Elias reviewed Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks (Culture, #3)
Use of Weapons (Goodreads)
4 stars
Content warning General spoilers
Sorta hard to follow - the two streamed structure really had me confused about what was going on until I had some hindsight at the end. Most of the important bits of the story were not lost, but I wish I had a stronger idea of what was going on. The whole thing felt very dream-like. The Elethiomel reveal doesn't really fully justify it. I love all the drones and minds in the culture, regardless of how unhinged they are.
This book really does hit home on how immoral and sorta imperialistic special circumstances is. There is a fine line to be walked between imperialism and benevolent interference, and I feel like special circumstances always ends up on the side of spreading their ideology to everyone regardless of the means it takes to get there. I think beychae's notes on that near the middle are pertinent to that.
I likely will revisit this and read again - I feel like I took too long to read this so the beginning wasn't too fresh in my mind while I was finishing it.