Utter classic. Almost a crossover novel into horror (Iain Banks writes horror fiction also), Banks successfully twists the space opera into a new art form. Registered for the Christchurch Bookcrossing Convention.

Seeing has how I did not get this book labelled up in time for the convention, I am offering it as a bookray. If you like sci-fi and haven't yet read this book, you should do yourself a favour and join this bookray.

The plot covers a mercenary hired to work for The Culture.

The Culture is a future Upotian society where automation has freed the citizens of drudgery and various artificial intelligences ("Minds") have full citizenship rights and generally run things. Banks has a whole series of books based on The Culture.

The Culture is generally benign but it is very powerful and likes to get its own way... hence the "Special Circumstances" division. Our protagonist is not a citizen of the Culture but does some of their dirty work.

The title refers to his expertise in the military arts and also to The Culture's employment of him.

See Amazon for more information.

Participants are:
boreal (Dunedin, Otago New Zealand)
hadash1 (Dunedin, Otago New Zealand)
alpherea (Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand)
Cathietay (Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand)
mundoo (Hindmarsh Island, South Australia Australia)
Fleebo (Sydney, New South Wales Australia)

1. Make a journal entry when you receive the book to let us know you got it.
2. When you finish the book, make another journal entry telling us what you thought.
3. Send a PM to the next on the list asking for their address. If you are too busy to read the book in the next few weeks, let me know and I will move you down the list.
4. I reserve the right to sort participants by geographic location.
5. Enjoy!!

Posted to boreal to start the bookray.

This arrived today -thanks Gwilk! I will make a start on it as soon as I have finished my present book -shouldn't be long.

My husband nabbed this before I had a chance to read it and he thought it was great, it grabbed him from the start and he enjoyed the twist at the end. He says he would like to read more by this author.
I am sorry to say that I didn't like it as much, the way the story jumped from past to present sort of put me off. The rating is the one my husband gave it.
Thanks for giving us a chance to read it.

I am hoping to pass it onto Hadash1 at our first Dunedin get-together tomorrow at Tangenté.

Hadash1 didn't make it to the meet-up so the book was put in his mailbox this morning (Tuesday).
Enjoy!

I did my best, but only got up to page 21. Is this one of a series? Perhaps I ought to get hold of the first. Am sending this on to alherea as soon as I receive an address.

Sorry for the delay. I got it in the mail on Monday, opened the package and read it right away, unfortunately it then got lost briefly amongst the mess in my room.

Anyway, the book was interesting. I did think it was a little confusing, not really what I'd usually read, but still good. Might re-read it a couple of times, think I skipped a bit too much in the wrong places.

Received safe and sound. It is next on my pile.

Great read. I am sure I read the first one in the series years ago. this one seemed familiar, but like others say, it is a stand alone work.

I am sorry it took so long for me to move it on to OZ, but it should be there now, or very soon.

Arrived today in the mail.
One and a half books ahead of it.

I found this a confusing book to read. I nearly gave up several times as the jumping from present to past became a bit tedious at times. I did however continue and finish it.

The author had a good writing style on many sections of the books, notably the 'present' sections and it was that story that kept me reading the book. The ending was different, but then I wasn't sure how the books was going to end and so it wasn't necesarily a big surprise to me.

Unfortunately a forgettable book to me.

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted to fleebo

Received from Mundoo today. Thanks! I plonked it down on top of my TBR pile, and it just so happens that the very next one down is another Iain Banks: his Scottish travelogue "Raw Spirit". Spooky, no? Well, no, I guess not really.

Borrowed from Fleebo. I got into this book very fast and found it quite hard to put down. The time jumps were enjoyable and made more sense than many books which use that sort of style. The only thing that let me down a bit was the prologue/epilogue which didn't really seem to fit.

This one has been passed along to my boyfriend, who is yet to journal any book. So don't get your hopes up. :)

Love the universe. However, let's write a book so you can actually follow the plot-line. The time jumps are badly marked and very anoying. Some lessons to be learned from Katharine Kerr about making it clear where and when in time you are!

A great book - but the ending left me feeling cheated. On the whole, this was a lot more fun than I was expecting. (I had read "The Player of Games" before, set in the same universe, but I remember nothing lighthearted about that one... actually, I barely remember it at all.) Having been amply forewarned about the flashbacks, flash forwards and flash left-a-bits, I didn't have too many issues with them, although I'm sure that I don't have the chronology completely straight in my mind. I'm not convinced that all the clues were actually there.
It was weird the way the Culture didn't press its technology onto the other civilisations it was trying to influence. Tech usually spreads much faster than ideology.
Anyway, thanks very much for sending this book my way. I plan to pass it on to neerav now, as it's on his wishlist.

thanks Fleebo: -)

A decent book let down by non-linear story telling .. definitely not a book you should read over many small sessions

RELEASE NOTES:

released at meetup