Excession

by Iain M. Banks

Iain Banks' novels are a bit of a hit or miss affair for me. For every brilliant one, like 'Use of Weapons' or 'The Wasp Factory', there's one that just bores me, like 'Feersum Enjin' or 'The Business'. I had high expectations for 'Excession' though, the 'mysterious artifact in space' plot hook is one that's always aroused my interest. Unfortunately though, this ended up being a Banks book that I didn't like.

Like most of Banks' science fiction novels, this one is set in the Culture, a huge galaxy spanning civilisation with almost limitless resources.

Right from the start we're introduced to a whole slew of characters, none of whom I found particularly likable, and many of whom turn out to be mostly irrelevant to the story. The most interesting ones are the Affront, a race of aliens who Banks does a good job of making seem initially friendly and fun, but more and more sinister as he reveals more about them. They pose an interesting ethical dilemma for the Culture, should they tolerate having friendly diplomatic relations such a brutal and sadistic race? Even if they do get on well with other civilisations, they treat their own people and other species on their planet shockingly inhumanely.

Anyway, the larger plot deals with the Affront, several different factions within the Culture, and a couple of other interstellar powers as they figure out what to do with the Excession, a mysterious artifact evidentially sent by a technologically advanced power from another dimension. However the story devotes just as much time to the personal relationships between two of the major human protagonists, which I found to be rather dull. There's a bit of an interesting twist in the middle that I didn't see coming, but for the most part whenever this plot thread came up I was just impatient to get back to the space battles and the explosions.

The pacing of the whole book seemed very off to me. Even half way through the book we're still being introduced to new characters (and the abundance of strange ship names makes it very difficult to keep track of who's who), and very little seems to happen until the very end.

On a more positive note, I did like the ending, even if some of it was contrived. Plus this book gives a whole new perspective to the Culture, showing that while it's a pretty cool civilisation, it's not perfect and the actions of immoral individuals within it can still ruin it for everyone. He also shows a bit more of the larger picture of the galaxy, mentioning Sublimed races (those who have transcended the material universe), Hegemonistic Swarms (kind of like the Borg from Star Trek) and other far fetched ideas that the characters of course all take for granted.