#consider phlebas

[retroscifiart]

Art by Philippe ‘Manchu’ Bouchet for the 2003 French edition of Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

[optimalmongoose4]

It’s actually hilarious how offputting of an opening the culture books have if you start with consider phlebas and have no outside context for it. It genuinely is just: here’s an extremely intriguing plot hook about a hyperintelligent AI escaping attack by teleporting to a forbidden planet. You wanna know more about that? Well too bad here’s the worst guy to ever exist. He is currently being drowned in literal shit. I will proceed to describe this situation in excruciating detail.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Consider Phlebas | Author: Iain M. Banks | Publisher: Orbit (2023)

[atomiccollectionanchorme]

Retro sci-fi

Art by Philippe ‘Manchu’ Bouchet for the 2003 French edition of Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

[despiashrq]

Consider the many Ls of Horza

[fefeman]

So far I like the start of "Consider Phlebas"

The viewpoint side is the one most sci fi story would see as protag, who are heavily reliant on machine and technology.

"They’re on the side of life - boring, old-fashioned, biological life; smelly, fallible and short-sighted, God knows, but real life."

They're the proud warrior race, the ones with a code of honor and all this, and who rely on less powerful tech because they are more skilled.

But thiss "They're on the side of life" argument is already broken appart by the time of this discussion : They are perfectly willing to destroy whole cities after already succeeding a rescue mission. They have slaves.

The Idirans want to exploit life and force it into submission. But to someone who buy into the idea of "essence" and the machismo infused idea of life, it's "being on the side of life". It's destroying something to protect the idea of it.

Meanwhile the only seen member of the culture so far negotiate to have an ennemy spared by an allied power, and their critic of the idirans is about their expansionist mindset. They are the ones actually trying to preserve life.

[shelbycarpenter]

[ashestoashesjc]

after a year and a restart i've finally finished 'consider phlebas' and i had a pretty good time but what was up with fal n'geestra. i liked her and her companion (who has a secret crush on her, sad we didn't see any more of that), but i do wish she'd interacted more (or at all?) with the main story, outside of just being a look at the culture's culture. at least she got, like, 400 years of good mountain climbing in