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So that’s 4/9 Culture novels finished
Use of Weapons
Hydrogen Sonata
Look to Windward
Matter
Next up: Player of Games which I started but abandoned previously.
Probably the most inventive and richly imagined (in a baroque way) SF world-building I’ve read ever.
Vernon Vinge (Deepness in the Sky) is the only thing I’ve read that seems to be imagined on a similarly lavish scale, and evoke operatic space of similar narrative proportions. Both are galaxy-sized stories for galaxy-sized canvasses. They don’t feel like stretched planet-scale.
By contrast, Asimov’s foundation, despite being otherwise pioneering in the genre, feels like planet-scale narrative stretched to fit galaxy-scale canvas, and the pixelation shows. It is self-admittedly just the decline-and-fall-of-Roman-empire transposed to a space-operatic key.
Hyperion (I only read one volume) had the potential despite starting with Canterbury tales sub-planet scale inspiration, but I felt lost its way. Didn’t feel inspired to finish.
Now on to Consider Phlebas. Nice to be reading it at #6. It will feel like a prequel and I’m a big fan of prequel narratives.
Finished Consider Phlebas last night. Easily the worst so far, but still worth it for getting the backstory of the world. It is both technically weaker than later novels and less inventive. Has a color-by-numbers feel. Player of Games too. The rest feel organic by contrast.
Status:
Use of Weapons: A-
Hydrogen Sonata: A
Look to Windward: A
Matter: A+
Player of Games: B
Consider Phlebas: B-
To go:
State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
Surface Detail
LOU/eccentric Me, I’m Counting is one one of my favorite ship names. Nice godly name.
Surface Detail has the most direct philosophical exposition and plot-extraneous world building among the books I’ve read so far. Mildly tedious. Also not particularly enjoying the detailed description of hells. Reminds me of Dante’s Inferno (which I also found tedious).https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1350335875373154305 …
Kinda fun to learn about non-SC divisions of Contact. Quietitude is a nice concept for an afterlife intelligence agency.
Ok SC still steals the show in the end. Surface Detail is a B-. Some really ambitious world-building compromised by long stretches of rather tedious scene descriptions.
This is the most overtly socialist-polemic of the novels so far, and somewhat weakens it. Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints is probably one of the most anthropomorphic ships ever. Almost too human to be fun, though it acts properly ship-like towards the end.
Status:
Use of Weapons: A-
Hydrogen Sonata: A
Look to Windward: A
Matter: A+
Player of Games: B
Consider Phlebas: B-
Surface Detail: B-
To go:
State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
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