Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
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The third in the Culture series, and the hits just keep on coming. Without spoiling anything, the book follows an itinerant and tormented mercenary doing wet-work for the Culture. Lest you think that sounds hackneyed, the psychological and political commentary is incredible, and here's an excerpt from his ruminations (to whet your appetite):
He saw that which cannot be seen — a concept; the adaptive, self-seeking urge to survive, to bend everything that can be reached to that end, and to remove and to add and to smash and to create so that one particular collection of cells can go on, can move onward and decide, and keeping moving and keeping deciding, knowing that — if nothing else — at least it lives.
And it had two shadows, it was two things: it was the need and it was the method. The need was obvious: to defeat what opposed its life. The method was that taking and bending of materials and people to one purpose, the outlook that everything could be used in the fight; that nothing could be excluded, that everything was a weapon, and the ability to handle those weapons, to find them and choose which one to aim and fire; that talent, that ability, that use of weapons.
Science Fiction at its best: literary in places, mysterious, action-packed, with a few sharp plot twists thrown in for spice (that utterly transform the story in retrospect). The style is also, by now, predictably excellent with many memorable passages, some mild philosophy, and even a little light verse. Not quite as high-test as the Player of Games but still very, very good. I would give it four and a half stars if I could because its a very careful book doing some challenging things with narrative (e.g., the b-plot runs in reverse chronological order, and the twists have to work in both directions). Well-worth the read if you enjoy military or espionage-focused science fiction (and no prior reading in the series is required!).