The not-yet bestselling, non-award winning author of work you haven't read yet! American immigrant to Japan (25 years).
Location:Japan
A tedious read belabored by descriptions of scientific theory and explanation in both computer and neural sciences. Not for the casual reader who will find it difficult to get through the 100 pages that makes up this confusing narrative. I'm not even going to bother finishing it; I've forced myself to page 90, but that's all I can stand. And if I couldn't make it through the story, I'm not going to read through the research in the appendices. In my opinion, if you have to explain your work in the second half of the book, you didn't do a very good job of writing the book in the first place. Good books, like good jokes, need no explanation. The worst part is, the story has great potential, but it just never develops. Overall, I was just flatout disappointed. That said, I'm sure niche readers will love it.
The first novel in the Culture series, Consider Phlebas' protagonist is an enemy of the Culture, an Idiran spy. His mission is to retrieve a Culture mind (a sentient machine) that evaded Idiran capture. The real beauty of this novel (beyond the exquisitely layered language, worldbuilding and plot) is that it sets up the reader to view the Culture as a questionable force in the universe, while all the other novels in the series have Culture protagonists! From the get-go to the very end, I found myself disliking the Culture, and yet fascinated by Banks' world. I'll definitely be purchasing the other novels in the series. Cannot recommend enough.