Masterpiece!

I have waited a long time for 'Excession' to be available on Audible and was frankly worried that it couldn't be converted into an audio book but I needn't have worried! Peter Kenny's narration is superb, his interpretation of the characters is spot on and the book is wonderfully presented! I believe this to be 'Iain M. Banks' finest work and I have read them all, it is a true Sci-fi masterpiece on an epic scale, the characters, both the ships AI's, as well as the people, both Contact and alien, are well rounded and interesting, you want to hear their stories and you are sad when the book comes to it's thrilling climax! Lets hope there is a sequel soon! 5*

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27 people found this helpful

Superb story, better narration

This book is classic sci-fi covering all scales. There are human stories, various races, Culture Ship Minds and even, from certain viewpoints, the microscopic. Although it contains a huge amount of technical information on the Ships (the story being largely concerned with these) it never becomes bogged down in pointless detail and remains constantly fascinating. It treads a fine line between fleshing out the Culture universe as a whole and maintaining a strong element of mystery. It's great to see the all-powerful and infinitely intelligent ship Minds totally stumped and humbled by something they can't even begin to explain.



Peter Kenny's reading is of such a high standard that this constitutes, to my mind, a definitive edition of the story. This reading manages that rare feat of actually improving on the original work. Here's hoping that Iain M. Banks keeps on writing them and that Peter Kenny keeps on reading them!

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22 people found this helpful

One of my all time favourite banks books

Would you listen to Excession again? Why?

I would listen to this again and again. Its a fantastic story, and performed to perfection. I've read the book several times, and will most definitely listen to this book again and again.

What about Peter Kenny’s performance did you like?

Not only is it a fantastic story in true banks style, but the performance of Peter Kenny is just astounding. Only Peter could take such a challenging book (those that have read the book will understand) and turn it into an fantastic adventure into the culture universe. His range of voices are second to none and his consistency of character personalities and styles boggles the mind. How does he do it! Not only am I a huge fan of Banks, but now a huge fan of Peter Kenny.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book is one of the funniest in the culture universe. The ships personalities and egos are simply amazing and make this book easily one of banks greatest.

Any additional comments?

Peter Kenny has done this book an immense justice. The paper version of this book can be hard to read with all the ship names and chatter, but Peter Kenny pulls it off and makes this one of the best audio books I've ever listened to. Well done Peter!

Not bought it yet? Why not!

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9 people found this helpful

My favourite fiction book of all time

And really done justice by the reader who is just BRILLIANT. Characters are well voiced, the story is just awesome, I loved it so much when I read it the first time that I turned straight back to the first page and read it all over again. I'm going to do the same with the audio book.



I was so sorry to hear that Iain M. Banks had cancer and wish him all the very best

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7 people found this helpful

Rhysophylla

Great book, best Culture novel along with Use of Weapons, was looking forward to this audio book and it doesn't disappoint. Peter Kenny is brilliant as usual. Just a quick gripe about the review By Lester from Ilford; should you really be accepting reviews from people who haven't even bothered to finish a book before giving a review?

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7 people found this helpful

Not one for Audio

Totally my fault, I LOVED the book (read it a few times), and one of the main reasons was the wonderful names of all the ships, cracks me up.

But I should have read the reviews before, while the ships are talking to each other, there's a lot of code.. and more code and more binary stuff... When you read it you can just skip ahead, but listening to every digit was just painful, and in the end utterly lost the rhythm of the actual story (which is brilliant). Sorry.

Author 15 out of 10.
Narration 15 out of 10.

Just for me wasn't meant to be listened to.

Take with the usual critical pinch of salt.

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6 people found this helpful

Baffling

I love the culture series but this one completely baffled me. I listen in the car on my commute but found that I couldn't remember what had happened in the last listen and worse than that couldn't get into the book no matter how hard i tried. Navigating the book is near impossible as the chapter numbers appear to be duplicated and random. Most of the book seems to be taken up by communications between Culture ships which is tiring to listen to. The main human characters don't get much of a look in and the fact that their names keep changing as well as their genders, even in the same paragraph, does not make for an easy entertaining listen and as a result a main character is difficult to identify or care about. I think Mr Bainks has over indulged himself here, and although I'm sure its all very clever, as a book a it's a bit of a damp squib and I was just relived to finish it. Last couple of Culture books have disappointed. The majority of the earlier Culture books are superb, this has put me off buying any more. Maybe The Culture series has had it's day, well for me anyway, but if "From: The-smug-ship-name, tra point 5.2.3.42 to the what-on-earth-is-that-all-about mid point 7, stutter low pulse frequency 9.6.21.3..... " floats your boat then you may love it. Ho hum.

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5 people found this helpful

YOU WILL BE AMAZED (OR NOT GET IT AT ALL)!

Ian M Banks has an imagination almost beyond compare. I had not read any of his 'Culture' novels, so did not know what to expect. I don't think this novel would have worked has an audio book without the sheer brilliance of the narrator Peter Kenny.

With its mixture of weired aliens and sentient space ships the size of small planets able to travel at thousands of times the speed of light. The human's seeming to be a only a part of the overall scheme of things. The story is a vast intertwining saga of beauty and madness.

Excession is a story which will appeal to the open minded (or the insane!) Science Fiction fan. For me it was a joy, but be warned, some of you will just not get it!

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5 people found this helpful

Simply outstanding.

If you could sum up Excession in three words, what would they be?

Clever, clever, clever...

What did you like best about this story?

The story is my favourite of the Culture series. I've been a fan from the very beginning, and am only just starting to get into Audiobooks. I was, I must confess a little sceptical that this could be pulled off satisfactorily in this medium - Excession is involved, complex and quite challenging in all kinds of ways. It is, however, simply brilliant. The story's quality shines through, and the performance (for such it is - rather than just a reading) substantially enhanced it.

Which character – as performed by Peter Kenny – was your favourite?

Peter Kenny's performances (in this, and in other Culture novels - which I'm now working my way through) is utterly brilliant. These novels must present an enormous challenge in the range of characters (human, non-human, machine intelligences etc) who have to be brought to life and differentiated - and he does so with a brilliant range of voices and accents - none of which ever grate (as it would be so easy to do), or do anything other than add to the clarity of the story. It's really amazing.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Of course - but who has got 20 + hours?

Any additional comments?

Even if you're not a sci-fi fan, then Kenny's readings of the Culture novels will be a joy (although, in all honesty, if you're not a sci-fi fan already, then this is probably not the one to start with!)

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3 people found this helpful

Brilliant narration

The Culture novels - you either love them or hate them. This is one of the best of the series. The narration is excellent - one of the aspects of the novel that's a bit trying are the conversations between Minds, and the narrator does an amazing job of giving the Minds different voices which makes it much easier to follow.

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3 people found this helpful