Some strange phenomenon is discovered in the univers. it shows signs of technology everybody could until now only dream about.No wonder all the major players want to claim it...

the story itself shows a lot of promise, just as the various characters do. but sadly Banks is not able to keep in my opinion his choise of opening sequences is a little unlucky. it just doesnt let you "dive" in to the story. but it gets a lot better after about 30 pages.
there are a lot of ships involved, all with funny names. but because the ships do not need to be in the same scene to communicate i just couldnt remember who is who. in the whole book Bank attempts to adapt a lot of different styles, but just doesnt quite manage to make them convincing. or different enough. a lot like a first novel, of a new author just discovering his tools... but it isnt... ( )

One of the more entertaining Banks outings, that is, if you don't mind the usual tendency to Mind suicide he has a thing for.

A young (for this setting) woman who aspires to Culture Contact and Special Circumstancesness is given an opportunity by a drone long involved with their family to get involved.

A strange alien Big Not So Dumb Object in a strange part of space is involved. Also an alien race called the Affront. (Yes, they liked their nickname).

Plenty of appropriately named ships for this strange in space action, too.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/10... ( )

ZB9

This is not one of my all-time favourites by Iain M. Banks but heck, it still beats a lot of what passes for intelligent Science Fiction out there hands down. The Culture is just such a tempting and galvanising intellectual space, and the joke is definitely on the Affront (and all who could be identified with them). ( )

Sci-fi intrigue in a distant future as various human and otherwise characters (including sentient space-ships, lots of them) try to unravel the mystery of an apparently trillion-year old star and it's enigmatic, synthetic satellite. The plot gets a bit hard to follow, with conspiracies and love-affairs and tons of sci-fi jargon and unpronounceable alien names, but the interstellar society Banks' creates is colorful and the drama is compelling enough to carry through the dense plot. Some of it reminded me of Vernor Vinge's two 'deepness' novels, which I thought were overall better on most levels, but the Banks was smart and had its own imaginative spin on what a nearly ideal future for humanity might look like.

Unless I missed something, the mystery of the star itself (as opposed to the artifact) goes completely unaddressed at the story's end. I also thought it was a bit cheap to pull the rug out from under the reader regarding one particular element of the plot (concerning the original discoverer of the excession), which is set up as a central element and then tossed aside near the very end. This is the first of Banks' "Culture" series I've read; I'm not in any rush to read another, but for a epic space-adventure, even with its flaws, this book holds up pretty well. ( )