Subject: Review of Iain M. Banks: Use of Weapons

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Koenig)
Date: 23 Jul 91 14:21:15 GMT

Use of Weapons
			by Iain M. Banks
		Review Copyright (c) 1991 Thomas Koenig

%A Iain M. Banks
%T Use Of Weapons
%I Orbit Books
%C London
%D 1990
%G ISBN 0 7088 8358 3
%P 371 pp.
%O Trade Paperback, 7.99 Pound Sterling

After CONSIDER PHLEBAS and PLAYER OF GAMES, this is the third book which
Banks has written about his "Culture" universe.

It tells the story of a mercenary for the Culture, who manipulates less-
developed societies to make them more conformant to the Culture's ideals, by
direct military action or by intrigue.

He is reactivated and sent out on a mission, to get an old friend out of
retirement who the Culture wants to take part in a conflict.  Intermingled
with this, there are episodes reaching further and further back into his
traumatic past.

Although USE OF WEAPONS is, on the surface, a military/espionage/space opera
novel, Banks spends more effort on examining characters than on action; the
"hero's" (big quotation marks there) characterization reminded me of John Le
Carre's better work. The writing is good, the imagination great and the
ship names are just fantastic (ever heard of a warship called "What are the
civilian applications"?)

Because of the complex structure of the book, it is rather hard to follow; I
had to read very carefully to find out what happened when.

Banks has a tendency, in his Culture novels, to portray the Culture's
enemies in a very negative way, which can be very irritating at times.
Fortunately, this trait, which spoiled PLAYER OF GAMES for me, is only
slightly present in this book.

As a caveat, some of the scenes are rather brutal, and some of the humour is
rather sick.

Some familiarity with the Culture universe (in other words, reading CONSIDER
PHLEBAS first) is probably a good thing when reading this book, in order not
to get detracted by too many missing pieces of information.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; I'm sure that if Iain Banks continues to
write with this quality, he will turn out many a masterpiece yet.

Thomas Koenig
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