Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Life’s a Game

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

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CBR Bingo: Play I read a number of Iain M. Bank’s Culture novels about ten years ago and, while I remember enjoying them thoroughly, for whatever reason, I never ended up finishing the series. They’re technically all standalones, but I didn’t want to jump back in halfway through without having a strong recollection of the previous books, so decided to do a re-read. The Player of Games is technically the second book in the series, but from what I remembered (and from some other opinions I’ve […]

How blah can you be without hitting boring? Read on to find out.

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

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The tournament arc is one of my least favorite tropes in any kind of action driven story, be it fantasy or science fiction, in any medium not limited to but including manga, anime, cartoon, comic book, novel, series or stand alone. It always feels like filler, light on character or plot or much of anything, just a random series of conflicts that build up to the main one in which the world/universe/whatever as we know it is at stake. None of that is quite true […]

Once, twice, and then I gave up

Dune by Frank Herbert

Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross

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I’ve watched the newest version of Dune a couple of times now and, so far, I’m enjoying it. I contemplated going back and finishing the book but, considering it has been years since I started reading it, it would make the most sense to start again from the beginning. If you have to talk yourself into reading something just to convince yourself “but this time, it will be worth it,” then maybe this book isn’t for you. Along with Dune, I’ve listed a few other […]

“This is not a heroic age.”

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

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The Player of Games is the second in seven “Culture series” novels by Iain M. Banks. However, the novels don’t need to be read in order (or so I’m told). I started here and got along just fine. In The Player of Games, Gurgeh is a well-known game player in The Culture – what appears to be a federated community of like-minded humanoid and synthezoid beings dedicated to the finer things in life. Work isn’t necessary, space is free to roam, decadent space islands are […]

Vital piece of an important literary legacy

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

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Iain (M) Banks is one, or should I say two, of my favourite authors.  It’s been a while since I read any of his Culture novels, so I went back to the beginning with Consider Phlebas, the first in a series of standalone novels in this shared setting.  If you are not familiar with Banks, this is a great place to start. The Culture is a galaxy spanning symbiotic civilisation of humans and sentient machines, living decadent post-scarcity lives.  Consider Phlebas is set during their war […]

A little more than one hundred days into the fortieth year of her confinement, Dajeil Gelian was visited in her lonely tower overlooking the sea by an avatar of the great ship that was her home.

Excession by Iain M Banks

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This is the fifth book in the Culture series by Iain M Banks, and the fourth proper novel. There’s a novella tucked in there that is interesting but not really a full story. This once still has the classic touches of humor, wildness, hilarious naming conventions. The novels are generally a mix of Ursula Le Guin’s Hainish books (by which I mean he pretty much rips her off in a number of ways) and a very very very toned down Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. […]



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