When Iain M. Banks writes science fiction, he pulls out all the stops. He is particularly extravagant in his novels about the Culture, the far-future utopia of mostly humanoid creatures who, by virtue of advanced technology, have nearly unlimited resources and energy. Indeed, now that machine intelligences can run the Culture far more efficiently--and less corruptly--than their human counterparts, most organic species have almost nothing to do except enjoy the material plenty that surrounds them, free for the taking throughout the galaxy.

But the Culture has not yet assimilated the entire galaxy, and it is at the fringes of the Culture--where comparatively primitive societies still desire to be autonomous--that Banks writes the most interesting Culture stories (see, in particular, Player of Games). The Culture, being a benevolent and nearly omniscient force, naturally wants to help these more primitive societies without entirely disrupting their ways of life. Hence, the branch of the Culture known as Contact--and, in particular, the branch of Contact known as Special Circumstances, which is called in when ordinary situations go haywire.

Cheradenine Zakalwe is a soldier for the Special Circumstances unit, plucked out of a hopeless war in a primitive planet and enlisted into the Culture for his tactical brilliance and his willingness to use his intelligence for whatever side the Culture assigns him to. But although he fights well, he is haunted by memories of a distant past--a chair, a sliver of bone, the name Staberinde--that he obsessively recalls despite the pain that they cause him.

The structure of the book mirrors Zakalwe's struggles with his past. There are roughly two threads to the book: one that progresses forward in time from Zakalwe's defection from Special Circumstances to his re-enlistment for one last mission, and one that progresses backward in time from Zakalwe's early missions for Special Circumstances to (at the very end) the dark secret of his past. Banks does an excellent job of making comprehensible this incredibly complex plot: in early chapters he drops hints, names, and allusions that make no sense at first but then are filled in as you read along. Although I was sometimes confused about how a particular episode fit into Zakalwe's life, I was never completely lost.

As with Banks's other science-fiction novels, the fecundity of his oftentimes gruesome imagination is at full blast here, mostly in the flashback sequences of Zakalwe's past missions. For example, one mission takes place on a gigantic iceberg where two armies litter the ice with blood and bodies; and then there is the party where people intentionally mutilate themselves.

The characters are, as usual, superb: Zakalwe is particularly well drawn, to the point that Banks almost didn't have to describe how Zakalwe was feeling, since I already could tell.

Finally, to briefly note some of Banks's other traditional strengths: the action sequences are breathless, his dialogue is hilarious (particularly from the drones and the Minds), and his writing is alternately snappy and lyrical. Indeed, Use of Weapons is perhaps the best written of Banks's books that I have read so far.

And the ending is a doozy.

But there are some deep problems with Use of Weapons. First, I thought that Banks cheated a little in setting us up for the dark secret of Zakalwe's past. Of course I haven't re-read the book yet, and perhaps my opinion will change when I do, but there are definitely some inconsistencies that were clearly left in merely to confuse us.

Second, Banks really overdoes the "amnesia" bits of the book. It seems that in almost every flashback, when Zakalwe wakes up from being knocked out, blown up, or beheaded (yes, beheaded), he has forgotten his past, and a large chunk of the chapter is taken up with Zakalwe laboriously re-constructing his memories. That would be all right for one chapter, but again and again--hey, he may forget, but I remember.

Third, Banks leaves entirely out of the book what I felt should have been the most important scenes: in particular, the major epiphany that, by the end of the book, it is clear that Zakalwe underwent at some point in his past. Again, I think he left those scenes out in order to make his ending that much more visceral and shocking, and it was--but it left the book feeling a little too empty.

Use of Weapons is a compulsively readable book, and a great deal of fun. Banks can always be relied on for a good read. But it could also have been a lot more, and it is mostly due to Banks's shying away from the deeper potential of his book that I give Use of Weapons a 7.

Note: If you are new to the Culture, this should not be your first Banks book.

Copyright © 2002 Steven Wu