Inversions

Inversions is probably my second favorite culture novel after Use of Weapons; this book was subtle, atmospheric, and was so different from everything that came before that I almost can't believe it's in the same series. I took a detour from The Culture after the disappointment I got from Excession and I am delighted to say that this novel is the “inversion” of that book; every gripe I had with Excession, every missed mark or narrative flaw, is thankfully absent from this work.

Banks' continues to demonstrate his love of complex narrative vehicles, this time (mercifully) it's only a dual-narrative. Rather than a space/Culture setting this story is set on a backward (read: feudal/enlightenment era) planet and follows the King's doctor Vosill and the Protector's bodyguard DeWar. You would be excused for not even considering the book to be Sci-Fi or culture related as any connection this book has to the rest of the series is fairly subdued, mainly in the form of fairytales and casual conversation. I am tempted to say that this story can be read standalone because it definitely could be; but-for the ending, which does involve Culture/SC/Contact/Sci-Fi elements but does not explain them.

It was fulfilling to finally read a story set in the Culture that wasn't bouncing all over the place trying to cram as much (admittedly very cool and interesting) Sci-Fi-AI-overlord-black-hole galactic-war-warp-speed-ness down the reader's throat as is physically possible. Instead this a human story and is a work of character writing, love, court politics and intrigue. As always there is Banks' sardonic humor and dry wit. While the story is told from a third person perspective and is partially detached as is typical of many of the Culture novels thus far, unlike those prior stories we get a lot in the way of characterization and emotion because thankfully this time the speaker is a person and not a drone.

This book really takes a magnifying glass to the society of a world potentially subject to Contact, the arm of the culture that “contacts” and eventually incorporates existing civilizations into Culture space. Thematically this book is still 100% Culture; we are tackling the same questions of morality and intervention, this time from the bottom of the pyramid rather than the top down approach used in the other books. We see the underbelly of the world of the Culture, and this book doesn't shy away from darker subjects, particularly issues surrounding the treatment of women in war and the subject of rape.

I'm not sure what happened in the two year gap between Inversions and Excession but this time around Banks' stepped up his game; one of our characters is a woman! In fact the strongest characters in this book were Vosill and Perrund, the Protector's concubine. Perrund delivers a chilling monologue concerning her treatment at the hands of a conquering force that I thought was the most alive/true-to-life these novels have ever gotten. In fact the strength of these characters does a lot to highlight the moral questions posed concerning contact: if in fact a foreign but guiding hand would prevent the kind of horrors visited on Perrund and others like her, would that good outweigh the bad that comes with forced change or the elimination of a planet's right to self-determination and rule?

I can see why fans of the series might rank this entry towards the bottom; it all but forgoes the “sci” part of sci-fi in favor of telling a grounded and compelling story, and some fans might really just be here for the big ships and the snarky drones. Personally I think I overdosed on that stuff after reading Excession. Had I known that the aptly titled Inversions, really was an inversion of the genre I don't think I would have been so keen to take a break from the series.

TL;DR: This book is really good, the sci-fi meter is set on low simmer.

“Inversions” est le sixième tome du cycle de la Culture de Iain M. Banks, mais c'est un roman qui me semble un peu à part dans le cycle. La science-fiction y est très discrète, on pourrait presque croire lire un roman de fantasy classique.

Après avoir loué le rôle fondamental joué par les Intelligences Artificielles dans le récit dans “Excession”, le roman précédent du cycle, j'aurais pu être déçu par celui-ci, tant il pourrait apparaître comme son exact opposé. En effet, ce roman met en scène une planète où la civilisation et la technologie sont comparables à celles de l'Europe à la fin de l'ère médiévale.

Le livre alterne des chapitres mettant en scène deux narrateurs qui nous proposent de suivre deux personnages, une doctoresse et un garde du corps, chacun dans l'entourage d'un souverain différent sur le même continent. C'est une plongée dans deux vies de cour différentes, avec des souvenirs, des entourages et des régimes différents.

On finit par deviner, par des sous-entendus plus ou moins discrets, que ces deux personnages sont issus de la Culture, en “visite” sur cette planète qui n'a pas encore été contactée par la Culture. On retrouve ici un thème sous-jacent et récurrent dans le cycle : le “droit” d'ingérence et les dilemnes auxquels doit faire face une civilisation “avancée” quand elle en rencontre une autre “moins avancée”. Peut-elle intervenir pour provoquer des changements ? Doit-elle intervenir ? Sous quelles conditions ? Jusqu'où ? Et surtout, qui décide ce qui est “bon” et ce qui ne l'est pas, ce qui constitue un “progrès” pour une civilisation ?

J'ai beaucoup aimé ce roman. Ses deux récits pris au premier degré sont déjà captivants en soi, en plus d'être parfaitement écrits avec un travail intéressant sur le rôle des deux narrateurs, différents des personnages qu'ils accompagnent. Le livre prend encore une dimension supplémentaire quand on comprend comment, malgré les premières apparences déroutantes, il s'intègre parfaitement dans le cycle de la Culture avec ce thème récurrent du droit d'ingérence. J'ai donc envie de dire que ce roman est à la fois un chef d'oeuvre de fantasy et de science-fiction.

In a break from my callous shit jokes, Iain M Banks is my favorite author. This was the final book of his that I hadn't read, and even though it was byfar the weakest of his culture series, he was still the god damn man, and the day he died the collective imagination on this planet dropped by 30%.

I came across Culture series within Elon Musk's favorite books and I decided to give it a try and stated to go through the audio books. Iain M. Banks lost me within outer space among unknown creatures, drouns, artificial supper brains and things in that nature within the first 5 books. I had nothing to say but admitting I'm lost, confused, etc.

Iain M. Banks caught me by surprise on the 6th book; Inversions. There was no sign of technology, aliens and smart drouns. I found Inversion as a nice and smooth story which decorated by a bit philosophy. The main story is about a female doctor and the story narrated by his assistance. Despite the fact that it is unorthodox for king having foreign female person as his doctor it happens to be within this fable that she is the king's physician.

There are up and downs within this novel, Iain M. Bank take you through wars, love, intelligence debates and lots of more within this parable. There is a lot to learn and experience within this book and I am going to give it another shot in future.

Yet it is a mystery for me what happen that out of sudden this series diverted. What is the relationship between this book and the fist 5 books. And where Iain M. Banks going to take me within next books in the series.

Well that was very different than any other culture novel I have read yet. But it was much better than the previous one I read, Excession.

While the culture or any of the space faring things get never mentioned, it has an amazing story. Loved it.

The more I think about this book, the more I feel it is one of my favorite Culture books, even though some argue it isn't truly a Culture book at all. It's a... smaller story, in some ways, more personal. It's slow to get going. The ending may leave you with more questions than answers. In a way it's a long exploration of one of the central questions of the Culture – the question of whether, and how, to meddle in the affairs of other civilizations – but (perhaps the biggest inversion of all) it feels more importantly like a story of two very real people, and the small things they do that affect the people near them. Culture books have always told vast stories via human relationships, but Inversions tightens that focus even further. It has me thinking about perspective, about love and loyalty, about the stories we tell about ourselves.

...maar wat een opluchting, nog eens een goed boek te kunnen lezen. Een verhaal met een begin, een midden en een einde (en een proloog en een epiloog), met personages en emoties, met een wereld en alles.

Iain M. Banks doet een Culture-boek dat geen Culture-boek is, met overal inversions. Het gebeurt wel degelijk af in het Culture-universum, met twee personages die van Culture komen, maar de twee verhalen worden verteld door niet-Culture-mensen. En die niets weten van ruimteschepen, andere planeten, of wat dan ook van technologie.

Want het verhaal speelt zich af op een vaag laat-middeleeuwse wereld. Aan één kant Quience, de wat neurotische koning van Haspidus, die sinds een paar jaar een nieuwe lijfarts heeft, Vosill (een vrouw! ongezien!). Aan de andere kant, een halve wereld verwijderd, generaal UrLeyn, Eerste Protector van het Protectoraat van Tassasen, die net de vorige koning omver heeft geworpen en zeer voorzichtig ideeën die in de richting van vreemde dingen zoals mensenrechten en dergelijke probeert in te voeren, maar daarbij botst tegen de adel. Hij heeft sinds een paar jaar een nieuwe bodyguard, DeWar.

Vosill's verhaal wordt verteld door haar assistent, die tegelijkertijd spioneert voor een mysterieuze “meester”, die in een samenzwering blijkt te zitten die het niet echt goed voorheeft met koning Quience. DeWar's verhaal wordt (blijkt in de epiloog) verteld door een concubine van UrLeyn.

Ik vermoed dat dit boek te lezen is voor wie geen andere Culture-boeken kent, maar het verandert de ervaring wel volledig. Vosill en DeWar zijn wellicht agenten van Contact, de “afdeling” van Culture die verantwoordelijk is voor, wel ja, contact met niet-Culture-samenlevingen. Ze zijn misschien al meer dan tweehonderd jaar oud en in perfecte gezondheid, ze hebben misschien al op dozijnen planeten geleefd in een hele reeks rollen en hoedanigheden, ze hebben de  kennis van duizenden jaren beschaving in het hoofd en misschien hebben ze wel geheime wapens – robots en zo.

Dat maakt het allemaal bitterzoet, want als lezer weet ik dat ze bij wijze van spreken op elk moment in een vliegende schotel zouden kunnen stappen. En toch maakt het ze niet on-betrokken of cynisch: in tegendeel. Het zijn volledig meerdimensionale vlees-en-bloed-personages. Met gevoelens en een (gemeenschappelijk) verleden en dromen. Die onder meer worstelen met de manier van omgaan met werelden zoals die waar ze nu zijn: moeten ze ingrijpen om de zaken te proberen beter maken, of net niet?

DeWar, aan de kant van de revolutionair, kiest ervoor om niet in te grijpen. Hij ziet dingen gebeuren en hij zou misschien kunnen helpen, maar in zijn ethisch systeem kan hij het niet verantwoorden: acties kunnen ongekende consequenties hebben, en het is niet aan hem om de wereld te veranderen.

Vosill, aan de kant van de koning, kiest ervoor om zeer, zeer subtiel in te grijpen. Bijna terloops brengt ze de koning waarden als respect voor niet-adellijke mensen bij, introduceert ze ideeën over geneeskunde en wetenschap.

Eén van beide verandert “zijn” maatschappij, de andere ziet alles de verdoemenis in gaan. Eén van beide vindt persoonlijk geluk, de andere absoluut niet. Wie maakte de juiste keuzes?

‘t Is spannend, ‘t is ontroerend, ‘t is romantisch, ‘t zit slim in mekaar, het verhaal klopt als een bus: ik heb het met bijzonder veel plezier gelezen. Zeer aangeraden (maar dus niét als eerste Culture-boek).

En verdju dat Iain Banks dood is en geen boeken meer kan schrijven. Fuck.

Inversioni, in originale “Inversions” è un romanzo di fantascienza di Iain M. Banks del 1998, facente parte, anche se non si direbbe, al Ciclo della Cultura, infatti ci sono riferimenti ad essa anche se molto velati. In questo romanzo Iain M. Banks esce dall'ambientazione della Cultura, ma in qualche modo vi resta collegato, tanto che alcuni dettagli possono essere compresi meglio da chi la conosce bene. Secondo un lettore, per chi ha letto i libri della Cultura Inversioni è pura fantascienza, per chi non li ha letti è pura fantasy.

Per chi non lo sapesse nel ciclo della Cultura viene descritta una immaginaria società anarchica, socialista e utopica. La Cultura è caratterizzata dall'essere una società in cui tecnologie avanzate provvedono praticamente senza alcun limite materiale alla ricchezza ed al sostentamento di ognuno, senza chiedere nulla in cambio, avendo tutto ma abolendo il concetto di possesso, dall'aver superato quasi tutti i vincoli fisici biologici (inclusa la malattia e la morte) e dall'essere una società stabile, priva di leggi e quasi totalmente egualitaria. La maggior parte dei romanzi del ciclo della Cultura si occupa di personaggi come diplomatici, spie o mercenari, per lo più di persone che si occupano del lavoro sporco per conto della Cultura.

La trama del romanzo: la giovane e affascinante dottoressa Vosill giunge al Palazzo di Haspidus. In apparenza è stata chiamata per diffondere e applicare le sue avanzatissime arti mediche; in realtà la sua missione è quella d'influenzare le decisioni del re, il cui potere è in grave pericolo. Sul suo cammino, la donna troverà molti ostacoli, primo fra tutti l'aperta ostilità dei cortigiani, e, per sopravvivere, sarà costretta a impiegare metodi piuttosto inquietanti.... In un altro palazzo, sul vicino continente di Tassassen, vive lo spietato DeWar, guardia del corpo del reggente, il generale UrLeyn. Anche DeWar ha una missione ed è circondato da nemici, però agisce in modo assai diverso, dato che non può interferire con le vicende politiche e militari e deve lasciare che i locali superino le loro difficoltà senza l'aiuto delle sue conoscenze superiori.

Il libro è narrato in prima persona da un personaggio che ha assistito agli eventi di una delle due storie e che ha trovato una sorta di diario relativa all'altra, decidendo di raccontarle così collegate. La narrazione si alterna capitolo per capitolo tra due storie diverse in contemporanea, con alternanza di titoli dei capitoli del medico e la guardia del corpo. La bravura di Banks sarà quella di saldarle via via in una vicenda unica. In un crescendo di colpi di scena, il lettore viene infatti coinvolto in una serie d'inversioni di ruoli: ognuno dei personaggi può essere, di volta in volta, un delatore, una spia o... l'esatto opposto. E solo quando i segreti, gli inganni, gli amori e i tradimenti saranno svelati si giungerà a un finale sorprendente...

La semplicità con cui Banks riesce e farti entrare nel vivo, usando la prima persona è davvero sensazionale, grazie anche alla brevità dei capitoli ed ai modi alterni per raccontare. Si legge bene, ed è bellissimo anche il tipo di collegamento tra le due storie, che fino a circa metà libro potrebbero benissimo essere ambientate su pianeti diversi o in secoli distanti, ma che alla fine si uniscono in unico disegno.

Chi ha letto George Martin o David Gemmel, troverà questo libro sicuramente affascinante. Chi invece lo dovesse leggere a prescindere dai precedenti autori, potrebbe trovarlo lo stesso bello, ma meno entusiasmante; per apprezzarlo appieno bisogna amare quella sfumatura del genere fantasy che comprende maggiormente gli intrighi e meno l'azione.