Review: Consider Phlebas

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was really disappointing in this novel. I was expecting a much more intellectual and meditative book. This is definitely more of a straight action thriller. Which is fine, but it’s an action thriller that also has some superficial ideas about religion that it wants to beat the reader over the head with. Basically the opposite experience I had with Vernon Vinge’s “A Fire Upon the Deep” (highly recommend).

The MacGuffin device doesn’t do anything beside be a MacGuffin. Most of the scenes in the book were either incoherent spasmodic action sequences or physically gross episodes (the main narrative starts with the principal protagonist getting buried in raw sewage).

(view spoiler)
The only unique thing I found in this novel was the mega-ship crashing into the iceberg. That was actually dope, and may read again.

The scenes with the girl who has a special relationship with probability was cool. I really wanted more of that. Wanted to spend more time with smarter/interesting characters.
(hide spoiler)

I probably would have loved this book around age 17. I might give the author another shot, since is the first in the series, but I’m not sure.


View all my reviews