Well, this is a bit of an experiment to see if I like Blogger as opposed to Yahoo360. The following post is a bit of a repeat as I read the book, oh, over a month ago, but we just reviewed it last night in bookgroup. I thought that is a good a way as any to start off a new blog!
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
This was nominated for a Hugo in 2005, but lost to Johnathon Strange and Dr. Norell by Suzanna Clark. The book group has selected it for our January meeting. The Algebraist was one cool space opera: big ideas, grandiose theme, epic quest, lots of cool aliens, big planets, a big cast of characters and, of course, a space battle at the end.
In a nutshell (because there is no good way to summerize a space opera), Fassin Taak, known as a Slow Seerer to the Dwellers which inhabit the gas-giant planet of Nasqueron, is recruited into the Solioquy Military to research further into something he found on his last research trip to Nasqueron. He finds himself traveling the infamous hypothetical wormholes of the Dwellers to the far reaches of the galaxy in quest of the Dweller List for that which he is actually traveling through! The farther along he goes, the deeper the mystery becomes.
Meanwhile, as Fassin delves deeper than he ever has before into the society known as the Dwellers, his family is annihilated, the threat of war grows imminent each day and everyone is trying to find him and the answer he might be carrying.
There are obviously other plot lines that revolve around Fassin, other characters affected by all of this drama, and of course, the Dwellers themselves. This book isn’t perfect by any means, some of the sub-plots seem to jump around a bit and there are a few issues left unresolved. Still, if you like space operas and don’t mind a slow read, this was one pretty cool book.
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4 comments:
I liked The Algebraist, but it was a bit of a slog. I finished it because it was by Iain Banks. If this had been a writer that was new to me, there's no way I would have stuck it out to the end.
I thought the idea of incredibly long-lived creatures living in gas giants and allowing puny little humans in occasionally to talk to them was pretty cool. I thought the way they dealt with the Archimandrite Luseferous was very funny.
The story line with Sal and Taince ( I think I've got their names right) was odd and pointless and didn't fit in with the rest of the book. It could have been removed, and it would have been an improvement.
So, though I enjoyed The Algebraist, I don't think it's terribly accessible to readers who aren't already Banks fans. I suspect that this is one of those books that left a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering why it got so much hype.
The book group was split on who finished this and who didn't. Chris and I did, and we both really liked it and surprisingly, we both had the same thoughts that you did (Chris and I don't always agree). ;)
The aliens in this one were just darn cool, in particular the cloud dweller that took up hundreds of miles of space. And the Dweller representatives dealing with the Archimadride were just hilarious.
The Sal/Tanice line was one place were Chris and I disagreed. I too thought it was pretty pointless - I mean who really holds a grudge for 300 years? But the others felt this was a nice way to show that even though humanity lives a long time, they still know how to carry a grudge.
Yes, but so what if they carry a grudge? I agree that she should have carried a grudge for what happened, but why even write this storyline? It didn't seem to fit in with anything else, and I don't know why it was there.
Okay, going to play devils advocate here...ummm, nope I have no good counter argument. The whole Sol/Tanis line was just empty and pointless. He offered nothing to the development of the story other than being an annoyance and kinda the "in system" bad guy against Fassin.
Now it could be argued with Tanis that she provided the viewpoint of the incoming defending fleet, letting the reader know how far out they were, but there too, I think that could have been written better or even from a different person completely.
However, I did like at the end how she plowed Sol into the same ship from the beginning of the book. That at least was a nice touch and wrapped up that storyline quite tidily. Pointless as it was.
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