Third book in the Culture series and so far my favourite of the three I have read (I've also read Consider Phlebas and Player of Games).
The novel follows Cheradenine Zakalwe, a murky character, with a more than obscure past. He's the perfect soldier who can turn almost anything into a weapon. He does not belong in the Culture but works for them in the Special Circumstances (division?). The Culture have a policy of not interfering with other civilisations, but obviously, they do, in "Special Circumstances".
The structure of the novel is nonlinear, with chapters recounting Zakalwe's latest mission in the present, intercalated with flashback chapters (chronologically in reverse) narrating the story of Zakalwe since childhood and previous missions. Initially, this structure felt confusing and made my reading harder. The story seemed to be all over the place, just like the protagonist’s mind... and then it clicked.
This is a powerful story with layers and layers of meaning. From the protagonist’s complexity, his questionable morality, violence and vulnerability to the backdrop of the Culture, of which we get only fragments of its ideologies, society and technology. But those bits and pieces are enough to imagine the enormous scale of their power and knowledge.
The ending is great, shocking and unexpected.
Recommend.
No comments:
Post a Comment