Excession

For those of you familiar with the Culture, you can skip this paragraph, but for those who aren't - a little preface. The Culture novels, by Banks, concern a race of humans and machines set in the distant future. The Culture is, in many ways, the perfect society. Disease is non-existent, as is money, people can choose to be immortal and as a civilisation it is a military might to be reckoned with. The Culture is ruled - insofar as it has a government - by Minds - highly sentient machines.

This Culture novel is a little different from the rest. Instead of dealing with humans as the main characters, Excession lays a much more important role on the Minds. A second preface is thus: The culture discover an Excession (an object that is deemed to be excessively violent/aggressive/colonising/etc and in this case a perfect Black Body Sphere) which they do not understand and quite frankly do not know how to deal with. The best Minds in the galaxy plot, conspire and scheme about what to do with it and this is the main thread of the story. As another reviewer rightly mentioned, it is a fairly common theme "perfect society throws up problem that it's unable to deal with" but thankfully Banks is no mean author.

What i love about these books is that there's always that little bit extra, that little bit that draws you into the world. In Excession, it's the attention to detail - the way all the Mind "conversations" are transcribed in technical form, as if they were straight out of a data log somewhere. It's akin to the phonetic spelling in Feersum Endjin. There is also the mandatory Banksian plot twist which, in this case, doesn't fail to disappoint. Some of his other works have suffered slightly from being anticlimactic towards the end. Excession, on the other hand really does have moments where you both empathise with characters to a very personal level and where the plot twists almost have you gasping aloud (or wanting to slap Banks on the back for a job well done).

What is especially interesting is that some of the plot elements hark back to previous books, and indeed books that were yet to be written (or certainly if you read them first). Excesssion also gives a superb insight into how the heirarchy of the Culture works - from the Special Circumstances section of Contact (as close to a ruling body as the Culture has) - to the Minds deemed as Eccentric and/or Ulterior. There are suggestions that perhaps there are Minds that are willing to betray others for personal benefit or for the imagined benefit of the culture - Minds being sentient and, as per etiquette - ones thoughts are ones own. The idea that in a perfect society there is betrayal and other surprisingly non-perfect ideals is an interesting one and one that is rather philosophically expressed in Excession.

All in all, probably one of the best books i've read in a while - if not ever - and certainly one of Banks' finest. However, i wouldn't recommend this to a first time Iain M Banks reader. A firm understanding of the Culture makes this a much better read.

The greatest Science Fiction (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is the greatest Science Fiction book I have ever read. I have just completed my third reading of it and perhaps it does help to have read some Culture novels before but I have found that it is essential to make notes (especially of the ships) as you go along so you do not get lost in the complexities of the book. Each time I read it I understand more but there are still some aspects of it that baffle me and suggest that further readings will reveal more. How Banks continues to think up these plots is beyond me; the man's imagination is brilliant and the mystery surrounding the Excession itself is superb. How I wish I could join SC!

Pointless Story (1/2 people found this helpful)

I am fan of most SciFi, this like all his books shows great imagination and foresight into our possible future. But this story was poor and had no undertandable ending. The story itself was, i belive him stretching his legs as a perveyor of the future.

What was the point the excession, the story never really unravelled. The Excession was the whole centre piece of the story, the reason i bought, not to have some poorly explained love story, suddenly finish with no explanation to any of the events.

I hope is other stuff is better, because there are far better books out there than this one. This is the worst book i have read of Banks.

Matt D

Dramatic and epic in scale, but lacking in cohesion (1/1 people found this helpful)

"Excession" is the fourth science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks, set in the universe of the Culture, a human-machine symbiotic society spanning most of the Galaxy. When a black body sphere - fifty miles in diameter and apparently older than the Universe itself - appears in a remote corner of space, a superior alien intelligence is suspected to be at work. Even as ships from across the Galaxy rush towards this object, however, questions are raised regarding its purpose and disposition. Attempts to make contact with it prove unsuccessful and the artifact is soon termed an Outside Context Problem - something so powerful that, if hostile, threatens the whole of Galactic civilisation with destruction. But while many are looking to understand it, there are others who seek only to exploit it.

Banks's science fiction is distinctive for the very scale of his vision: a future in which the spaceships are tens of kilometres long, habitats thousands or even millions; in which people can alter their minds and bodies at will; in which it is possible to live forever in simulations that are near-perfect reproductions of reality. In "Excession" he continues to develop the rich and diverse setting that is the Culture, exploring its technologies and its philosophies, and focussing particular attention on the lives and personalities of the artificial intelligences that are the Culture's decision-makers: the Minds.

The prose style flows easily - infused as it is with Banks's trademark wit - and for the most part the narrative is clear, even where exotic alien technologies are concerned. Occasionally, however, the author tends to give too much exposition: whole chapters are given over to characters whose role is, in the end, rather inconsequential. In addition, it is difficult to engage with the human protagonists, Dajeil and Genar-Hofoen: their relationship fails to convince and lacks resolution; indeed, their inclusion is questionable as they have almost no influence on events. At the same time, the lack of a strong central narrative thread means that, for long periods in the middle, the novel loses its sense of direction. Numerous plot strands are introduced without clear purpose, and the sheer number of characters can be hard to distinguish from one another. The exact roles played by the various Minds are obscure; there are intriguing hints of conspiracy but these are never fully explored. Nevertheless, the action sequences are dramatic and always engaging, and the eventual resolution is both fitting and well handled, providing some reward for the reader.

"Excession" promises much and to some extent it does deliver. While many parts are enjoyable, however, the overall impression is of a sprawling and still slightly raw work.

Mature, multi-layered and magnificent sci-fi (1/1 people found this helpful)

Any book by Iain Banks is going to be worth reading, but his Culture novels are always a massive treat. Excession is one of the best, although it might not be the easiest of the series to start with.

If you're familiar with the Culture universe then you'll quickly be delighted by the development of the Ship Minds in this episode. Although there's a set of human protagonists, outrageous and entertaining alien antagonists, and the usual endearing drone, it's the Minds who steal the stage. The Culture has to cope with an unusual entity, and in reacting to that possibly dangerous 'thing' the Culture itself reveals opposing factions, plots within plots, and the difficulty of being the advanced civilisation in a galaxy full of stroppy young 'uns.

However, Excession is a much more mature work than the blood-soaked, plot-twisting early Culture novels. It's just as complicated and rewarding, and has a stand-out action sequence for people who like their spaceships to come out all guns blazing, but the resolution of the core issue is less brutal than the endings Banks used to write. Instead of coming away from the ending feeling as if you've been mauled, you put down Excession feeling satisfied and rewarded by the experience.
(Or if you were feeling really picky you could say it cops out like an episode of Star Trek, and ends pretty much back where it started. But that would be to miss much of the plot and character development -- especially what happens to the Grey Area...)

There's so much for sci-fi fans to love abut Iain Banks' universe. The Affront are a great creation, but the Ships and Drones are too. If you haven't read any Culture novels then stop faffing and dive in. Excession is a more subtle, more refined Culture novels than its forerunners. There's less whimsy and it's a bit less playful than, say Use of Weapons, and if you don't know how this universe works then you may struggle to keep up at first. So one of the earlier books might be a better place to begin.
But if you're familiar with the set up then give yourself time to read Excession in full (even the bits that don't make sense to start with, cos they always play a part in the final resolution). Excession rewards careful reading: it's a book to treasure, not one to grab in 10 minute snatches. And although there are fewer comic drones and droll jokes, the Ship names are a delight...
Solid 9/10

Iain M. Banks

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Reader Reviews:

Science Fiction At It's Finest. (0/0 people found this helpful)

The greatest Science Fiction (0/0 people found this helpful)

Pointless Story (1/2 people found this helpful)

Dramatic and epic in scale, but lacking in cohesion (1/1 people found this helpful)

Mature, multi-layered and magnificent sci-fi (1/1 people found this helpful)

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