Use of Weapons
Registered by BookGroupMan of Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on 10/6/2018
This book is in a Controlled Release!
This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
Thank you @nik for finding me this book and hand delivering to me at the Ipswich UnCon ... no.4 in the Culture series has your name on it (when I've find it!)
(27/10/18) Spoller
This the 3rd of Banks’s epic - mostly stand-alone - space operas about the Culture. In this case specifically a Special Circumstances hired gun (Cheradenine Zakelwe) and his recruiter/handler Diziet Sma. Both Zakelwe and Sma are brought out of semi-retirement to fix a problem threatening to bring a cluster of planets into a full scale war. The issue resolves around the recognition of machines/computers as sentient vs. a humanist view, which is obviously a topic close to the ‘heart’ of Culture society.
This is a typically wide-ranging complex book of ideas, SF tropes, and kick-ass future technology - a timeline of events would be useful Iain M! Also, a brief mention of earth with respect to torture and what over civilised societies accept (or have accepted in the past). No ‘first contact’ for earth yet, but I’m sure this will happen soon?
I like to look for references to the title in books, and in this case it figures in 2 senses; the skill of [Zakelwe] in his choice of weapons, and significantly the line some may cross to exercise, ‘…such numbing ruthlessness, such a use of weapons when anything could become a weapon’.
Even if you’ve read this far I will not give away the big spoiler, but suffice to say Zakelwe is not who or what he seems!
(see also duplicate here)
(27/10/18) Spoller
This the 3rd of Banks’s epic - mostly stand-alone - space operas about the Culture. In this case specifically a Special Circumstances hired gun (Cheradenine Zakelwe) and his recruiter/handler Diziet Sma. Both Zakelwe and Sma are brought out of semi-retirement to fix a problem threatening to bring a cluster of planets into a full scale war. The issue resolves around the recognition of machines/computers as sentient vs. a humanist view, which is obviously a topic close to the ‘heart’ of Culture society.
This is a typically wide-ranging complex book of ideas, SF tropes, and kick-ass future technology - a timeline of events would be useful Iain M! Also, a brief mention of earth with respect to torture and what over civilised societies accept (or have accepted in the past). No ‘first contact’ for earth yet, but I’m sure this will happen soon?
I like to look for references to the title in books, and in this case it figures in 2 senses; the skill of [Zakelwe] in his choice of weapons, and significantly the line some may cross to exercise, ‘…such numbing ruthlessness, such a use of weapons when anything could become a weapon’.
Even if you’ve read this far I will not give away the big spoiler, but suffice to say Zakelwe is not who or what he seems!
(see also duplicate here)
Reserved to pass on to a friend.
Passed on to a new book group acquaintance. Enjoy John.
