Inversions

Iain M. Banks described this book as his attempt to write a "non-Cuture culture novel." I would say that he succeeded admirably!

At a first (or second or third) glance, this novel would seem to have littel in common with the other 8 culture novels. However, if you look at all the clues, gland some "Quicken", and reflect carefully, you will come to the inescapable conclusion that this must be a culture novel - probably.

There are a number of highly memorable characters in this novel, and Banks keeps you guessing about exactly which ones are the good guys and which ones aren't - right up to the concluding chapter.

It really is very difficult to pigeonhole this novel into a particular sub-genre. It does not fit well into any one the worldswithend categories. I settled on `Science-Fantasy because the novel resembles one of those books - but there is nothing here to exclude it being straight science-fiction, either.

Enjoy!