New Culture novel next year

J-WO said:
Ursa- Er, yep, that 'slim volume' thing... not so sure, now. He said that's what he wanted to do--bear (geddit?) in mind that interview was conducted before he set off on his first draft. Like children, novels never grow up the way you planned them to do.
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That does sound a more likely situation. And I'm sure I could bear reading quite a few hundred pages about the various heavens and hells, as long as they are a clear part of the story and not just add-ons**.




** - I didn't particularly like Look to Windward because of what seemed - to me, at least - to be the author's throwing in 0f descriptions of various locations because he had thought them up and saw them as "interesting". Trouble was, they put the plot on hold. (Oddly enough, I think I'd have been more interested in these places if there hadn't been a plot, if that makes sense.)
 
For me, the real kicker will be the exploration of alien concepts of the afterlife- will they necessarily fulfill the 'paradise as reward' notion that the human imagination is so fond of? And what of a species, say, who never thought of an afterlife until the concept was introduced from another world? The possibilities are immense, especially when someone like Banks is plowing the furrow.

And the digital dead building warships? Think I'll implode before February ever arrives.
 
Yeah, this is a must buy book in my opinion. Can't wait.
 
The description of a synthetic afterlife sounds an awful lot like the technology in Feersum Endjinn, with issues of wildly different timescales. Hopefully a fresh take on it, though.
 
LloydDobler said:
The description of a synthetic afterlife sounds an awful lot like the technology in Feersum Endjinn, with issues of wildly different timescales. Hopefully a fresh take on it, though.
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Which reminds me a reviewer on amazon called Against A Dark Background 'Reconsider Phlebas'. Having read both I think there are only two things similar: both protagonists are in pursuit of something; both books are dark.

Speaking of Feersum Endjinn, I've just started it - wel, I 1/2 2 say its awesum! :D
 
U must, Gulli! (sorri, gotta hangover from Bascule thi Teller & iis Ant.) Itz kirki, witti, wiz cool karakters. I 1/2 red nuffin like it b4. ;)
 
There's some more information on Surface Detail on the Iain Banks iPhone App, I did a quick review of it

Here's what Iain had to say in summary:

Firstly he tells us that the book is 200,000 words long, whereas his longest books have been usually around 180,000 words (Consider Phlebus for example).

There’s everything you would expect from a Culture novels – drones, spaceships and knife missiles. Oh and also some human stories too!

“Lededje Y’breq is one of the Intagliated”. She appears to be the main character. Her story revolves around how she loses her tatooes, refinds themand then falls in with the Culture, via two spaceships: a General Systems Unit and a derange Abominator class warship.

Intagliated means to be tatooed everywhere including internal organs, to pay debt for families past crimes.

Part of story is set in “hells” and involves the Culture’s wars against the “hells” which are horrible after-life places. Not much more about what these are but I am guessing these are some sort of virtual worlds where the dead go?

Another major character is fighting wars in the virtual world and now in the real world. It has been a long war in the virtual world (over 30 years), and the Culture is desperate to stop it spilling over into the real world.
 
Folks, the gods have heard our pleas. Surface Detail comes out next month. Maybe they had to get it to print before all the bloody time travellers started bootlegging it for us poor sods who are stuck in time.
 
Yep, i'm definately getting this. I can't wait!!
 
New Culture is on the way per wiki:

'The Hydrogen Sonata is an upcoming novel by Iain M. Banks set in the universe of The Culture, reportedly the longest Culture novel yet released. It will be released in October 2012.[1]
At a book signing at Foyles in London, England on April 11th 2012, Mr Banks briefly described the The Hydrogen Sonata as "it's about the whole subliming business". '

The Hydrogen Sonata, that sounds so Culture. It'll be great fun to see more of subliming business.
 
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