Mhmouad Ali Ali itibaren Rubizhans'ka city council, Luhans'ka oblast, Ukrayna
This book is great: witty and never what you expect. I don't know that I can prove or disprove much of what he says, but I absolutely recommend reading it.
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1004253.html[return][return]The latest Culture novel by Banks; speaking in Brussels a couple of weeks ago, he said that he felt he is mellowing as he gets older, and the book is strikingly domestic - I can't think of another Culture book which has such a focus on family. Here we follow the tale of three royal siblings - the sister who ran away from a primitive society to join the Culture, the older brother who is on the run believed dead in battle, and the younger brother who has accidentally become king - as the main set of plot strands. The background for much of the story is the Shell world on which the family originate, a massive nested structure of concentric spheres, more reminiscent of Ringworld than Rama but borrowing from both. I found it not a stretching but a satisfying read; the ending was abrupt, but fitted reasonably well with the accelerating pace throughout the book. If I'm nominating for next year's Hugos this will probably get a vote from me.