Another great book from Iain M Banks.

I'd already read this as a physical book, but I'd forgotten the title - I decided that I should just listen again anyway and I was really glad I did. Once you've read it once, then the second time you listen to it in a completely different way - I highly recommend leaving it a few years after the first listen and then listening to it again.

Anyway, it's pretty much impossible to say anything without spoiling it for others with this book so all I'll say is that it's up there with the best of the Iain M Banks books for me.

Great narration too - this is one of my favourite narrators. I made a list of them after a while so I'd be able to search based on narrator and not just author - I reckon it's that important - plus great narrators don't tend to do terrible books. I also really like Scott Brick who read Dune (amazing), Toby Longworth who read Iain M Banks - Matter, Samuel West who read The Day of the Triffids (amazing), Sean Barrett who read The Left Hand of God (really really good), and my favourite of the lot is Anton Lesser who read the Algebraist, which I didn't really enjoy - although I think I need to just try again with it and do it all over a few days and not try and do anything else at the same time.

30 people found this helpful

Unconvincing apart from a few good moments

Any additional comments?

Without spoilers: This is two separate stories, alternating a chapter of each, about a mercenary working for The Culture. One is his latest, and perhaps final, mission. The other goes backwards in time through disconnected episodes in his life, gradually revealing the secret of his past and the reason for his (believe it or not) fear of chairs.

For me, the high point of the book was "numeral 4", which contains a wonderful speech on the merits of simple work, and some excellent philosophy on the nature of machine intelligence (I confess this is my professional field but I recommend this short section to anyone).

Unfortunately, despite that little highlight, overall I found the book uninspiring and lacking the excitement and imagination of the previous books in the series. At the end I felt unsatisfied. The final revelation was so unconvincing as to be a complete let-down, though I guess it did explain the chairophobia. It's supposed to be a surprise so I won't give anything away.

The book contains several weak episodes with irrelevant loose ends. There were also a lot of passages describing altered consciousness caused by pain or drugs. Some readers may like these. I found them rather annoying and pretentious and nowhere near as good as the fantastical descriptions of a man in a coma which comprise 90% of his prize-winning novel, The Bridge.

Overall I am not sure what to think about The Culture series. I greatly enjoyed The Player of Games. Then I read Consider Phlebas and this one, both of which I found a let-down, so I probably won't read any more from the series. If anyone understands my point of view and liked other books in the series, I would be delighted to hear your comments and recommendations.

7 people found this helpful

Iain M Banks & Peter Kenny... brilliant!

One of my favourite authors and a top class voice actor, you cant get much better in my opinion!

7 people found this helpful

Genius at the top of his game; RIP Iain (M.) Banks

Would you listen to Use of Weapons again? Why?

Without giving too much away, you're more or less compelled to read it [listen to it] again (a loose analogy from the film world might be "The Sixth Sense"). Indeed, I've listened to this audio-book again after having read the physical book several times.

Who was your favorite character and why?

All characters are brilliantly portrayed and "act" impeccably (true to their described personas with excellent dialogue); Zakalwe is the stand-out character as hero/anti-hero of the story.

What about Peter Kenny’s performance did you like?

Superb reading with helpful accents (consistent and not overdone) for character identification. I don't think a better job could have been done without a cast (and if this ever gets made into a film - it would make a great film - Peter Kenny should be given a guest appearance at least).

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ending is startling, appalling, mind-blowing (!), a revelation but at the same time transparent (no cheap trickery here) and immensely satisfying - and that just about sums-up the whole book.

Any additional comments?

A quick word on the (it is said) "confusing" but vital plot structure - when reading a book, how many times do we really take notice of the chapter numbering & titling? Pay attention!

A sad loss - he is missed.

5 people found this helpful

Another Great Ian M Banks Book

The ending is a sucker-punch! No spoilers but I didn't see it coming until the last chapter. WOW!

Seriously, another great book with stunning vision from the author and a great read from the narrator!

I found the novel's construction to be quite difficult to follow. Other IMB audio-books I've gobbled in 2-3 days but this one took best part of a month. Worth the effort though and will be high on my revisit list.

The later IMB books are stunners and this is a fair taste of the madness to come.

I wish Excession was on Audible...

Enjoy Use of Weapons folks.

5 people found this helpful

Complex and fantastic

This is my third Culture novel and the best so far. Each one I listen to, I think, this one won't be as good as the last, but they just keep getting better. Great format to use the two strands of the same story being told together, with one being told backwards. You have to stay sharp or you'll get lost, but it's well worth it.

4 people found this helpful

A little more complex

The narrator delivers in a way I find very pleasant to listen to.
The story is a little less action packed but I enjoyed the chapter by chapter jump from past to current. Well worth a read, so to speak.

4 people found this helpful

confusing timeline not good as audio book

difficult to stop and start and some details get easily missed:

the chapters alternate between timelines and it's probably fine as a book especially as the chapters are apparently visibly differentiated in the numbering between Roman numerals and plain digits, but without this information and with many bizarre names to follow it's one that probably needs to be read in print.

the principal focus of the book seemed to be the time frames and it seemed disjointed regardless.

2 people found this helpful

Fantastic.

This is probably the only review I will ever write. I felt violated after finishing the book but surprised to find I enjoyed the feeling. I am not compelled to listen to it again but I will say the story must be experienced by everyone at least once.

2 people found this helpful

What's a weapon?

The performance is superb and grounds the plot as you literally shot around the Universe. But always drawn back to the centre. There you may find the ultimate weapon of the Culture but will it be used?

2 people found this helpful