Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks Reviews

Iain M Banks' latest "Culture" novel is a satisfying read but at the same time, a deeply frustrating novel. Brief précis of the backdrop, for those not yet Culture-hip: At a remote but unspecified time in the future, one particular human-originated civilization, which did not necessarily start on Earth, has developed into a ...  Read the complete review

If you are one of these people who likes science fiction that is heavy on the plot and light on the techno-babble, Iain M Banks is undoubtedly the man for you. Lets start with some background then. Iain M Banks, is the cunning pseudonym of literary author Iain Banks (solves the problem of bookshops trying to list entirely different books ...  Read the complete review

Like the pinnacles of Culture technology that are the giant Orbitals, Iain Banks' latest Culture novel has come full circle. What began with Consider Phlebas culminates with Look To Windward - both titles hailing from Banks' favourite poem 'The Waste Land', IV by T. S. Eliot. Gentile or Jew O you who turn the wheel and ...  Read the complete review

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 ...  Read the complete review

‘Look to Windward’ marks another visit to Iain M Banks far future utopia, The Culture. I always regard a new culture novel with an expectation of pleasure, and have yet to be seriously disappointed (even if they always seem to fall short of the tremendous ‘The Player of Games’). Part of the reason for this is Banks’ ...  Read the complete review

This is the latest offering by Mr Banks, and the last for the next year or so as he has planned to take a year out from writing for a little break. It is a Culture novel, and is a fantastic note to end on. The story revolves around the Masaq' Orbital and a civil war that took place on an Involved species planet, brought about by the ...  Read the complete review