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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2115 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 1, 2023

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Iain Banks' Use of Weapons. The Culture novels tend to involve an outside protagonist, one who bridges the gap between the universe of solved problems and the one of problems which just haven't been solved yet. In this case, he is an ageless mercenary, periodically contracted by the Culture to play firebrand or warlord on some pre-Contact world. I find this refreshing; he feels much more like a Culture citizen than the agents of Consider Phlebas or Look to Windward despite operating in a very different environment.

Awww yiss. But how about that fire drop Player of Games? Eh? That shit was lit dawg.

One hundred percent. But! I didn’t mention it specifically because the protagonist actually is a citizen, rather than a visitor.

Oh I must be misremembering. Either way yeah Banks is the shit.

Player of Games is a citizen going out to play games. Windward is a cat terrorist coming to tour an Orbital, and Phlebas is a shapechanging outsider’s half-assed quest for Justice.

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