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It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war.
It led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported.
Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those ancient mistakes has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq'.
The light from the second may not.
'Confirms Banks as the standard by which the rest of SF is judged' GUARDIAN
'In terms of sheer storytelling prowess and verve, Look to Windward is a work of genius' SFX
'A great book' NEW SCIENTIST
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After a harrowing battle flashback, the scene shifts to one of the Culture's wonderfully landscaped, ring-shaped artificial worlds called Orbitals. A ghastly light is awaited in the sky from distant suns detonated in the war of Consider Phlebas eight centuries earlier; an occasion for sombre festivity, pyrotechnics, and a memorial symphony from exiled alien composer Ziller. Meanwhile another tortured member of Ziller's race--aggressors and victims in that more recent civil war--arrives on a mission whose dreadful nature emerges through fragments of slowly returning memory. Elsewhere, in the exuberantly imagined airsphere home of floating "behemothaurs" almost too huge to imagine, the clue to what's happening falls belatedly into inexperienced hands...
While scattering red herrings and building tension for his final burst of literal and moral fireworks, Banks shows us around the Orbital in sensuous, lyrical travelogues. Rich scenery, high living, low comedy and dangerous sports contrast with reflections on mortality and the lingering aftershock of both those wars, recalled by ravaged veterans. Look to Windward culminates with deft twists, inversions, parallels, and savage justice, as unexpected as we expect from this author. Recommended. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Look to Windward" is a staggeringly imaginative chunk of hard sci-fi, with some of the strongest characterization and mind-bogglingly grandiose scope since Banks' classic "Consider Phlebus".
Who could not empathize with the battle-weary, bereaved Quilan whose tortured soul seeks oblivion, and yet who could not condemn him for the ghastly mission he agrees to undertake?
Has absolute power begun to corrupt the Culture? Can they honestly still claim the moral high ground after their ill-judged and catastrophic intervention in the war?
This novel touches on some pretty profound ethical dilemmas along the way. There is also much wise and possibly prophetic investigation into the nature of the soul, heaven and omnipotence.
Please don't get the impression that this is all heavy stuff though; there is much amusing and witty dialogue between the chief protagonists. Some of Ziller's bon mots will have you in stitches!
To the delight of the Culture anoraks, there is also a huge amount of information about Culture minds/hubs, personality backups, orbitals and (delightfully!) a roll call of some of the more eccentric Culture ship names.
How I would love to visit Masaq' Orbital; I guarantee you will too!
The only drawback to reading Banks is his penchant for putting at least one scene of stomach-churning nastiness into each book. Worrying about what horrors may lie in wait on the next page can make it hard for sensitive souls like me to enjoy reading him. Be reassured that in this one the scene in question comes only a few pages from the end, is very short, and is done with such a light touch that it almost fails to offend.
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