The Algebraist

by Iain M. Banks

Overview

It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars. Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of — part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony — Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer — a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316565585
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Series:	Culture
Pages:	704
Sales rank:	150,306
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Consider Phlebas, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987 and began his celebrated ten-book Culture series. He is acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation.

Editorial Reviews

Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.”—William Gibson

“Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.”—The New York Times

“An enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events.”

—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on The Algebraist

“Banks never lets up in a dizzying array of characters, mind-bending ideas, and dazzling action.”—Booklist

“Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth.”—New York Review of Science Fiction

“[Banks] can summon up sense-of-wonder Big Concepts you've never seen before and display them with narration as deft as a conjuror's fingers." —scifi.com

"Nobody does it better."—Times (UK)

"Banks writes space opera on the grand scale: he measures time in eons, space in lightyears, tragedies in gigadeaths."—Time

From the Publisher

Banks (Look to Windward) pulls out all the stops in this gloriously over-the-top, state-of-the-art space opera, a Hugo nominee in its British edition. In a galaxy teeming with intelligent life-forms and dominated by the intensely hierarchical society known as the Mercatoria, the Ulubis system has been cut off from the rest of civilization for over a century as its citizens impatiently await the arrival of a starship carrying an artificial wormhole to replace one destroyed in a previous war. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer, an anthropologist who studies the Dwellers, the ancient, enigmatic species that inhabits gas giants throughout the galaxy, including Nasqueron in the Ulubis system. Fassin's research contains clues to the existence of a secret wormhole network, one operated by the Dwellers and free from the repressive control of the Mercatoria. Unfortunately, the monstrous ruler of a nearby star system has also learned of this discovery, as has the Mercatoria itself. Now two enormous battle fleets converge on Ulubis, and Fassin must undertake a quest deep into Nasqueron to uncover the Dwellers' secret. This is an enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events. Agent, Mic Cheetham. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Humans think in terms of time as it relates to them, but for other beings, like the Dwellers in the universe, who have a much longer life span, time is not quite the same. And with that long perspective on time, the Dwellers may have more than one secret that would be of use to humans. Geoffrey Amis manages this complex and long book with dexterity. He delivers lengthy and sometimes rambling exposition with a light touch that keeps the strands of the plot moving. His agility with pace also draws out humor, particularly in dialogue with artificial intelligence (computers). His subtle touch with the characters and sense of engagement with the action are infectious. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 06 - AudioFile