"Inversions" and "The Business"(Spoilers

[Big Orange]

I've recently finished reading the The Business (the first Banks fiction I've read) and Inversions. First the review of The Business, a book that was fairly badly received by many Banks' fans; I wasn't so sure about what The Business was trying to do and it never really reached it's full potential with a fairly interesting semi-fantasy premise, even though it was a reasonably page turner and I enjoyed it for what it was. I kinda of liked the James Bond crossed with Michael Palin flavour to this tale with the main character, Kate Telman, running around many pretty locations in Europe and Asia on the behest of a venerable, old and wealthy megacorp: the Business.

But I still thought too little happened, even though character development was subtly effective, the descriptions of exotic locations was well done and there was a sense of things not being right within the Business (was Mr. Hazelton the Business' grim cancer man who did things far worse than spying on illicit lovers? Was Thulahn going to be the Business' impregnable fortress? Was the Business' goal eventual world domination, but done on a far more subtle, vast scale that could not be properly perceived by even high ranking Business operatives like Telman within her lifetime?).

Either way I came away thinking that The Business was something of a missed opportunity that did not go anywhere truly nasty or epic and ended suddenly, even though Telman was implied to be standing up for the people of Thulahn against a big corporate buyout and the Business leadership was thrown into action over a money scam at a Scottish microchip factory/laboratory.

Inversions was another slightly odd Banks novel and is the last Culture that I've read (last until the eagerly awaited Matter); the world the story is set in is obviously an alien planet, with the twin suns and multiple moons, but the civilization is somewhat similar to feudal Eurasia from the Medieval period (maybe in some ways a few centuries after or before Earth's equivalent historical period). Anyway it's too late to keep on typing, so I'll come back later on finer details of Inversions anyway (not as good as LtW, UoW and TPoG, but perhaps more comparabled to TA, TSotA and CP. The Business is easily comparable to Excession; bloated, aimless and slightly mediocre).

[Tasoth]

Against a Dark Background felt like it ended way to suddenly. They introduce a few plot threads into and then blammo! Main character takes a hike into the sunset with them dangling.

[Big Orange]

Against a Dark Background felt like it ended way to suddenly. They introduce a few plot threads into and then blammo! Main character takes a hike into the sunset with them dangling.

The Business ended up on a climax with no genuine pay off, even though Kate Telman was going for the quiet life with a husband prince that really needed her and the Business leadership were thwarted by severe corruption within their ranks, with the sinister organization perhaps not getting round to buying out the tiny "country" of Thulahn after all - I thought Inversions had much more of a dramatic pay off, even though Inversions' build up to a climax was more subtle and labored in comparison to other works by Banks.

[andrewgpaul]

Against a Dark Background felt like it ended way to suddenly. They introduce a few plot threads into and then blammo! Main character takes a hike into the sunset with them dangling.

There's an epilogue to that somewhere on the 'net. Doesn't actually answer many dangling questions, but I quite liked it.

Mind you, AADB wasn't so much about the plot, for me; that was just a standard 'chase the McGuffin' plot straight out of D&D. It was the look at a vibrant culture that knows it's seen better days, and knows it's slowly declining without hope of a reprieve.

[Crazedwraith]

Against a Dark Background felt like it ended way to suddenly. They introduce a few plot threads into and then blammo! Main character takes a hike into the sunset with them dangling.

I just finished that one myself and thought, Hmm. This is third Banks book i've read and They've all ended up depressingly open. The other two are the Culture Books: Consider Phleabas and Use of Weapons. What does he have against actual endings?

[andrewgpaul]

Consier Phlebas does have an end. It's the story of the Changer, after all, not the Idiran war.

I always figured the whole point of Use of Weapons is that it doesn't have an end (or a beginning, really, for that matter); Zakalwe is simply one cog in the Culture machine. Given the last chapter featuring the Culture Agent who's name I forget, you could probably assume Zakalwe has given up working for SC.

[Big Orange]

I always figured the whole point of Use of Weapons is that it doesn't have an end (or a beginning, really, for that matter); Zakalwe is simply one cog in the Culture machine.

In the same way the two deep cover operatives in Inversions were both conducting duties for a much bigger plan for the planet that they were on? I certainly think that Kate Telman was just a small cog in a very big machine, with the Business going through with things that must've started many decades even centuries ago (the Business have a long term plan for the legalization of cocaine and they've even gone through the prototype stages of cocaine products for legitimate consumer use).

I think one of the best aspects of The Business was what this organization really wanted to do in the very high up land of Thulahn, they either wanted to buy out the "country" so that they could be represented in the UN, but they had other far more grander plans, the Business wanted to flatten one mountain out for a vastly bigger airfield and hollow out another, building a virtual underground city deep within it's granite walls; an insurmountable stronghold powered by a nuclear core (the Business' palatial HQ at Switzerland was also similarly impressive, it was implied to have an underground complex of it's own - what did the Business have there?).

I felt that Inversions had a definite ending with a typically violent climax with royal conspirators where the the Doctor was about to be raped in a heavily guarded and locked torture chamber, then suddenly the chief torturer's head exploded into tiny giblets and his henchmen's heads got seperated off their shoulders (earlier on an earlier set of torturers died in much the same fashion as well and soon after that their boss died in a mysterious stabbing in a party, where he was voyeuristically watching a sex show in private).

[Tasoth]

Consier Phlebas does have an end. It's the story of the Changer, after all, not the Idiran war.

I always figured the whole point of Use of Weapons is that it doesn't have an end (or a beginning, really, for that matter); Zakalwe is simply one cog in the Culture machine. Given the last chapter featuring the Culture Agent who's name I forget, you could probably assume Zakalwe has given up working for SC.

I thought the agent at the end of []Use of Weapons[/i] was The Chairmaker. I figured he hadn't die yet because Amtiskaw saved him from his aneurysm and quite possibly excised his memories of what he did. Someone like him is too precious to the Culture to lose.

[Androsphinx]

The first scene in "Use of Weapons" - in the abandoned palace - is set after the climax at the end.

IIRC Zakalwe is described as running his hands through his cropped hair still thinking that it was longer longer hair, (which had to be cut so the drone could save him).

[Singular Quartet]

Against a Dark Background felt like it ended way to suddenly. They introduce a few plot threads into and then blammo! Main character takes a hike into the sunset with them dangling.

I just finished that one myself and thought, Hmm. This is third Banks book i've read and They've all ended up depressingly open. The other two are the Culture Books: Consider Phleabas and Use of Weapons. What does he have against actual endings?

The Algebraist has a proper ending, as I recall. As does Look to Windward. It's been a while since I read either of them, though.