrie. It simply feels like there's too little imperative to the plot and the long time spent by Sma getting to Zakalwe in the present is cheapened by the fact he so readily agrees to take on the mission.
Well with plot and characters already done what's left? Banks's writing is decent but it felt more jumbled than in TPoG (and what with the abundance of unneccessary semi-colons?). The author's admission that this was an old story re-written perhaps explains why. Consider Phlebas, another old novel he got published some time after he first wrote it, seemed to suffer similar problems. If TPoG was written from scratch much later than these other two Culture novels it might explain why it seems so much better.
As usual, I've fallen into one of my traps - pointing out all the things I disliked without touching on the good. After all this it may seem as if I want to give UoW a mere half-star rating. Yet it is a lot better than that. The plot and characters could have done with more work but nothing in the book is bad. The story has its moments and the final revelations certainly make a lot of what came before more important, in retrospect. Possibly, when re-read the book might shine much brighter. However, I'd still like to read the rest of the Culture series first, so it might be a while before I get back to this one.
I thought the novel never quite gripped in the way it seemed it should. Zakalwe is never developed enough and the surprise near the end raises as many
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questions as it answers. The massive mood swings between chapters do not help: the Zakalwe of the "present" is rather happy to get on with things until near the end of the novel; by comparison the Zakalwe of the flashbacks is mired in angst and regret, which may be fair but that is hardly manifested in the present. I thought that contrast too jarring and the fact that a number of chapters devoted to his past have him drugged or in surreal situations further alienates him from the reader. Lastly, whilst we're dealing with the novel's main character, I thought Banks did a rather poor job of building suspense through Use of Weapons. We get that the chair and the battleship are big deals for Zakalwe but 3/4 of the novel had me thinking, "So what?" What the reader learns near the end does reveal a suitable horror but for much of the book it's too mystifying and you might, like me, testily wonder what all the fuss is about.Sma and Skaffen-Amtiskaw are the only other characters present throughout the novel but they're sadly under used. Sma never develops into the sort of dark character she could and, sadly, simply too little is seen of Skaffen-Amtiskaw whose (fully authorised) violent tendencies could have sat nicely next to Mawhrin-Skel's (from the previous Culture novel).
If poor use of its main characters is Use of Weapons' biggest failing then the plot isn't great either. Honestly, very little reason is given to care about what happens in Beychae's system. Full scale war might break out but so what? With the greater personal involvement of its characters the small scale events of TPoG felt much more important. Even Consider Phlebas, which I am not that keen on, felt like it had a plot with more at stake (even if that book admits that's not the case).
As mentioned above, Zakalwe's chapters aren't always that interesting either. Instead it's the odd good bit here and there that keeps you pushing through the novel. For instance, I very much enjoyed the all too brief time spent on the Xenophobe or the time spent with Zakalwe in the eyrie. It simply feels like there's too little imperative to the plot and the long time spent by Sma getting to Zakalwe in the present is cheapened by the fact he so readily agrees to take on the mission.
Well with plot and characters already done what's left? Banks's writing is decent but it felt more jumbled than in TPoG (and what with the abundance of unneccessary semi-colons?). The author's admission that this was an old story re-written perhaps explains why. Consider Phlebas, another old novel he got published some time after he first wrote it, seemed to suffer similar problems. If TPoG was written from scratch much later than these other two Culture novels it might explain why it seems so much better.
As usual, I've fallen into one of my traps - pointing out all the things I disliked without touching on the good. After all this it may seem as if I want to give UoW a mere half-star rating. Yet it is a lot better than that. The plot and characters could have done with more work but nothing in the book is bad. The story has its moments and the final revelations certainly make a lot of what came before more important, in retrospect. Possibly, when re-read the book might shine much brighter. However, I'd still like to read the rest of the Culture series first, so it might be a while before I get back to this one.
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LibraryThing member jakecasella
This was kind of a rough read, and solidified some of how I've been thinking about Banks. Structurally, this is interesting, using alternating chapters that are moving opposite directions in time, to fill out the main character. It feels like the most wholeheartedly nihilistic of the Culture novels
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I've read so far; Banks has at least sketched out one of the best fully-automated gay space communist utopias out there, and then spends pretty much all his time on its edges or outside us, the better to focus on pointless depravity and suffering. It's a little weird. There was one big twist that I didn't see coming here, but it was immediately preceded by big twists that were massively telegraphed, so, again, weird. In conclusion, Iain M. Banks would like you to know that the Prime Directive is a load of horse-shit. Show Less
LibraryThing member Fledgist
This is a sprawling, deeply satisfying, novel of the "Culture". Banks creates a world -- worlds -- in which humans, machines, and others interact in extraordinarily complex ways.
LibraryThing member sockatume
At first impression a standard but sharply written space opera war adventure, the cracks in the protagonist's psychology increasingly nag at the reader until the finale reveals exactly what he needed redemption for. Banks was often introspective about the his utopian Culture's use of people from
Interviews with Banks implied that this was the story the Culture was originally created for; in my opinion, it's the definitive work in that series.
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"lesser" races as tactical assets, but this is the novel that really puts lie to the Culture's - and by extension our own - ideas about necessary violence and hypercompetent warrior figures.Interviews with Banks implied that this was the story the Culture was originally created for; in my opinion, it's the definitive work in that series.
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LibraryThing member llasram
/Consider Phlebas/ left me wanting more Banks, and I already had this one, so I dove right in. I usually prefer SF novels that only work as SF, but this is a relatively strong example of a work which just uses genre trappings for a grand setting I loved the backwards-forwards structure of this
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novel and the intensity of the ending left me with literal chills -- which ending suggests that a reread might be fruitful. I don't think the novel's core character study is quite good enough to stand on its own, but delivers quite nicely a genre novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member jonathon.hodge
A great Culture novel and an impressive character study, with an ending that will stay with the (astute) reader long after you close the cover
LibraryThing member voodoochilli
Well I really wanted to like this book. It just didn't hold up as well as the others in the series. Additionally the ending was predictable (to me at least). Although written later, Reynold's Chasm City had a similar plot twist and maybe that's how I spotted the end before it happened. Reading the
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next in the series, Excession, and it seems much better so far. Show Less
Awards
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 1991)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 1990)
Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Winner — Foreign novel 1993)
Language
Original publication date
1990
Physical description
384 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
185723135X / 9781857231359