Paperback, 188 pages
English language
Published April 11, 2007 by Night Shade Books.
The first ever collection of Iain Banks’s short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale.
Preferred some stories more than others but the longest, and title, story was my favourite. The fact it had counter arguments to how great the Culture is made it especially interesting.
Two of these eight short stories were REALLY good (don't miss ODD ATTACHMENT and DESCENDANT). Others (A GIFT FROM THE CULTURE, CLEANING UP, and SCRATCH) were generally a little boring without much present in the story to entertain. The remaining (THE STATE OF THE ART, ROAD OF SKULLS, and PIECE) fall somewhere in between; not great, but not too bad either. It's a shame that the title story falls into this category and wasn't one of the best pieces.
If you're a fan of Banks, you'll want to read this collection. If this is your first CULTURE book, put it down and go read PLAYER OF GAMES first instead.
