Just Finished Reading: Surface Detail by Iain M Banks



Lededje Y’breq was born Intagliated. Her body had been genetically manipulated before birth to produce incredibly intricate patterns on every inch of her skin. This was not her choice or that of her parents. For Lededje is part of a payment for their debt to the most powerful person on their world. As she grew up she began to realise just what she was – property. When her last escape from servitude and sexual abuse goes wrong, she is murdered by her patron and owner. Apparently moments later she awakes inside a virtual reality simulation thousands of light years away on a Culture ship. Offered the chance to be revented – given a new and almost perfect body – she jumps at the chance of another life and the opportunity to return to her home world with revenge in mind. But bigger things are happening. There has been a war in heaven – fought across virtual space – which has been ragging for 30 years between two groups who are deeply opposed to each others ideologies. One faction opposes the existence of virtual Hell’s where self-aware avatars of the dead are sent to suffer eternal torment. The other faction passionately believes that the fear of Hell is the only thing keeping whole civilisations together. As Ledeje approaches her home for a final confrontation, the virtual war is in danger of erupting into the Real and at the centre of everything is her patron and killer.


As soon as I saw that the latest Culture novel was out I had to have it. No way was I going to wait until March 2011 for the paperback! So I stumped up about twice what I’d normally pay (with the shops £5 discount helping) to read it now rather than later. I have to say that it was worth every single penny. The brief synopsis above does the book very little justice. This is a very complex book bursting with amazing ideas. It is also much darker than previous Culture based novels. For one thing there seems to be an inordinate amount of swearing – largely I have to say completely in context. For another the main protagonist Ledeje has a history of sexual abuse from her early teens. Added to this are large sections taking place in one of the alien virtual Hell’s which are both deeply disturbing and frequently stomach turning. In many ways this is definitely not a book for the young or the faint of heart. As to be expected with Bank’s Culture novels the characters, ships (which are very much characters in themselves), aliens and environments are amazingly real. I would love the opportunity to live in the Culture – even for a short time and experience that kind of awesome advanced civilisation. I love it so much that it’s quite painful to return to reality – this mundane world – with a bump after being ensconced between the pages of such a sublime novel for the best part of a week. I do honestly miss it – although it does live inside my head now. One of the odd things missing from his latest novel is the many autonomous (and often very funny) drones that make up part of the Culture citizenry. However, this is more than made up for by the inclusion of a seriously strange and obviously deranged (indeed probably psychotic) Culture warship that agrees to carry Ledeje to her destination. Always up for a good fight – and particularly up for a bad one – it never ceased to both entertain and appal me. It was brilliant! Just never get on its wrong side. I loved this book, as I have with all of his Culture novels to a greater or lesser degree, and am pleased to see that it won’t be his last. I’m already looking forward to the next instalment.