The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles 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 …
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles 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.
This is the second Banks I’ve read and I thought they were both terrific. Unlike some epic, galaxy-spanning space operas, this was pacey, smoothly written with great characters and loads of action and adventure.
Magistrale il modo in cui, attraverso una manciata di personaggi, descrive un intero cosmo, senza spiegoni. Due razze in conflitto su scala galattica. Space opera senza pallose robe da ingegneri né megalomanie. Ritmo avventuroso, battaglie epiche e selvagge, ma con momenti intensi di riflessione, confronto, introspezione.
Mentre l'ambientazione merita davvero, insieme a tutto l'universo dell Cultura costruito da Banks, il libro in sé per sé è un po' deludente, con una trama un po' sconclusionata e una storia piuttosto lineare...