nicanical
Awesome book. Could be my favorite Culture book. It's narrated by natives on a medieval-level world, sharing their observations of two unique individuals—a Doctor and a Bodyguard—who are ostensibly Culture citizens.
The limited perspective of the narration achieves a lot here. First, it avoids the infodumps and meandering parentheticals seen in other Culture books. These asides are sometimes overused by Banks, and I find they can interrupt the flow of the story. Their absence here made Inversions a smooth read for me. Second, the book has this subtle humor by contrasting the narrators' ignorance, and what we know is probably some omnipotent Culture tech behind the scenes. This second point makes it important to have some understanding of Special Circumstances' modus operandi from some of the other Culture books first. But, this shouldn't be an issue if you've followed along in publication order.
The only thing I didn't like was the lack of interaction between the Doctor and the Bodyguard. The story sets you up to maybe expect a reunion that never materializes.
Awesome book. Could be my favorite Culture book. It's narrated by natives on a medieval-level world, sharing their observations of two unique individuals—a Doctor and a Bodyguard—who are ostensibly Culture citizens.
The limited perspective of the narration achieves a lot here. First, it avoids the infodumps and meandering parentheticals seen in other Culture books. These asides are sometimes overused by Banks, and I find they can interrupt the flow of the story. Their absence here made Inversions a smooth read for me. Second, the book has this subtle humor by contrasting the narrators' ignorance, and what we know is probably some omnipotent Culture tech behind the scenes. This second point makes it important to have some understanding of Special Circumstances' modus operandi from some of the other Culture books first. But, this shouldn't be an issue if you've followed along in publication order.
The only thing I didn't like was the lack of interaction between the Doctor and the Bodyguard. The story sets you up to maybe expect a reunion that never materializes.