'Surface Detail': Maybe the Best 'Culture' Novel Yet?

Just as Laura Miller has recently suggested, those who are writing a lot don’t have much time to read — and so I’m making miserably slow progress with Iain M. Banks’ new novel Surface Detail. But I do so far agree with the space ladies of io9: it’s excellent, weirdly structured and either ingeniously or callously organized. Here’s a brief bit from my allotted fifteen minutes of reading last night that reaffirmed why I am loving it.

Veppers smiled thinly at the alien…. “Why did they build all these? Why so many? What was the point?”

“Insurance, possibly,” Bettlescroy said. “Defence. You build the means to build the fleets rather than build the fleets themselves, the means of production being inherently less threatening to one’s neighbours than the means of destruction. It still makes people think twice about tangling with you.” The little alien paused. “Though it has to be said that those inclined to the fuck-up theory of history maintain that the Disk has no such planned purpose and is essentially the result of something between a minor Monopathic Hegemonising Event and an instance of colossal military over-ordering.” It shrugged. “Who is to say?”

The both stared at the dark network of threat and promise arrayed before them.

I’d tell you to read chapter one online but it’s actually sort of a misleading introduction to the book and you really could just buy it.