# Consider Phlebas

![Book cover of Consider Phlebas](/books/covers/consider_phlebas.jpg)

by [Iain M. Banks](/books/authors/iain_m_banks/)
Book 1 of [Culture](/books/series/culture/)
★★☆☆☆

## Review

I've been meaning to read Banks's the _Culture_ series for
more than two decades, so I was excited to finally get started. Unfortunately,
_Consider Phlebas_ was not a great introduction.

The book is considered a "space opera", and there are some hints at
interesting, grand ideas: a ship that can set off every warhead on board to
send a coded message while still escaping the blast, a truly galactic scale
war, and giant trains used as underground command centers. But the story
itself feels small compared to those ideas. It is the story of one man, Horza.

Horza bumbles his way from situation to situation, each one worse than the
last. He is unlikable, unskilled, and has little impact on the world.[^banks]
His vignettes are nasty, brutish, and short. Banks's use of violence and
gruesome imagery---something [he is infamous for][wasp]---is off putting.

[wasp]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wasp_Factory

[^banks]: Banks says this is the point:

    > I've read so many SF books where the action is terribly, terribly
    > important to the fate of everyone and everything. That fate of a whole
    > planet can hang on the outcome of a protagonist's actions. Sometimes,
    > the fate of the entire universe! Well, if you look at history, this is
    > very unusual indeed. What usually happens is that people suffer and die
    > and get involved in all sorts of mayhem and catastrophe and it doesn't
    > make that much difference in the end.
    >
    > That was one of the ideas behind _Consider Phlebas_.
    >
    > --- [*Interview with Iain M. Banks*](https://web.archive.org/web/20071223184232/http://homepages.compuserve.de/Mostral/interviews/starlog94.htm).

I think that Horza's bleak reality is supposed to contrast with his belief
that his side of the war is the more enlightened one, but it was just
unpleasant to read about him _drowning in literal shit_ and _having his
fingers chewed off_.

I hope that [_The Player of Games_](/books/the_player_of_games/) is better.

## Reviews that mention _Consider Phlebas_
- [_Endymion_](/books/endymion/)
- [_A Fire Upon The Deep_](/books/a_fire_upon_the_deep/)
- [_The Hydrogen Sonata_](/books/the_hydrogen_sonata/)
- [_Inversions_](/books/inversions/)
- [_The Left Hand of Darkness_](/books/the_left_hand_of_darkness/)†
- [_Look to Windward_](/books/look_to_windward/)
- [_Lords of Uncreation_](/books/lords_of_uncreation/)†
- [_Matter_](/books/matter/)
- [_A Memory Called Empire_](/books/a_memory_called_empire/)†
- [_The Player of Games_](/books/the_player_of_games/)
- [_The Shadow of the Torturer_](/books/the_shadow_of_the_torturer/)
- [_Shards of Earth_](/books/shards_of_earth/)†
- [_The Sirens of Titan_](/books/the_sirens_of_titan/)
- [_The State of the Art_](/books/the_state_of_the_art/)
- [_Surface Detail_](/books/surface_detail/)†
- [_This Is How You Lose the Time War_](/books/this_is_how_you_lose_the_time_war/)†
- [_Wild Seed_](/books/wild_seed/)†
- [_Ymir_](/books/ymir/)

† _Mentioned via a link to the series._

## Related Books
- [_The Player of Games_](/books/the_player_of_games/) by [Iain M. Banks](/books/authors/iain_m_banks/) --- ★★★★★: The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks’s, is the second novel in the Culture series. It tells the story of Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a master game player who is recruited to play Azad, an incredibly complex game that serves as the basis for the Empire of Azad’s entire government.
- [_Use of Weapons_](/books/use_of_weapons/) by [Iain M. Banks](/books/authors/iain_m_banks/) --- ★★★★★: Use of Weapons is the third novel in the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. It tells the story of a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe, who works for the Culture’s Special Circumstances division.
- [_The State of the Art_](/books/the_state_of_the_art/) by [Iain M. Banks](/books/authors/iain_m_banks/) --- ★★★☆☆: The State of the Art is a collection of short stories by Iain M. Banks. It contains some stories related to the Culture universe and some general science fiction tales. Although it has been considered utopian fiction, it comes across as rather bleak.