re:mote voices

Title: The Algebraist
Author: Iain M. Banks
Publisher: Orbit

The Dwellers have not been around since the start of the universe. But they certainly have been around since not much after that, and longer than any other species that is still around. This gives them a pretty unique position in inter species culture. As such quick species, like humans, have been keen to gain access to Dweller libraries. Which while chaotic and incomprehensible, are vast and cover such a wide range.

Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer, one of the guild members who immerse themselves in Dweller culture and the slow speed of Dweller life, in order to learn as much as possible. What the Seers retrieve isn't always legible, so years can be spent studying and deciphering the material that is gained from each delve with the Dwellers. Of the human run of Seers, Fassin has gained a reputation, spending more time with the Dwellers than other Seers, and going for physical delves in immersion pods while others prefer to use remote pods.

While on the longest of his delves Fassin has come back with an important piece of information. Unfortunately he didn't know that, it has taken years to translate, and the repercussions have triggered a large-scale war in his home system. The translated data points to something that could change the structure of society. Fassin Taak has to go to the Dweller planet and see if he can find the item in question, but nothing is ever that simple with Dwellers.

I have had mixed experiences with Iain M. Banks work, having never quite got round to completing his last novel Look to Windward. However The Algebraist is much more of the kind of material that he does that I enjoy. Material like Excession and Against A Dark Background, the Dwellers recalling the Affront to some degree. Banks speciality in big, obnoxious, and blustering alien races coming through more than his tendency to go into great detail about terraforming, which is a turn off. The Dwellers are a joy, you can see how much fun Banks is having writing them with all their dialogue, and how for all their bumbling, distracted approach to life they are in fact absurdly powerful - as you would expect from a race so old.

The Algebraist on the one hand is a quest novel, with the hero setting off on his journey to try and prevent imminent war. However that is only the entry point really, for me The Algebraist is about alien cultures and having fun with large-scale science fiction. The material/characters follows the kind of mould Banks seems to tend towards with his SF work, but for me this is an example of where the combination of elements works.