The Final Solution (Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks)

Member Name: Xamis

Product:	Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks
Date:	18/07/01 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Definitive Culture fiction, Story of love and loss, Well written as ever

Disadvantages: Confusing end, Bloody expensive in hardback

This Culture novel, the last for at least the conceivable future, both supports and refutes the most common claims about the Utopian society. As with most of the Culture stories, it concerns Contact and possibly even Special Circumstances, although at last these organisations are treated in the shadowy, secretive way we have always been told they act. It also concerns and individual and his interaction with the Culture, although this time from a more oppositional angle. As you would expect from Banks it also explores wider social issues, with commentary on religion, love, death and especially suicide. Unlike the other Banks writing I have reviewed, I have only read Look to Windward once, but I would still claim that, above all else, this is the definitive Culture novel, designed to bring together all that we already know and fill in some of the blanks about this ''perfect' society.

The story follows Major Quilan, an exceptional officer from the Chelgrian Army. The Chel, like a lot of the races Banks uses from outside the Culture, are rather unique. In this case a caste system fixed with various religious beliefs keeps a class subjugated under hereditary rulers. As they always do, Contact got involved to try and liberate the masses and leave them free to share in more than ample resources. A passing GSV (General Systems Vehicle, a massive starship) believed that on it's own it could right the ills of the race by applying small amounts of pressure and rigging a few votes. As cock-ups go, this one was fairly huge. The class conflict started a civil war, one in which 4 billion died. After the resulting compromise, which led to an easier system of social elevation and a lessening of the ability to discriminate, Contact admitted their part in the war and apologised profusely.

Major Quilan is sent on a mission to the Culture Orbital (like a world but entirely constructed around a Mind) Masaq'. The mission, he is told, is o convin
ce a self-exiled composer called Ziller to return to Chel as a symbol of their new liberal tolerance, the very absence of which Ziller left in protest of. As with a lot of Banks' writing, we not only follow the protagonist, but also Ziller, his friends and a completely different race altogether. Kabe, a Homomdan who is asked to operate as an intermediary between the two Chelgrians, befriends Ziller. A drone, secretly a member of Contact, makes the connection and he (/it) also works with the Hub (The Mind or computer running the Orbital) whose representative Avatar is always close.

The Hub itself is an interesting character. It used to b a rather militarised GSV, called the Limiting Factor, during the Idiran War. The Idiran War was the last major conflict involving the Culture, almost lost early on because of the amount of time it took the Culture to mobilise. The Limiting Factor went on a series of raids deeps within Idiran space to try and slow their advance whilst the Culture mobilised. These raids produced a rather interesting unforeseen circumstance I will leave for the novel, but it suffices to say that the Hub feels guilty for its actions during the war. This is why it decided instead to dedicating itself to running a world full of people instead of being an active unit. Its most fateful day was known as the Dual Novae Battle, a fight that involved the destruction of two stars. This is how Hub gets to know Ziller; he is commissioned to commemorate the experience in a symphony.

There is also an interesting aside exploring the lives of dirigible behemathuars, living creates who control a whole host of other, smaller creatures that live inside it. The similarity to a Culture ship is stark; both sentiently controlled by one mind (or Mind) but operated by many smaller individuals under the control of the creature as a whole. They too have immense power, and not even the Culture try to study them against their will. These creatures eventual
ly become key to the plot, as should always be expected in a Banks novel.

One interesting device used to drive the narrative involves the customary Banks flashbacks. In this case, Quilan's stated objective is only a cover story - this is made clear from the start. However, he does not know the actual mission and the training for it, which only slowly comes back to him as his memory opens up. This allows the characters to develop free of any spoilers the plot might create, and gives greater meaning and significance as well as strength of plot to the flashback sections.

This novel was key to the continual development of and belief in the Culture. Any Utopia will not survive long if all it does is describe itself from the point of view of an outsider. Banks turned this on its head in Player of Games to use Utopia as a norm. This highlights the barbarity of current and near-past Earth societies. Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas both concern SC, the secretive and therefore exciting arm of Culture society. This novel showed what very few others dared, the real life of normal citizens and Minds of the Culture. The fact that most of the characters highlighted partake in death-defying activities may well say something about the 'boring' nature of the Culture. There is a large love aspect to the story, something rare in Utopian writing but to some extent common in Banks'. More important is the idea of loss of this love and how it effects ordinary people. But even beyond that is a cementing of the sentience of Minds, and the universality of human emotions, regardless of race. Through tragedy, the Culture retains its relative realism, its relevance to the world today, and its tradition of providing entertainment to all Banks' readers.

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