Salocin

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

I am a great fan of Iain M. Banks' science-fiction novels. Over the years, I have grown out of most authors who write novels based on the far-future, or science fiction as an exploration of technology, but have become a great fan of Banks' work.

The Algebraist is the latest in his collection, and will be a bit of a disappointment to his more die-hard fans insofar as it is not a "culture" novel. The Culture is a society created in some of his previous books that provides a truly fascinating crucible to use as a case-study, but the benefit of departing from that universe is that he can create a new one to examine, and also that new readers will not feel quite so alienated (it took 2 or 3 books before you really understood the culture anyhow).

Amazon.com don't seem to have it in stock yet, so I find myself forced to forego any commission and send you direct to Orbit Books for your buying pleasure. If you're in England, you can always go to Amazon.co.uk, because they have it.

Banks has the ability to create truly extreme characters and universes and make them seem quite normal. Many of the characters in this novel therefore exhibit characteristics that range from the eccentric to the deranged, but all fit nicely into their roles as though there could be nothing more normal than to have an insane psychopath as the dictator of a galaxy-spanning empire.

The Mercatoria : a semi-corrupt governmental organization that rules over most of the rest of the galaxy, are in the process of rebuilding their wormhole links to various systems since the last war, in which man was pitted against AIs, and man prevailed. Rebuilding wormholes is a tedious business that involves travelling large distances over hundreds of years. The planet Nasqueron and the system it inhabits are on the fringes of the galaxy, and therefore at the bottom of the list of planets expecting to be reconnected to the rest of the galaxy.

Something has been discovered, however, in the Nasqueron system. The seers, an order of scientists who examine and interact with the "Dwellers", eccentric gas-giant-dwelling creatures who have outlasted every other galactic species by a factor of hundreds, discovered some information that has every galactic power-broker heading to Nasqueron at the fastest speed their ships can carry them. Barely forewarned in time, Nasqueron must prepare, and Fassin Taak, the seer who inadvertently uncovered the information in the first place, must undertake a mission to find this information before every military force in the galaxy tears apart the Nasqueron system looking for it.

Through the lives and actions of a limited number of individuals caught up in the vast sequence of events, Banks describes with his usual flair how the actions of the few can affect the lives of all. Bringing in more and more species, and vividly painting a vision of the galaxy 2000 years older than today, he shares with us a fantastic world which we can inhabit for the duration of the novel. While not as internally coherent or believable as the worlds created in the Culture series of novels, you will nevertheless find it challenging to interrupt this story, so read it on holiday rather than in-between your working days!