Lalith Vipulananthan wrote: >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! :)
LOL! Well, it was a combination of both, frankly. I knew wwhen I asked for book ssuggestions that he'd comeup, so I figured it was time to check it out. > >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!) Well, then I'm glad I went in the order that I did. I'd rather build up than move down, givena choice. :) I think either Phlebas or Weapons will be next. > >>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! If you like. I don't imagine he's going to answer then either, but you never know. >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. See, I think Endjinn will give me a headache, wading through the language the one character uses. But the first two are on my list. I may even try the Wasp Factory, though I hear that's a tough read. Jim ------------------------------------------------ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
