As complex, turbulent and spectacular as the gas giant on which it is set, this novel from Iain M. Banks is space opera on a truly epic scale.
“An enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events.” –Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars.
Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of - part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony - Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer - a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known.
“Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.” –William Gibson
“Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.” –The New York Times
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"“An enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on The Algebraist"
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Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.
— William GibsonBanks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.
— The New York TimesBanks never lets up in a dizzying array of characters, mind-bending ideas, and dazzling action.
— BooklistFew of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth.
— New York Review of Science Fiction[Banks] can summon up sense-of-wonder Big Concepts you've never seen before and display them with narration as deft as a conjuror's fingers.
— scifi.comNobody does it better.
— Times (UK)Banks writes space opera on the grand scale: he measures time in eons, space in lightyears, tragedies in gigadeaths.
— TimeBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Iain Banks (1954–2013) was a Scottish author considered one of the most powerful, innovative, and exciting writers of his generation. He wrote mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. Following the publication and success of The Wasp Factory in 1984, he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, was released in 1987, marking the start of the popular Culture series. His books have been adapted for theater, radio, and television. In honor of his science fiction work, an asteroid was named for him in 2013, and asteroid (5099) Iainbanks now resides in the main asteroid belt of the Sol system.
Peter Kenny, an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a talented and experienced actor, voice-over artist, singer, musician, and designer, with over twenty-five years of experience working in theater, film, television, and audio. He has achieved great critical acclaim for multicharacter recordings of audiobooks by authors such as Iain Banks, Christopher Priest, and Edmund St Aubyn.