Paperback, 480 pages
English language
Published March 26, 2008 by Orbit.
Consider Phlebas is perhaps one of the lesser-known, but nevertheless the first, of the revelationary late Iain M. Banks' science fiction books. Consider Phlebas introduces us to the complex world of the mind-controlling, ubiquitous utopia of the Culture, which contrasts to their mortal sentient enemies. Iain Banks creates an imaginative and encapsulating premise to keep the reader hooked for more, with hints of science fiction and alien humour to liven a deadly race against an omnipotent foe.
The characters and worldbuilding, especially, in this book are excellent. However, basically every chapter is some sort of high-stakes battle or chase sequence. For me personally, that eventually got a bit taxing. If you're more into that kind of stuff, I'd heartily recommend it tho.
I guess I expected more… There’s one chapter (the eaters) that you can just skip completly imo. There’s been several times when I just wanted to stop reading (the eater-chapter and gendered stereotypes that continue to exist unchanged in the far future…), but I kept going for some reason and have not been rewarded.
This book had been on my list for a while and I was excited to read it.
The ‘universe’ building was great and it definitely inspires me to read more of the series. The plot of this book wasn’t quite what I expected and at times seemed to drift from the main thread to fill in the timeline. That said it comes together in the end.
