Your rating:
This extraordinary collection celebrates the dazzling worldbuilding of Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction. Banks created many original drawings detailing the universe of his bestselling Culture novels. Now these illustrations are being published for the very first time in a book that celebrates Banks' grand vision. Faithfully reproduced from notebooks kept in the 1970s and 80s, these annotated original illustrations depict the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail. This is an essential addition to the collection of any Iain M. Banks fan. "Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'" - Guardian The Culture series : Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons The State of the Art Excession Inversions Look to Windward Matter Surface Detail The Hydrogen Sonata
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
I'll admit that as someone who has routinely avoided hard sci-fi and only picked this up because it was nominated as a Related Work for the 2024 Hugo Awards, I'm going to be coming to this review with a more uninformed viewpoint. I have heard of Banks' Culture series but honestly always assumed it wouldn't be my particular cup of tea and avoided it.
Having read through The Culture: The Drawings, I really can only recommend this for hard-core fans of the Culture series. This gathers together the drawings from Banks and separates them into different categories but intentionally does not provide context or information about what is depicted. In the introduction, it's mentioned that they want to let the work stand for itself and not interject their own thoughts but this severely limits the value to anyone except hard-core fans.
As someone who isn't a hard-core fan, it was an interesting to see the level of detail and thought that Banks put into them. And the quotes included at the beginning of each section actually made me curious to check out the Culture series. But I really wish there had been more information so I could place the context without having to read the entire series first.
I honestly wasn't sure if I should even rate this but ended up landing on 3 stars because I think that it was interesting and appreciate the project but it felt like a missed opportunity to create interest to me and I'll let my rating reflect that.
0
© 2024 Pagebound