One of these flees a ship as it self-destructs and becomes a refugee hidden on Schar’s World. Aligned with the Idirans because he disapproves of the Culture’s non-spiritual way of life, he’s quickly rescued as the Idirans have a task for him.įorming part of the Culture, Minds are a super intelligent sub-race. Horza is from the Changer race, a bipedal human-like form that can alter their appearance. Occurring in the midst of the Idiran-Culture war, the pace of the book is immediately set when we’re dropped at the end of protagonist Horza’s failed infiltration behind enemy lines. It would of course have been far too easy to create just one race, but we’re treated to a menagerie of different lifeforms, roaming the very wide and seemingly unending galaxy. It’s one of several we’re introduced to, thoroughly planned and successfully created by Banks, within Consider Phlebas. Phlebas? What on earth is a phlebas? I still don’t know, though research suggests it, along with other titles from Banks, comes from the 434-line poem by T S Eliot, The Waste Land.Ĭonsider Phlebas is the first book in The Culture series, featuring a race called, yep, the Culture artificial intelligence. The title also does nothing to give the game away. To be honest, was this book not recommended to me, I probably wouldn’t have given it a second look. The only thing it’s safe for you to deduce is that the novel is set in space. The cover sat before me shows the face of a planet in hues of blue.
If ever there was a case to be made for not judging a book by its cover, this is it.
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