nicanical
Awesome book. Could be my favorite Culture book. This one is 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. Inversions actually plays out the debate over contact methodology that Diziet and Linter have in The State of the Art.
Narrating from the natives' perspectives achieves two big things here:
First, it cuts down on infodumps and meandering parentheticals which can interrupt the flow of the story. Banks sometimes overuses such asides in other Culture books. Their relative absence here made Inversions a smooth read for me.
Second, the book has a subtle humor throughout that comes from contrasting the natives' ignorance with the inference that some omnipotent Culture tech is behind the scenes. This intertextuality means its important to have some understanding of the Culture and Special Circumstances from reading other Culture books before this one. (Sufficient context shouldn't be an issue if you're reading along in publication order).
The only thing I didn't like was the lack of interaction between the Doctor and the Bodyguard. If you start to expect a reunion between the two, well, that never materializes.
Awesome book. Could be my favorite Culture book. This one is 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. Inversions actually plays out the debate over contact methodology that Diziet and Linter have in The State of the Art.
Narrating from the natives' perspectives achieves two big things here:
First, it cuts down on infodumps and meandering parentheticals which can interrupt the flow of the story. Banks sometimes overuses such asides in other Culture books. Their relative absence here made Inversions a smooth read for me.
Second, the book has a subtle humor throughout that comes from contrasting the natives' ignorance with the inference that some omnipotent Culture tech is behind the scenes. This intertextuality means its important to have some understanding of the Culture and Special Circumstances from reading other Culture books before this one. (Sufficient context shouldn't be an issue if you're reading along in publication order).
The only thing I didn't like was the lack of interaction between the Doctor and the Bodyguard. If you start to expect a reunion between the two, well, that never materializes.