Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

hi everyone, welcome to our continuing discussion of Iain M. Banks' The Culture series. this month's book is Look to Windward.

The book's dedication reads: "For the Gulf War Veterans"

this is one of my personal favorites in the series. so moving, so elegiac.

mea culpa: I'm sad to admit that I have not been following this ongoing discussion of the series since Player of Games. been way behind in my series reads! but I did just buy Use of Weapons so I should be getting back into this awesome series.

mark wrote: "mea culpa: I'm sad to admit that I have not been following this ongoing discussion of the series since Player of Games. been way behind in my series reads! but I did just buy Use of Weapons so I sh..."

The books are non-contiguous, so it's fine to jump in at any point. LTW does refer back to earlier books, but not in a way that makes that knowledge essential. I would certainly recommend it; Use of Weapons was my favourite Banks book for some years, but I think Look to windward surpasses it.

I got my copy today and jumped right in---setting up well so far!

I liked this one a lot - especially the descriptions of the orbital.

The man had such an imagination!! This one is good and has a surprise ending. I can't say anything more without giving too much away. But, I really liked it.

there's like 3 endings there (if I recall correctly) and they were all pretty surprising. and awesome. and one of them quite sad.

True enough. And, looking at it that way, I could even add a fourth ending, a tiny one -- the researcher. That joins the soul catcher, the mind, and the "don't mess with culture" endings.

that's right! I forgot about that one. what an amazing novel.

I'm behind on my Culture. Only just finished this one. The behemothaurs were my favorite part of the book. Probably the most creative thing to come out of the Culture world so far.