Describe Containing Books Look to Windward (Culture #7)
Title | : | Look to Windward (Culture #7) |
Author | : | Iain M. Banks |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 496 pages |
Published | : | November 1st 2002 by Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster (NY) (first published August 2000) |
Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Space. Space Opera |
Iain M. Banks
Paperback | Pages: 496 pages Rating: 4.2 | 21117 Users | 635 Reviews
Relation Toward Books Look to Windward (Culture #7)
The Twin Novae battle had been one of the last of the Idiran war, one of the most horrific. Desperate to avert defeat, the Idirans had induced not one but two suns to explode, snuffing out worlds & biospheres teeming with sentient life. They were attacks of incredible proportion - gigadeathcrimes. But the war ended and life went on. Now, 800 years later, light from the 1st explosion is about to reach the Masaq' Orbital, home to the Culture's most adventurous & decadent souls. There it will fall upon Masaq's 50 billion inhabitants, gathered to commemorate the deaths of the innocent & to reflect, if only for a moment, on what some call the Culture's own complicity in the terrible event.Also journeying to Masaq' is Major Quilan, an emissary from the war-ravaged world of Chel. In the aftermath of the conflict that split his world apart, most believe he has come to Masaq' to bring home Chel's most brilliant star & self-exiled dissident, the honored Composer Ziller. Ziller claims he will do anything to avoid a meeting with Quilan, who he suspects has come to murder him. But the Major's true assignment will have far greater consequences than the death of a mere political dissident, as part of a conspiracy more ambitious than even he can know--a mission his superiors have buried so deeply in his mind that even he can't remember it.
Hailed by SFX magazine as "an excellent hopping-on point if you've never read a Banks SF novel before," Look to Windward is an awe-inspiring immersion into the wildly original, vividly realized civilization Banks calls the Culture.
Mention Books In Pursuance Of Look to Windward (Culture #7)
Original Title: | Look to Windward |
ISBN: | 0743421922 (ISBN13: 9780743421928) |
Edition Language: | English |
Series: | Culture #7 |
Characters: | Major Quilan |
Setting: | The Masaq' Orbital |
Literary Awards: | Locus Award Nominee for Best SF Novel (2001), Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis Nominee for Bestes ausländisches Werk (Best Foreign Work) (2004), Tähtivaeltaja Award Nominee (2005) |
Rating Containing Books Look to Windward (Culture #7)
Ratings: 4.2 From 21117 Users | 635 ReviewsRate Containing Books Look to Windward (Culture #7)
Look no further if you're looking for a tale of fantastically huge sources and end results of regret, suicide, the negation of life-affirmation, exploding suns, and excellent tales of love between non-humanoid sentients and nearly god-like Minds.This is a Culture novel. Ian M. Banks had ten of them before his death and he's known equally well for his hard SF as for his standard fiction, strangely enough.It shows in this one. I have to admit that I was very impressed by the technologicalBack to Iain M. Banks phenomenal Culture series of space opera set in a post-scarcity universe where humans are the most powerful known species. Well, not really the humans, but the massive AI entities originally created by humans thousands of years ago. It is quite unusual for humanity to (sort of) be the top dog, this is one of the most unusual features of the Culture universe. Banks Culture setting bucks the current trend of dystopian fiction. In this post-scarcity society, all of humanity
2019 reread: thoroughly enjoyable, and I'd forgotten enough of the plot-points (and twists) that it seemed like a first-time read. A few highlights: ● The dirigible behemothaurs! The lost stylus! The visiting Culture scholar!● The world-building -- universe-building, really -- is just amazing. Nobody else in SF has ever done this better, imo.● I particularly liked the sly nod to Jack Vance in the pylon cableway system in one of the Orbital plate deserts, and its curious history.● Unlike many
Gentile or JewO you who turn the wheel and look to windwardConsider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.I have a weakness for anyone who quotes Eliot, particularly the Waste Land. At first I thought that this title was a bit much given that Banks had already used Consider Phlebas, which seemed to me more appropriate to the novel it graces. But it just occured to me: the people in this book are those who 'look to windward'; the entire book is an extended meditation on the message of
The Chelgrians, the Homomdans, the Culture all vie for galactic respectability in this, the 6th Culture novel: Look To Windward [2000]. (This is my second reading of this novel, the first in 2006).The Culture series reached its peak - in my opinion - in terms of wit, humour, sophistication, structure, craft and sheer entertainment value in Excession (1996) - what followed hereafter, it seemed, would have to be something exceptionally special. Inversions followed in 1998 - of which I have little
I have read so many of the Culture novels in such a short period of time that I find it difficult to know what to write this time. My online book club is doing a series read, so every month, there is another one. My relationship with the series tends to be up and down - some books I really enjoy, some I find frustratingly opaque. This was not one of the opaque ones.Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to
In the ordinary scheme of things I'd probably give this a 4. I was so sad when Iain died. I knew I still had his great gift of 2 more Culture books to enjoy, this and Inversion. So while thrilled to read another Banks books, it was with heavy heart knowing there would be no more. This was beautiful book about death and memory and loss but also about life. Loved the alien Homondan. There's a great twist at the end. As always there's Banks wonderful touch of humor and humanity. One of my favorite
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