Specify Containing Books The Algebraist
| Title | : | The Algebraist |
| Author | : | Iain M. Banks |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 434 pages |
| Published | : | June 1st 2006 by Night Shade Books (first published October 2004) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Space. Space Opera |
Iain M. Banks
Paperback | Pages: 434 pages Rating: 4.02 | 17675 Users | 749 Reviews
Chronicle In Pursuance Of Books The Algebraist
It is 4034. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young & fighting pointless formal wars. Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of—part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony— Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer—a war threatening to overwhelm everything & everyone he's ever known.
Identify Books Toward The Algebraist
| Original Title: | The Algebraist |
| ISBN: | 1597800449 (ISBN13: 9781597800440) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Luseferous, Fassin Taak, Taince Yarabokin |
| Setting: | 'glantine |
| Literary Awards: | Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (2005), Locus Award Nominee for Best SF Novel (2005) |
Rating Containing Books The Algebraist
Ratings: 4.02 From 17675 Users | 749 ReviewsColumn Containing Books The Algebraist
This is a new genre for me. My first (so far as I can recall) "Space Opera," and I was beginning to think the fat alien would never sing...Uneven reactions to an uneven book. In the book's favor, the writing is intelligent and challenging, and Banks' imagination is absolutely stunning. That alone is enough to make the book worth reading. However, there was plenty here that was off-putting. The tone of the book is uneven, and one wonders whether Banks can't decide to be Asimov or Douglas Adams.That is hours and hours of my life I will never get back. My experience is that this book is the most boring book on the face of the planet (okay, there are a few that could beat it) and I can't for the life of me imagine why it was nominated for a Hugo. However, I do have friends that like it, so I'm going with this wasn't to my taste.There was this weird secondary plot too that seemed entirely unnecessary, and in a book that was bloated with confusing flashbacks, lengthy sentences, excessive
I'm of two minds with this novel. I'm tempted to rate it based on all of the novelist's other works and rate it lower just because it isn't the most fascinating out of the bunch. It's also not a Culture novel but I feel like it might ALMOST be. :) Gas giant aliens take the forefront of this novel, although the main character is human. We get a real treat of far future cultures and alien aliens that just happen to take the term "gas-bag" and OWN it. I have NO COMPLAINTS about the world-building
Fassin Taak is a Seer but he is a young Seer and to him its all about the exploration and the physical experience of directly meeting with and conversing with the Dwellers. His elders are more comfortable just communing remotelyThe Dwellers are an ancient race that populate gas giant planets which are basically an iron core surrounded by a lot of hot toxic gases. Doesnt sound like much fun, but with the Dwellers having been in the galaxy, and rumoured to be in all other galaxies, for billions of
Straight to the favourites shelve. The Algebraist has all the hallmarks of excellent space opera: great world-building and characters, mystery, fascinating concepts, exciting plot, interesting aliens, lots of reveals and (in this case especially) humour. What I liked most about this novel though are the Dwellers. They're an ancient, galaxy-spanning species of aliens that live inside the atmosphere of gas giants. They have a very laissez-faire attitude towards events outside their homeworlds or
Banks returns to widescreen space-opera in this non-Culture standalone, featuring the galaxy-spanning multispecies, oxygen-breathing Mercatoria empire and its interactions with the more-numerous gas-giant Dwellers, who seem to have colonized most of the jovians in the Milky Way. And they're old. Really, really Old. Plus, exploding spaceships!The Mercatoria power-structure is rococo Raj-in-Space -- there's a fabulous court scene straight out of Victoria and Albert's coronation in India, featuring
The Algebraist: Endlessly creative, perhaps overly soIve had The Algebraist on the shelf for quite a few years, patiently waiting its turn in the reading rotation. But since Iain M. Banks is most famous for his post-scarcity AI-dominated Culture space opera series, I suspect his non-Culture novels often get less attention. In particular, The Algebraist is a fairly hefty tome, so I hesitated to tackle it. However, I discovered an audio version on Audible UK (many of his books are strangely
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