Culture #3
Iain M. Banks
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| Front cover |
Date read: 18 - 27 May 2019
Length: 411 pages
Published: 1990
Cheradenine Zakalwe is asked by his rescuer from long ago to complete a task; break a man out of hiding and hand him over. His mind is fragile, however, and the job is not an easy one. Can he do it and retain his sanity?
Use of Weapons is slightly different in terms of how it's told from a linear perspective. There are kind of two parts to the same story, one in the present and one in the past. This is easy to follow as the chapters are named differently (ONE, TWO, THREE, etc & XIII, XII, XI, etc). It is an interesting way to do it and I think it breaks up the parts of the story well. Because of this though, I found it more difficult to pin point a brief synopsis, so what is above is a very poor attempt and doesn't do the book justice. Sorry!
The characters are all likeable, which I find rare in a book these days. Usually there's at least one character that I dislike, but not here. I even like the drone, although it still has an unreasonably long name!
The plot twist and the end is good! It is mainly for this reason that I had a hard time deciding between 3 or 4 stars for the rating, although I just felt that the book genuinely got better nearer the end. But I had to base it on the whole book and not just the last third or so.
Very much looking forward to continuing the series.
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| Iain M. Banks |
Overall rating
Thanks,
The Wee Librocubicularist
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