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(Originally posted in the weblog.)
Speaking of Banks, I finished "Against a Dark Background" the other day. In general it was very good; rich setting, interesting characters, wild ideas. It's not a Culture novel, but it's solid hard SF, with just hints of wild AI and transcendant mysteries at the very edges.
Banks uses the same sort of "intermingled flashbacks" method as in "Use of Weapons" (although without the extreme twist at the end, unless I just missed it) to build up the main character's character, and that works quite well; she remains (mostly) sympathetic despite her clearly drawn flaws.
The ending is a bit of a meat-grinder in various respects, including a rather long messy "nearly everyone dies" bit that reminded me of all too much of the draggy parts of "Consider Phlebas". And then at the very end, when Banks finally reveals who was Behind It All and what it was All About, my reaction was a headshaking "Wah?". I eventually gave up trying to figure out what was supposed to have happened and what the various bad-guy motivations were supposed to have been. There may be some consistent and plausible reconstruction, but I didn't find it. Which was sort of too bad.
At the very very end one character does make off with a couple of pieces of magical tech (one of which never got the chance to live up to the hype with which it was introduced), so maybe he was planning a sequel (ten years ago). Or maybe he just got tired near the end. Hardly anyone's really good at endings.
But overall it was fun, good enough not to be spoiled by a messy ending, and I'm glad I read it. Maybe I'll go back and reread some Culture book soon.
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