Jim wrote: >However, after nearly two years here, I dove into the Culture >since Banks's name came up so many times when I asked for >books to read for the train.
It's good to hear that you do listen to people's suggestions. Either that, or having Banks thrown at you for two years has finally penetrated your skull! :) >Well, I am pleased to inform you that you are *not* all >retarded. :) Always pleasant to be reminded of that fact as well. >The Player of Games was an excellent read, >illustrating an interesting, lush universe, and featuring an >unpleasant but viscerally thrilling kick in the nether regions >at one point. A nifty plot, some cool characters, and a nice >framework. Yup. I love the whole Culture idea but for some reason or another, I didn't really enjoy TPoG as much as "Use of Weapons" and "Consider Phlebas". I need to re-read the early Culture books since I read "Use of Weapons" first and it affected my enjoyment of the other Culture novels (ie none of them really measured up to it!) >My only complaint is that some of the names look >like Banks just assigned all the consonants to an icosahedron >and the vowels to a cube and rolled the dice to come up with them. :) He was interviewed recently for a (British) webzine and refused to answer the question about how he came up with his names. I should be attending a discussion/debate about his new book in Edinburgh sometime in August and it's being filmed for BBC4 (a free digital TV channel in the UK). I can ask him again if you want! >Overall I liked it a lot, and I will likely be looking at more >of his work. I'd go for "Use of Weapons", "Consider Phlebas" and "Feersum Endjinn" myself. I wasn't entirely convinced by "Excession" nor "Inversions". "Against a Dark Background" just seemed nihilistic to me. Lal GSV Late reply ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and solely for the intended addressee(s). Unauthorised reproduction, disclosure, modification, and/or distribution of this email may be unlawful. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete it from your system. The views expressed in this message do not necessarily reflect those of LIFFE Holdings Plc or any of its subsidiary companies. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
