Against a Dark Review
Feb. 16th, 2011 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So I was looking for some serious sci-fi to offset some of my recent reading and I picked up Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks. This is a sci-fi novel but it doesn't appear to be part of the Culture series (or if it is, it's so self-contained as to be separate from it). It was, as always, full of really great ideas, but also had a problem.
So the book is about Lady Sharrow. Her grandfather wanted to marry an important woman in the Huhsz religious cult who wanted to marry him. The cult said no, the grandfather said "screw this" and promptly rescue/kidnapped the woman and also stole the cult's major artifact a Lazy Gun. The cult said "ok, new prophecy. Our messiah returns when we get the gun back or the woman and her female descendants are all dead" and promptly go about attacking the noble family.
Sharrow is that last female descendant. Her family's fortunes were dissipated and she left to fight in one of the numerous wars that plague the Balkanized Golter system. She was put in charge of an 8-man team of genetically modified soldiers who are conditioned to think as a unit in combat. The war ended, the team broke up and she wanders around digging up artifacts of the past and making her way as best she can.
The Huhsz appeal to the World Court and receive a one year Assassination Passport -- they have full legal power to pursue and kill Sharrow so she's got a bit of an incentive to go out and find the Lazy Gun hidden by her grandfather.
Adventure follows.
OK, so all of this takes place in a single star system, but it has a variety of habitable planets with unique ecologies and Banks makes the most of it like you'd expect him to. Lots of really great scenes and interesting characters. Also, lots of people die (like you expect from Banks), but everyone pretty much dies for real reasons and not ennui and the protagonist survives -- so full marks for that.
Here's the problem. Sharrow is supposed to be a team leader and something of a bad-ass team leader at that. But she simply stumbles through the story from one plot point to another. It's her former team members that do all the heavy lifting, she never really seems to take charge and she never really comes up with a plan. It's only in the last 50 pages or so that she actually kicks some ass and starts living up to her reputation. If that was supposed to be the point (she's really ineffectual and then has to start pulling her weight when it all comes down) that wasn't well-articulated.
Additionally, there are a couple of mysteries around people who are trying to manipulate Sharrow and her team. Not only does Sharrow never really try and address this issue, but she's always going on and on about how there's something important she should remember to solve this mystery but never does. Meanwhile, you, the reader, pretty much have it figured out within the first quarter of the book. Again, this undermines the protagonist as a competent character.
Finally, there are a number of flashbacks to Sharrow's past life as a child, young woman, and warrior. The problem is that it paints a picture of Sharrow as a selfish and vindictive bitch. It's surprising that she was considered a good candidate for the genetic modification program and doubly-surprising that she'd be considered as team lead. She doesn't show an iota of compassion for anyone or anything in her past. Frankly, she was so unsympathetic, I was fully expecting her to meet a tragic end and was surprised that she walked away from it all.
I dunno. Lots of great ideas but a very muddled execution.
later
Tom
So I was looking for some serious sci-fi to offset some of my recent reading and I picked up Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks. This is a sci-fi novel but it doesn't appear to be part of the Culture series (or if it is, it's so self-contained as to be separate from it). It was, as always, full of really great ideas, but also had a problem.
So the book is about Lady Sharrow. Her grandfather wanted to marry an important woman in the Huhsz religious cult who wanted to marry him. The cult said no, the grandfather said "screw this" and promptly rescue/kidnapped the woman and also stole the cult's major artifact a Lazy Gun. The cult said "ok, new prophecy. Our messiah returns when we get the gun back or the woman and her female descendants are all dead" and promptly go about attacking the noble family.
Sharrow is that last female descendant. Her family's fortunes were dissipated and she left to fight in one of the numerous wars that plague the Balkanized Golter system. She was put in charge of an 8-man team of genetically modified soldiers who are conditioned to think as a unit in combat. The war ended, the team broke up and she wanders around digging up artifacts of the past and making her way as best she can.
The Huhsz appeal to the World Court and receive a one year Assassination Passport -- they have full legal power to pursue and kill Sharrow so she's got a bit of an incentive to go out and find the Lazy Gun hidden by her grandfather.
Adventure follows.
OK, so all of this takes place in a single star system, but it has a variety of habitable planets with unique ecologies and Banks makes the most of it like you'd expect him to. Lots of really great scenes and interesting characters. Also, lots of people die (like you expect from Banks), but everyone pretty much dies for real reasons and not ennui and the protagonist survives -- so full marks for that.
Here's the problem. Sharrow is supposed to be a team leader and something of a bad-ass team leader at that. But she simply stumbles through the story from one plot point to another. It's her former team members that do all the heavy lifting, she never really seems to take charge and she never really comes up with a plan. It's only in the last 50 pages or so that she actually kicks some ass and starts living up to her reputation. If that was supposed to be the point (she's really ineffectual and then has to start pulling her weight when it all comes down) that wasn't well-articulated.
Additionally, there are a couple of mysteries around people who are trying to manipulate Sharrow and her team. Not only does Sharrow never really try and address this issue, but she's always going on and on about how there's something important she should remember to solve this mystery but never does. Meanwhile, you, the reader, pretty much have it figured out within the first quarter of the book. Again, this undermines the protagonist as a competent character.
Finally, there are a number of flashbacks to Sharrow's past life as a child, young woman, and warrior. The problem is that it paints a picture of Sharrow as a selfish and vindictive bitch. It's surprising that she was considered a good candidate for the genetic modification program and doubly-surprising that she'd be considered as team lead. She doesn't show an iota of compassion for anyone or anything in her past. Frankly, she was so unsympathetic, I was fully expecting her to meet a tragic end and was surprised that she walked away from it all.
I dunno. Lots of great ideas but a very muddled execution.
later
Tom
