The State of the Art
Ratings79
Average rating3.6
A nice little break from the mainline stories. This was a quick and light read, I thought that each short story was interesting and worth the time it took to finish. My favorite three:
1. The State of the Art- The titular novella, it's a neat little easter egg of a story. I can understand the urge to pull the Earth into the Culture Universe but at the same not wanting to impact the tone/canon in a Novel sized tale. I can see a desire for a little more Culture/Contact action, but I really felt gratified by how much Earth is featured, illustrated, and reflected upon. This is a tight story with a thoughtful take on determinism and cultural relativity. I think it's worth it to read the collection just for this story. Nice to get more Sma and Skaffen Amiskaw (Iain Banks really knows what the readers want).
2. Descendant - This is how you write a horror story in 6 pages or less. The prose reminded me of Cormack McCarthy. This is one of the shorter stories in the novel, but I thought it was a head above the rest.
3. Cleaning Up - The most meta story of the bunch, there's even a nod to the Satanic Verses. A foreshadowed ending buried within the agnst and commentary. I thought this the most direct and touching story, at least for me.
“The State of the Art” est le quatrième tome du cycle de la Culture de Iain M. Banks. Il a une particularité : c'est un recueil de nouvelles, le seul parmi les neuf romans qui composent le cycle.
L'ouvrage doit son titre à la nouvelle la plus longue du recueil, et peut-être la meilleure à mes yeux. Les autres nouvelles oscillent entre le bon et l'anecdotique, mais c'est vraiment “The State of the Art” qui donne au recueil tout son intérêt, avec peut-être “Descent” qui sort elle aussi du lot.
L'exercice de “noter” un recueil de nouvelles est toujours délicat, faut-il tenir compte du meilleur, du pire, ou d'une sorte de moyenne des nouvelles qui le composent ? Ici, j'ai choisi de rester sur la forte impression laissée par la nouvelle éponyme du recueil, même si dans l'ensemble le recueil est moins bon que les trois premiers romans du cycle.
Banks has this unique ability to unflinchingly drop you into disorienting contexts and let you make sense of the alien where most authors would just bombard you with exposition.
I put off reading this one for a long time, first because it didn't exist as an ebook, and then, even after I tracked down a paper copy, because I was reluctant to read the titular novella, the only remaining Culture story I hadn't read. It was great, of course. The rest of the stories vary. I still have plenty of Banks' other novels to read, but now I must live with the knowledge that there is no more unexplored Culture for me. RIP.
A collection of short stories, loosely placed in the Culture universe.
Some are interesting, some are less. In general I would say average. There was not one where I was really blown away, but they are not bad either.
It is a short read, so why not read it.