Book Review: Consider Phlebas

Keeping this one short and sweet.

I was looking for a story about an advanced civilization that doesn't go wrong as is the case with almost every sci-fi story that isn't star trek. Most of the sci fi stories I have come across usually show in gruesome detail how bad everything will be in the future, a dystopian future. So when I heard of The Culture Series of which Consider Phlebas is the first book, I jumped at the chance for some inspiration. The first book dedicates only a few chapters to the Culture, the advanced civilization I was looking for. The rest of the story, however, revolves around the plight of shapsehifting spy who works for the other side in a war against the culture.

I was going to elucidate all the plot points but decided it was far too convoluted to get through. Let's just say that the book explores the different types of societies possible. the anarchist socialist Culture vs the religious totalitarian Idirans is the main conflict. Extremely thoughtless devotional religiosity plays a part for a short while but there is so much gore and grossness, even thinking about it right now makes me want to throw up so I won't bother. A lot of unnecessary violent and gory scenes make their way into the text and as a highly visual person, this made the book hard to get through. Splattered around all the bizarre plot points is a fully realized chunk of the galaxy with tons of detail. I don't see how this series is about the culture as there are only about 2 or 3 culture characters and they hardly get any time in.

Also huge spoiler, literally every character introduced dies by the the end of the book which just baffles me. I felt like I got invested into some characters, then the rug is pulled out from under me. But thinking about it a little more, I suppose Banks leaves a world behind despite all the the broken and bloody characters. so I may try the second book to see if things change.