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Graham Park is in love. But Sara Ffitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him. They are. Quiss, insecure in his fabulous if ramshackle castle, is forced to play interminable impossible games. The solution to the oldest of all paradoxical riddles will release him. But he must find an answer before he knows the question.
Park, Grout, Quiss - no trio could be further apart. But their separate courses are set for collision...
"A feast of horrors, variously spiced with incest, conspiracy, and cheerful descriptions of torture... fine writing" The Times
"The author's powerful imagination is displayed again here every bit as vividly as in his debut" Financial Times
"Establishes beyond doubt that lain Banks is a novelist of remarkable talents" Daily Telegraph
Innocent in the ways of the world, an when it comes to pop and fashion, the Elect of God of a small but committed Stirlingshire religious cult: Isis Whit is no ordinary teenager.
When her cousin Morag - Guest of Honour at the Luskentyrian's four-yearly Festival of Love - disappears after renouncing her faith, Isis is marked out to venture among the Unsaved and bring the apostate back into the fold. But the road to Babylondon (as Sister Angela puts it) is a treacherous one, particularly when Isis discovers the Morag appears to have embraced the ways of the Unsaved with spectacular abandon …
Truth and falsehood; kinship and betrayal; 'herbal' cigarettes and compact discs - Whit is an exploration of the techno-ridden barrenness of modern Britain from a unique perspective.
'Fierce contemporaneity, an acrobatic imagination, social comment, sardonic wit ... the peculiar sub-culture of cult religion is a natural for Banks, and Luskentyrianism is a fine creation'
'One of the most relentlessly voyaging imaginations around'
'Banks is a phenomenon ...I suspect we have actual laws against this sort of thing, in the United States, but Iain Banks, whether you take him with the "M" or without, is currently a legal import'
Fue uno de los incidentes menos gloriosos de una antigua guerra.
Provocó la destrucción de dos soles y de los miles de millones de vidas que sustentaban.
Ahora, ochocientos años después, la luz del primero de estos antiguos errores ha llegado al orbital de la Cultura Masaq. La luz del segundo podría no llegar a hacerlo.
She came from one of the more disreputable aristocratic families.
Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilization based around the planet Golter. On an island with a glass shore – relic of some even more ancient conflict – she discovers she is to be hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes she is the last obstacle before their faith's apotheosis. She has to run, knowing her only hope of finally escaping the Huhsz is to find the last of the ancient, apocalyptically powerful but seemingly cursed Lazy Guns. But that is just the first as well as the final step on a search that takes her on an odyssey through the exotic Golterian system and results in both a trail of destruction and a journey into her own past, as well as that of her family and the system itself;
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction; coldblooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist.
Principals were at stake. There could be no surrender.
Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.
Segundo Libro de la “Serie de la Cultura”. Gurgeh era uno de los mejores jugadores que había habido nunca en la Cultura, maestro reconocido de todos los tableros, ordenadores y estrategias. Aburrido de su éxito y forzado por las circunstancias, Gurgeh se encontrará a sí mismo, en el Imperio de Azad, enfrentado al juego supremo, un juego tan complejo y modelado con tanta exactitud, de acuerdo con las reglas de la existencia, que el ganador es proclamado Emperador. Víctima de una chantaje y sin verdaderas alternativas, Gurgeh se ve obligado a participar en él, enfrentándose al mayor de los desafíos y poniendo en juego su propia vida.
Cheradenine Zakalwe es un agente de Circunstancias Especiales, la sección de élite para la que ningún medio resulta reprobable: la guerra, el espionaje y el asesinato son lícitos cuando lo que está en juego son los intereses de la Cultura.
Zakalwe ha sido empujado a tomar parte en innumerables conflictos, habiéndole tocado pertenecer al bando perdedor en demasiadas ocasiones. Por ello, ha decidido retirarse. Pero Ciscunstancias Especiales necesita sus servicios en un planeta donde Zakalwe había servido anteriormente y donde está a punto de desencadenarse una guerra a gran escala, y la agencia sabe a qué puede recurrir para presionarle…
Una nueva novela ambientada en el deslumbrante universo de “Pensad en Flebas” y “El jugador”.
Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back.
Silent, motionless, and resisting all efforts to make contact, the artifact waits. The Culture ships, however, cannot. For the artifact is something they need to understand first, before it falls into less understanding hands — and triggers a political and military crisis which will threaten everything the Culture has achieved.
One person who saw the artifact when it first appeared may have information concerning its purpose, but she is living out her death in the immense Eccentric ship, the . The Culture ships formulate a plan to retrieve her. The has other things on its mind.
A novel of extraordinary imagination, richness and energy, is Iain M. Banks at his magnificent best.
Znudzony nieustannymi sukcesami, zniechęcony brakiem poważnych wyzwań i stymulujących przeżyć, niezwyciężony Gurgel — najlepszy gracz galaktyki — przybywa do Imperium Azadu, by wziąć udział w najbardziej skomplikowanej i najtrudniejszej grze, jaką wymyślono we wszechświecie. Stawką w tej grze jest nie tylko życie, lecz również samo Imperium. A także coś jeszcze…
Miłośnicy literackiego talentu Iaina M. Banksa wiedzą już, czego spodziewać się po tym autorze: nieskrępowanej, zrywającej ze wszelkimi schematami wyobraźni, pasjonującej akcji, niezwykłych bohaterów i przewrotnego poczucia humoru. Tym razem również się nie zawiodą.
En el palacio de invierno, la nueva doctora del Rey tiene más enemigos de los que cree. Pero, por otra parte, también dispone de remedios insólitos que ellos desconocen.
En otro palacio tras las montañas, el guardaespaldas jefe del Protector General se enfrenta a sus propios adversarios, aunque no lo tiene tan fácil: son más rápidos y eficaces y él solo dispone de métodos tradicionales para hacerles frente…
Some years ago, rocks and fire fell from the sky and the old Empire fell with them. In the lands released from that crushing hegemony, a new world order is about to emerge. Two people in particular can see all this in a wider context.
In the winter palace, the King’s new physician has more enemies than she at first realises. But then she also has more remedies to hand than those who wish her ill can know about.
In another palace across the mountains, in the service of the regicidal Protector General, the chief bodyguard too has his enemies. But his enemies strike more swiftly, and his means of combating them are more traditional.
Both the doctor and the bodyguard have at least one person they care for deeply and who cares for them. None of them, however, can risk saying so.
This is the story of two stories. Spiralling round a central core of secrecy, deceit, love and betrayal — and linked more closely than even those involved can know — each climbs to its own devastating climax.
Gurgeh est l’un des plus célèbres joueurs de jeux que la Culture ait jamais connu. Il joue, gagne, enseigne, théorise. La Culture est une immense société galactique, pacifiste, multiforme, anarchiste, tolérante, éthique et cynique. Elle est composée d’humains, d’Intelligences Artificielles et d’espèces étrangères qui ont accepté ses valeurs. Elle cultive les loisirs et les jeux qui ont le statut d’un art majeur.
Le Contact, service de la Culture spécialisé dans l’évaluation et l’infiltration de civilisations étrangères nouvellement découvertes, considère l’Empire d’Azad, terrifiant de puissance et de cruauté, comme un danger potentiel. L’Empire repose, historiquement, sur un jeu infiniment complexe dont le gagnant devient Empereur.
Si bien que Gurgeh, contre son gré, manipulé mais fasciné par le défi, se retrouve à cent mille années-lumière de sa confortable demeure, devenu un pion des IA qui régissent la Culture et lancé dans le formidable jeu d’Azad.
Avec la série de la Culture, Iain Banks renouvelle avec panache et humour l’aventure spatiale. Comme dans , il construit une société d’envergure galactique, bigarrée, baroque et attachante qui deviendra une référence dans l’histoire des futurs.
Cheradenine Zakalwe — ou du moins l’homme qui se fait appeler ainsi — est l’un des agents les plus efficaces de la Culture. Et Diziet Sma éminente figure de la Culture, l’utilise à des fins mystérieuses, quelquefois paradoxales.
Dans le cadre de , une branche de .
Qu’est-ce que la Culture ? Une immense société galactique, pacifiste en son principe mais redoutable si on l’attaque, multiforme, anarchiste, tolérante, éthique et cynique. Elle est composée d’humains, d’Intelligences artificielles et d’espèces étrangères qui ont accepté ses valeurs.
La a la prétention de faire évoluer lentement mais sûrement les civilisations étrangères qu’elle rencontre au fur et à mesure de son expansion.
C’est le rôle du d’évaluer et d’infiltrer les sociétés nouvellement découvertes. Et dans les cas extrêmes, c’est à d’intervenir, au besoin par la violence.
Cheradenine Zakalwe est l’une des armes de . C’est le héros de L’usage des armes, qui est à la fois un roman d’aventures et une œuvre littéraire éblouissante, d’une perversité toute britannique.
«Hace años que no mato a nadie, y no pienso volver a hacerlo nunca más. Fue solo una mala racha que estaba pasando.»
Esta es la voz de Frank, un adolescente que vive solo con su padre en la costa escocesa. Ha crecido inmerso en un mundo de creación propia como la fábrica de avispas, un artefacto oracular en el cual lee el futuro mediante el sufrimiento y muerte de estos insectos. También ha creado sus propias reglas morales, reglas con las que el asesinato se vuelve lícito, y para el que emplea métodos de lo más sorprendentes: una cometa; una serpiente; un martillo; la ingenuidad de un hermano… Frank sabe que vive en un universo personal que el resto de la humanidad no comparte.
It was one of the less glorious incidents of the Idiran wars that led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, 800 years later, the light from the first of those deaths has reached the Culture’s Masaq’ Orbital. A Chelgrian emissary is dispatched to the Culture.
The Culture is a far-future society of seemingly limitless resources and infinite technological possibilities. Yet the Culture is far from perfect, and it is still subject to brutal wars, political upheaval and intrusions from beyond the edges of known space. With extraordinary imaginative scope and storytelling prowess, Iain M. Banks’ new Culture novel will be one of the most highly anticipated SF novels of the year.
Dopóki Cheradenine Zakalwe był tajnym agentem Kultury, jego życie toczyło się w miarę spokojnym rytmem: ot, zwykłe intrygi, podstępne plany, od czasu do czasu wojskowa operacja na jakiejś odległej planecie. Wszystko to uległo radykalnej zmianie w chwili, kiedy Diziet Sma wzięła jego los w swoje ręce… Kolejny tom cyklu o Kulturze potwierdza, że Iain M. Banks słusznie cieszy się opinią jednego z najoryginalniejszych i najbardziej nieobliczalnych współczesnych twórców science fiction.
La guerra se recrudece a lo largo de la galaxia. Las lunas, los planetas y las mismas estrellas se enfrentaron a una destrucción a sangre fría, brutal y, lo que es peor, aleatoria. Los Iridanos luchan por su fe; la Cultura, por su derecho moral a existir. No hay lugar para la rendición. En medio del conflicto cósmico, en las profundidades de un Planeta de los Muertos, yace una Mente fugitiva. Los rumores dicen que Horza el Cambiante, y su horda de mercenarios impredecibles, humanos y máquinas, se embarcaron en su propia cruzada por encontrarla… solo para hallar su propia destrucción.
It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.
It begins with a murder.
And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.
Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful — and arguably deranged — warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war — brutal, far-reaching — is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.
It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the center of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.
SURFACE DETAIL is Iain M. Banks' new Culture novel, a breathtaking achievement from a writer whose body of work is without parallel in the modern history of science fiction.
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 civilisation. 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.
As complex, turbulent, flamboyant and spectacular as the gas giant on which it is set, the new science fiction novel from Iain M. Banks is space opera on a truly epic scale.
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