Look to Windward

While scattering red herrings and building tension for his final burst of literal and moral fireworks, Banks shows us around the Orbital in sensuous, lyrical travelogues. Rich scenery, high living, low comedy and dangerous sports contrast with reflections on mortality and the lingering aftershock of both those wars, recalled by ravaged veterans. Look to Windward culminates with deft twists, inversions, parallels, and savage justice, as unexpected as we expect from this author. Recommended. --David Langford

Reader Reviews:

Not one of Bank's better (0/0 people found this helpful)

I like Bank's novels about the Culture, but Look to Windward is maybe the weakest in the series. Still, it contains some interesting insights into the Culture, like the life of a Hub Mind. The problem is the plot about the agent from another planet, a world where the Culture was responsible for a catastrophe. This just never gets interesting and is too sentimental.
If you like Banks and The Culture, this is of course worth reading, just to get another glimpse of his universe. If you haven't read Banks before, start with Excession or The Player of Games instead.

Resistance is Character Forming (0/0 people found this helpful)

Iain Banks was born in Scotland in 1954 and published his first book - "The Wasp Factory" - in 1984. He has since divided his writing career between writing 'standard' fiction - as Iain Banks - and Science Fiction, as Iain M. Banks. "Look to Windward" was first published in 2000, and was the sixth of his Sci-Fi books to feature the Culture.

The Culture is a symbiotic society - part humanoid and part artificial intelligence. The artificial intelligence element to the Culture can be sub-divided into two parts - Drones and Minds. For the most part, a Drone's intelligence will be roughly similar to a humanoids. Minds, on the other hand, are significantly more powerful than both humanoids and drones. They tend to act as the controlling intelligence behind, for example, the Culture's ships and Hubs (artificial habitats). Minds are also largely responsible for making decisions at the very highest levels of society - only a very small number of humanoid Referrers would be intelligent enough to join the process.

In the first Sci-Fi book Banks wrote, "Consider Phlebas", the Culture was at war with the Idiran Empire - a war they eventually won, though not without a great loss of life. Although 800 years have now passed, "Look to Windward" could be considered a sequel of sorts. A single battle, towards the end of the Culture - Idiran War, had brought the destruction of two stars. The loss of life was not restricted to the combatants, as both systems had supported life. The light from the first star's destruction has only now reached Masaq, a Culture Orbital. Hub, Masaq's controlling Mind, is observing a period of mourning, between the two supernovae - for reasons that become clear later in the book. However, there have also been hints of a very special occasion to mark the arrival of the light from the second star.

Not all of Masaq's residents are Culture citizens, however. One is Kabe Ischloer, a Homomdan who is accorded the title of Ambassador by those on Masaq. (Kabe is a modest, likeable character and occasionally admits to being a journalist). Physically, Homomdans are similar to the Idirans - three-legged, about three metres tall and glisteningly black. In fact, the Homomdans were allied to the Idirans in the early days of the Culture - Idiran war. Another is Mahrai Ziller, a very famous Chelgrian composer. (Chelgrians are nearly as tall as Homomdans, fast, strong and fur-covered. Having evolved from predators, they also seem to enjoy a fight). Ziller, however, is somewhat atypical for a Chelgrian, and his presence on Masaq is a little more controversial than Kabe's. There had recently been a civil war on Chel, known as the Caste War...and, unfortunately, there had been a certain amount of Culture involvement behind the scenes. However, Ziller found Chel society repulsive - despite belonging to the highest, most privileged caste, he has declared himself Invisible and effectively defects to Masaq.

Ziller isn't the only Chelgrian to appear in the book, though - it also features Quilan, a member of Chel's highest caste and a veteran of the Caste War. He has subsequently take holy orders, and is occasionally referred to as a 'Griefling' - largely because he hasn't been able to come to terms with the death of his wife in the war. However, Quilan is later offered a way to deal conclusively with his sense of loss and is sent on a mission to Masaq. Officially, his orders are to persuade Ziller to return home. (Ziller, on the other hand, suspects the Quilan has actually been sent to assassinate him and steadfastly refuses to meet the Major). In truth, Quilan's orders are a little more wide-ranging...and, thanks to his SoulKeeper, he isn't even travelling alone.

Before I'd picked up "Consider Phlebas", it had been a long time since I'd read any Sci-Fi - the main reason I picked it up was of how highly I rate Banks' 'standard' fiction. While it was easily good enough to convince me that it might be worth reading more of the Culture books, "Look to Windward" has convinced me to work my way through the entire series. With Banks, things aren't entirely straightforward : the Culture might be the good guys, and they may mean well, but they aren't entirely pure and flawless. Quilan, on the other hand, should probably be considered one of the main villains - yet he proves a likeable character, and it's hard not to sympathise with him at times. It would have been nice to have seen Uagen Zlepe's story a bit more fully told, but that's about the book's only flaw for me - and it's a minor gripe at that. Excellent stuff, highly recommended.

how can guilt manifest in a society of virtual immortals? (0/0 people found this helpful)

The punchline of this book is utterly unexpected and deeply humbling - I am glad I read this book, it is artfully conceived and delivered.

A Mind blowing Book (0/0 people found this helpful)

This book is the best book I have read since "consider phlebas"
Banks again proves that his imagination is on form by producing this epic space opera. The book discusses life after death with an alien race,an entwined love story and a mind that no longer wishes to exist. (read the book to find out why)

I will not go on about the details of the book, but this book is a must for SF fans. It's witty, funny, full of meaning and sinister at each page. Slow page turner to start off with but gradually builds up until your hands are a blur turning the pages. Fantastic.

As satisfying as a hot bath on a cold day (3/4 people found this helpful)

This is the fourth "Culture" novel from Iain M. Banks i have read, they get easier to grasp, and more enjoyable with each addition. When you first start reading in the "Culture" group of books they can be difficult and obtuse to the point of provoking fury; they are also filled with passages and moments of shining brilliance, thats how come you might read more than one. However, after a couple you can start to find the rhythm of Bank's writing and they will become a more comfortable experiance.

This story is better balanced than i expected from his other books; it has the same wild flights of pure imagination that burst across the plot, but it also has a strong narrative line that pulls you onwards. I found i was desperate to know what was going to happen, expecting and fearing what the outcome might be. It was an example of that rarest of reading experiances, one that leaves you straight away reaching for another book to try to sustain the joy.

Iain M. Banks

Editorial Review: