I listened to it via Audible.com. The only one I've went back and listened to the second time. Pure science fiction at it's best! ( )

I found this a tough read. I usually love Banks' science fiction, and this had some good elements, but I just didn't enjoy it. ( )

It happens to me sometimes that when I go shopping for the daily groceries, somewhere between the bread and butter I realize "this is not what I want today---not this but something special." Not knowing exactly what that special good should be easily leads to quite random collection of what I think is Good.

If and when the indecision goes on at home when it is time to prepare the Special Meal (hungry already, not at my best at all), the easy way is to put it all together, hoping for the best. The result usually isn't the best. The good stuff is still good, but the result is less than the sum of its ingredients. And you know that all the way.

The Algebraist by Iain M Banks is that meal. There are lots of good things in it. I really admire his imagination, his ability to create societies, cultures and lifeforms, and story (of a search for a secret network of wormholes, the fastest way to move about in between solar systems and galaxies in a universe where hyper space has not been invented) isn't bad either, some of the twists are clever, some feel cheap, and the best are such that you can not decide which one it is.

I often thought there was a bit too much of everything. There were loose ends, character development that did not develop and a few tedioud descriptions of this or that dwellers of one or other planet. And it all adds up to zero... ( )

The chaotic, zany Dweller civilisation is a wonderful play on the shallowness of selfindulgence, while everything else goes to hell. A David and Goliath story of galactic proportions. ( )

This book has it all - a nice main character to identfy with, some technical space-mumbo jumbo, a real sadistic villain, war, love and a beautifully drawn alien society, which after a reading for a while seems almost real. One of the best books I've read this year ( )