That isn't to say that unlike Bank's other works this isn't beautifully written and amazingly imaginative and so on, however, as the reviewer before me put it, it's a 'sadly mature book', and, I think, not only in the ways they talked about. This book very much brings up the existential dilemmas of existence, particularly those of hopelessness and futility, of unending suffering and the sheer release of death into nothingness; and makes a ghastly display of what I'd have to say is one of the most gory portrayals of cruelty and atrocious psychopathy that I've come across in fiction. The Hells presented in the virtual afterlives of many of the sophisticated civilisations are beyond horrific, and considering that a good significant chunk of the book is set in Hell, it's fair warning of what you're getting into.
Reading through the journeys of 2 academics and their individual experiences in the backdrop of Hell was a slough through murder, rape and torture - with each soul being infinitely reincarnated upon death - that changed the entire context of the book. Don't get me wrong, their stories were necessary and their depiction brilliant, but... it felt like too much of wading through Hell changed the fabric of this book drastically from what it would have been had only half the content been present. Everything became saturated with the horror of what is going on behind the closed doors of the galaxy while all of the other characters play out their various parts in the Real. It's like watching a play of marionettes acting out a Shakespearian drama of manipulation and intrigue while the backdrop is a man with a chainsaw hacking live humans to pieces, the cast and crew pretending that it's something minor they'll address later. You end up with a treatise on the cruelty of sentient beings, where even simulacra are designed to torment beyond despair.
I'm not saying don't read this book, because I have very high opinions of it and like a lot of it - particularly the Culture ships Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints and the Me, I'm Counting. But be very well prepared to invest in a book with very dark elements.
By the way, for familiar followers of the Culture novels, beware The Stinger. It'll have you scrambling back through the book facepalming!
A warning of sorts?
I caution not to read this book lightly.
That isn't to say that unlike Bank's other works this isn't beautifully written and amazingly imaginative and so on, however, as the reviewer before me put it, it's a 'sadly mature book', and, I think, not only in the ways they talked about. This book very much brings up the existential dilemmas of existence, particularly those of hopelessness and futility, of unending suffering and the sheer release of death into nothingness; and makes a ghastly display of what I'd have to say is one of the most gory portrayals of cruelty and atrocious psychopathy that I've come across in fiction. The Hells presented in the virtual afterlives of many of the sophisticated civilisations are beyond horrific, and considering that a good significant chunk of the book is set in Hell, it's fair warning of what you're getting into.
Reading through the journeys of 2 academics and their individual experiences in the backdrop of Hell was a slough through murder, rape and torture - with each soul being infinitely reincarnated upon death - that changed the entire context of the book. Don't get me wrong, their stories were necessary and their depiction brilliant, but... it felt like too much of wading through Hell changed the fabric of this book drastically from what it would have been had only half the content been present. Everything became saturated with the horror of what is going on behind the closed doors of the galaxy while all of the other characters play out their various parts in the Real. It's like watching a play of marionettes acting out a Shakespearian drama of manipulation and intrigue while the backdrop is a man with a chainsaw hacking live humans to pieces, the cast and crew pretending that it's something minor they'll address later. You end up with a treatise on the cruelty of sentient beings, where even simulacra are designed to torment beyond despair.
I'm not saying don't read this book, because I have very high opinions of it and like a lot of it - particularly the Culture ships Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints and the Me, I'm Counting. But be very well prepared to invest in a book with very dark elements.
By the way, for familiar followers of the Culture novels, beware The Stinger. It'll have you scrambling back through the book facepalming!