 First edition | |
| Author | Iain M. Banks |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Peter Kenny |
| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Series | Culture |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Orbit |
Publication date | 7 October 2010 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 604 (Hardcover) |
| ISBN | 978-0-316-12340-2 |
| Preceded by | Matter |
| Followed by | The Hydrogen Sonata |
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks is a science fiction novel in his Culture series, first published in the UK on 7 October 2010 [1] and the US on 28 October 2010. [2]
The events of Surface Detail take place around 2970 AD, according to Banks. [3] The events occur six to eight hundred years after the "Chel Debacle", depicted in the earlier novel Look to Windward which is set seventy-eight years after the events in Use of Weapons .
Each chapter of the book covers one or more of the six main protagonists—Lededje Y'breq, a chattel slave; Joiler Veppers, an industrialist and playboy; Gyorni Vatueil, a soldier; Prin and Chay, Pavulean academics; and Yime Nsokyi, a Quietus agent. Some of the plot occurs in simulated environments. As the book begins, a war game—the "War in Heaven"—has been running for several decades. The outcome of the simulated war will determine whether societies are allowed to run artificial Hells, virtual afterlives in which the mind-states of the dead are tortured. The Culture, fiercely anti-Hell, has opted to stay out of the war while accepting the outcome as binding.
Vatueil is a soldier who has fought his way up the ranks of the war game to a position where he can determine policy. He is instrumental in the decision to cheat—first by attempting to hack into and subvert the war-game, and when this fails by moving the simulated war into the real world.
Prin and Chay belong to a species that use the threat of Hell to control the behaviour of their population. While still alive, they enter the Pavulean Hell on a mission to reveal the existence and details of this Hell to the general population. Prin succeeds in getting out, but has to leave his partner Chay behind, where she is subsequently tortured, restored to some semblance of sanity, and finally given a role as an angel in Hell who is able to release one soul a day by killing them. Prin testifies to the Pavulean parliament of his experience in Hell and attempts to convince them that it should be abolished.
Veppers is the richest individual in his society, the multi-planet Sichultian Enablement. Y'breq, a frequent victim of rape by Veppers, is murdered by him as she attempts to escape. She is unexpectedly reincarnated ("revented," in Culture terms) aboard a Culture ship, having been secretly implanted with a neural lace some ten years before. She immediately wants to return to her homeworld, to find and kill Veppers.
The book hinges on Veppers' involvement in the War in Heaven. He initially appears to be a bit-player, but his involvement is gradually revealed to be more and more critical. The final revelation is that he has made some of his fortune by providing the hardware to run the Hells of various species; over a century he has accumulated about 70% of all the Hells. The hardware is located on his country estate on the planet Sichult. He sets up a secret deal to have the Hells destroyed in an attack which is to be blamed upon the Culture. His motivation is that such an attack will release him from his contracts to run the Hells, which would have become worthless if the anti-Hell side won, but which he cannot wriggle out of in any other way.
Y'breq travels back to Sichult on the Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints, an advanced and "very slightly psychotic" Culture warship. In hot pursuit is Yime Nsokyi, a Culture agent tasked with preventing Y'breq from killing Veppers. As they and their ships arrive, things come to a head.
The Culture agents conspire to arrange that the attack on Veppers' estate successfully destroys the Hells, while simultaneously appearing to attempt to stop the attack. They also conspire to ensure that Veppers' secret deal is revealed. Veppers himself is at the estate's mansion during the attack, where Y'breq finds him for the final, personal, showdown.
The epilogue reveals Vatueil's identity as Zakalwe, using an alias that is an anagram of Livueta, the character in Use of Weapons whose forgiveness Zakalwe sought.
Roz Kaveney of The Independent said that this was a poor book to introduce new readers to the Culture, but "far from the worst introduction to Banks's series." [4] Alastair Mabbott of The Herald describes the story as having "murder, revenge, pursuit and subterfuge taking place against a backdrop of escalating tension [that] stands up very well, and makes the prospect of further books in the Culture series somewhat less imposing." [5] UK book review site The Bookbag remarked that "... what sets this book apart is the quality of the writing and the depth of the author's imagination." [6]
On an episode of Lex Fridman's podcast released on April 29, 2022, the artist Grimes said that Surface Detail of the Culture series is the greatest science fiction book ever written. [7]
Iain Banks was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. After the success of The Wasp Factory (1984), he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, appeared in 1987, marking the start of the Culture series. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
The Wasp Factory is the first novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1984. Before the publication of The Wasp Factory, Banks had written several science fiction novels that had not been accepted for publication. Banks decided to try a more mainstream novel in the hopes that it would be more readily accepted, and wrote about a psychopathic teenager living on a remote Scottish island. According to Banks, this allowed him to treat the story as something resembling science fiction – the island could be envisaged as a planet, and Frank, the protagonist, almost as an alien. Following the success of The Wasp Factory, Banks began to write full-time.
Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. It is the first in a series of novels about an interstellar post-scarcity society called the Culture.
The Culture is a fictional interstellar post-scarcity civilisation or society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and features in a number of his space opera novels and works of short fiction, collectively called the Culture series.
The State of the Art is a short story collection by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1991. The collection includes some stories originally published under his other byline "Iain Banks", as well as the title novella and others set in Banks's Culture fictional universe.
The Player of Games is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1988. It was the second published Culture novel. A film version was planned by Pathé in the 1990s, but was abandoned.
Excession is a 1996 science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. It is the fifth in the Culture series, a series of ten science fiction novels which feature a utopian fictional interstellar society called the Culture. It concerns the response of the Culture and other interstellar societies to an unprecedented alien artifact, the Excession of the title.
In discussion of science fiction, a Big Dumb Object (BDO) is any mysterious object, usually of extraterrestrial or unknown origin and immense power, in a story which generates an intense sense of wonder by its mere existence. To a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates this.
Look to Windward is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 2000. It is Banks' sixth published novel to feature the Culture. The book's dedication reads: "For the Gulf War Veterans". The novel takes its title from a line in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land:
Use of Weapons is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1990. It is the third novel in the Culture series.
Feersum Endjinn is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1994. It won a British Science Fiction Association Award in 1994.
Against a Dark Background is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1993. It was his first science fiction novel not to feature, or be set in, the Culture.
The Algebraist is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, published in print in 2004. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2005.
Christopher Rodonanté Cwej, usually just known as Chris Cwej, is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures range of spin-offs based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. His surname is properly pronounced "Shvay", but he pronounces it "Kwedge" rather than keep correcting people.
A floating timeline is a device used in fiction, particularly in long-running serials in comics and animation as well as other media, to explain why characters age little or not at all over a period of time—despite real-world markers like notable events, people and technology appearing in the works and correlating with the real world. The term "floating timeline" is used in the comics community to refer to series that take place in a "continuous present". This timeline is due to the fact that the authors have no need to accommodate the aging of their characters, which is also typical of most animated television shows. It is used as a plot device to "explain or explain away inconsistencies in the way that events and characters exist within a world".
The Also People is an original novel written by Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, Roz and Kadiatu.
Roz Kaveney is a British writer, critic, and poet, best known for her critical works about pop culture and for being a core member of the Midnight Rose collective. Kaveney's works include fiction and non-fiction, poetry, reviewing, and editing. Kaveney is also a transgender rights activist. She has contributed to several newspapers such as The Independent and The Guardian. She is also a founding member of Feminists Against Censorship and a former deputy chair of Liberty. She was deputy editor of the transgender-related magazine META.
The Culture series is a science fiction series written by Scottish author Iain M. Banks and released from 1987 through to 2012. The stories centre on The Culture, a utopian, post-scarcity space society of humanoid aliens, and advanced superintelligent artificial intelligences living in artificial habitats spread across the Milky Way galaxy. The main themes of the series are the dilemmas that an idealistic, more-advanced civilization faces in dealing with smaller, less-advanced civilizations that do not share its ideals, and whose behaviour it sometimes finds barbaric. In some of the stories action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture in its plans to civilize the galaxy. Each novel is a self-contained story with new characters, although reference is occasionally made to the events of previous novels.
The Hydrogen Sonata is a science fiction novel by Scottish author Iain M. Banks, set in his techno-utopian Culture universe. The hardcover edition was released on 4 October 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 9 October in the United States. The book's release marked 25 years since the publication of Banks' first Culture novel. A paperback edition of the book was released on 5 September 2013 in the United Kingdom, and on 10 September in the United States. The Hydrogen Sonata was Banks' last science fiction novel, as he died of gall bladder cancer in June 2013.
Lex Fridman is a Russian-American computer scientist, podcaster, and artificial intelligence researcher. He is a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he hosts the Lex Fridman Podcast, a podcast and YouTube series.