The more creative you are with the concept of what can serve as a weapon, the greater the potential for harm when you utilize such weapons.

You can slice deeper, strike harder, and break more forcefully. Weapons are not merely limited to knives, swords, and firearms. They extend far beyond clubs, brass knuckles, and table legs.

In fact, a relationship can be wielded as a weapon. A disloyal act within that relationship can feel as if it is a powerful punch directly to the gut.

Moreover, a single word has the ability to cut deeper than any physical knife. It can penetrate the soul and leave lasting wounds.

And let's not forget that a memory can be a lethal weapon. It can haunt and torment, killing a person's spirit from within.

Weapons come in many forms, and their impact can be profound and far-reaching.

-¿Dulce et decorum est?.-

Genre. Science Fiction.

What it tells us. Cheradenine Zakalwe is an operative working for The Culture, but not a native of it. Diziet Sma is his contact agent in the Special Circumstances department, which is dedicated to handling the most complicated relationships with other cultures and societies, changing their conditions if necessary. And Skaffen-Atmiskaw is an AI from the same department that knows both of them and usually accompanies Sma. We will get to know more about them, especially Zakalwe and his personality, through different storylines and time periods that are intertwined. Third book in the Culture series.

If you want to know more about this book, without spoilers? Visit:

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In this science fiction work, the complex world of The Culture is explored. Zakalwe, an outsider within this culture, plays a crucial role as an operative. His relationship with Sma, the contact agent, and the AI Skaffen-Atmiskaw adds depth to the story. The Special Circumstances department's activities of handling intricate cultural relationships and potentially altering conditions create a backdrop of mystery and excitement. As we follow the different storylines and time periods, we gradually uncover more about Zakalwe's personality and the inner workings of The Culture. This book, the third in the series, offers a captivating look into a unique and imaginative universe.

I don't know what to say right now.

I recall having a certain degree of liking for The Player of Games, yet not being in a state of 'oh my god, I must read more of this guy's work'. However, this one... When I heard the recent sad news about Banks, I shuffled it up my reading list. And I'm truly glad that I did. This is precisely what has deeply engaged me in his work: the ingenious narrative structure, the awfulness at the core of this story that we witness being exposed only layer by layer, the ending which not only made absolute sense and seemed the only natural way to conclude the story but also felt immediate, sudden, and horrifying.

Now, I shall get around to reading more of Banks' work even more promptly. This is really excellent speculative fiction. It doesn't merely speculate about technology, aliens, and culture, but also feels authentic, touches upon something relevant and dreadful that comments on the way we are currently as well as the way things might potentially be.

The Use of Weapons is truly one of my all-time favorite Culture novels. Rereading it after a decade or so has only served to strengthen my opinion.

The story centers around Cheradenine Zakalwe, an agent of the Culture's 'special circumstances' division. The Culture is a loose association of 'humans' governed by Minds, or A.I.s, where members enjoy a peaceful, hedonistic post-scarcity existence, mostly on massive orbitals or gigantic spaceships. Taking inspiration from older space opera like E.E. 'Doc' Smith, most of the aliens in the galaxy are humans or closely related to them. As the Culture expands, it frequently encounters such aliens.

The Culture offers these societies many benefits, including anti-aging treatments, incredibly high living standards for all, and superior technology. However, not every society is eager to embrace the Culture, as joining implies replacing social hierarchy with egalitarianism. It is often the stubborn refusal of the elites that leads these societies to 'hold out' or, more commonly, triggers civil war. The Culture only offers and never takes, but it does interfere in these 'hold outs' through the use of Special Circumstances agents.

Zakalwe was born on an 'uncontacted' world, the son of a wealthy and influential family, along with his two sisters and another boy raised with them. The novel takes a while to get into due to Banks' use of repeated flashbacks to Zakalwe's career. The overall plot involves his handler Diziet Sma and her Drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw trying to find Zakalwe and send him on another mission in a distant star cluster. However, more than half of the book is dedicated to prior events in Zakalwe's life, from boyhood to the present. Zakalwe has a particular niche in the Culture; he is skilled in rather primitive warfare (circa WWII) and is an excellent general, so most of his missions involve traveling to a planet to guide one side of an ongoing war.

Banks is known for his meanderings, and they are certainly present here. However, this novel is much more focused than, say, Consider Phlebas. The meanderings often center on key existentialist questions and, of course, the use of weapons. Zakalwe is a damaged individual, having risked his life countless times for a cause he is not entirely sure he believes in. Is the Culture truly superior? Should it be intervening in countless societies based on the logic of the Minds? Yes, the end goal is an egalitarian society of plenty, but what are the costs of getting there?

Most excellent fictional works on war convey a strong 'anti-war' sentiment, as wars involve 'commoners' killing each other for some lofty goal, or for the aggrandizement of their leaders, or whatever. War is always a choice, as Banks points out, even if your nation is invaded. However, it is a costly choice, leaving lives and families in ruins, along with the dead and maimed soldiers. These ideas are clearly expressed in this novel as Banks takes us from one futile war to another through Zakalwe's flashbacks.

Although this novel requires some effort from the reader, especially at the beginning, it just keeps getting better and better as it progresses. And, unlike some authors, Banks really knows how to end a novel! While Banks does give us glimpses of the amazing technology of the Culture, most of the story takes place on alien worlds with (largely) 20th-century technology. Again, that is Zakalwe's niche. I appreciate Bank's politics, which come through here as well, although not in a blatant way; in other words, this is not a morality play. Yes, many of the societies have decadent elites who are willing to sacrifice the benefits of the Culture to maintain their petty fiefdoms and power. I see this as a definite social commentary. Great stuff from a master of the craft! 4.5 stars, rounding up!!

I'd prefer to sit on the floor, thanks. No, really! I'll feel more comfortable that way.

You know, sometimes the floor offers a unique kind of comfort that a chair just can't provide. It gives a sense of closeness to the ground, a kind of grounding feeling.

I'm sorry? Oh, just something I read. It doesn't matter. To be honest, I'd rather not talk about it.

Maybe it was a personal experience that I'm not quite ready to share. Or perhaps it was an article that made me think deeply, but the thoughts are still too jumbled in my mind to put into words.

In any case, there are some things that are better left unsaid for now.

Fantastic. After I finish most books, I head to the bookshelf and flip through the three or four books that I had in my mind as I was getting to the end of the last one.

Not this time. As soon as I turned the last page, I gave this one some significant thought. I take this opportunity to also remind you that this is a science fiction novel.

I prefer, if at all possible, to avoid writing reviews with spoilers. In this case, this is going to be a challenge because much of what is wicked about Use of Weapons meets the spoiler test. Nevertheless, I will do my best.

There are some who claim that Iain Banks' Culture novels can be read out of order because while they all take place in the same Universe, they concern different characters and stories. While that may be true, I tend to tackle such things in order. I hope it adds to my appreciation of both the author's development and any subtle early clues in that "universe". I'm glad I did so in the Culture series. Consider Phlebas is an excellent introduction by way of an enemy of the Culture and Player of Games is a story centered around a member of the Culture. Now, we enter the world of Cheradenine Zekalwe, a Culture agent and the protagonist in Use of Weapons.

Zekalwe is a badass. That much is clear from the start. He's also the most interesting character in the Culture series to date. He is not a member of the Culture (whatever that really means) but does their dirty work...for a price. From his present and past, we learn about suffering, guilt, and attempts at redemption. We also learn of deceit.

The structure of the novel is part of its intrigue. In one forward-moving storyline, we learn of Zekalwe's current "job" for his Culture employers. The second storyline moves backwards in time and explores his motivations, his relationship with the Culture, and how he gets the hell beaten out of him repeatedly. The retrograde stories have a decidedly dream-like and dark quality. As with the previous two novels, we get cool glimpses into the Culture, technology, weapons, space travel, and a whole GSV full of moral ambiguity.

Make no mistake: this is a dark story - Banks' penchant for torture and pain is well-established. Yet somehow I laughed out loud on several occasions. Iain Banks can flip that switch and that's one of the reasons I love his writing.

For me, it's a 4.5. Highly recommended.

First, a few words about length.

Why would I need to talk about length in a review of this novel, which -- at around 400 pages -- is decidedly medium-sized? Because, for me, medium-sized books are the riskiest ones. I'm a slow reader. Some people might read a book like Use of Weapons in a few days; for me it takes more like a few weeks. When I pick up such a book I know it will accompany numerous subway rides, morning cups of coffee, and pre-bedtime half-hours. There's a nontrivial investment of time there, and with that investment comes risk and the possibility of regret.

Long books are different. The playing field is leveled as long books are long for everyone. An author writing a long book knows that any ordinary reader is going to be making a significant investment of time, like the one I described. They feel (or should feel) a responsibility to make that investment worthwhile. Whether or not the destination is interesting, the journey must be, as the reader will spend many hours freely making that journey.

Without that sense of responsibility, and without unusual length, there's nothing to stop an author from writing an uninteresting journey that is supposedly justified by its destination. Books that are largely reducible to their premises, central plot twists, or gimmicks. This is why I don't read many short stories as they often feel reducible in this way. But at least a short story is short enough that it isn't a huge investment for a slow reader like me. A medium-sized book, like Use of Weapons, with the same problem is just exasperating. I'm never going to get those hours back.

You can probably see where this is going. Use of Weapons was, for me, a pretty extreme case of "an uninteresting journey that is putatively justified by its destination." It doesn't have much of a plot. Much of the book consists of unrelated military episodes on different planets, none of which really matter to the reader. The one thing stringing the reader along is The Chair. The main character associates chairs with a mysterious, dark event in his past. When he sleeps in a hotel and there's a chair in the room, he removes it. I should probably have stopped reading halfway through when it became clear I wasn't interested in the (non-)plot or the characters. But I had to know about The Chair. I had to see if the big reveal would make it all worth it. I should have already learned my lesson: it never does.

I'm truly at a loss for words when it comes to describing just how good this is. Banks is an absolutely incredible writer. His works have the power to transport readers to different worlds, filled with vivid characters and captivating storylines. Each page is a journey, and once you start reading, it's almost impossible to put the book down. The way he weaves words together is like a masterful symphony, creating a harmonious and engaging experience for the reader. Whether it's a thrilling adventure, a thought-provoking mystery, or a heartwarming romance, Banks has the ability to bring it all to life in the most extraordinary way. His writing is not only entertaining but also has the potential to leave a lasting impact on the reader's mind and heart. I can't recommend his books highly enough.

A man named Cheradenine Zakalwe murders a king. Subsequently, the beautiful and aristocratic agent Diziet Sma and her reliable sidekick, the drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw, must embark on a mission to find him. And without any further delay, we are plunged into the action. Or something along those lines. And the action truly doesn't cease either. Banks is not predominantly known as a writer of adventure fiction, yet that is precisely what Use of Weapons is. It is filled with action, adventure, exotic landscapes, and dramatic confrontations. Heroic deeds are set against an expansive, star-studded backdrop. After all, weapons are meant to be used, and Use of Weapons adheres to the maxim of Chekhov's gun as well as the dictate of its title - they are all utilized by the conclusion of the book.

Use of Weapons is a Culture novel, situated in Banks' popular and intricate far-future setting, alongside works such as Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games. Although, like most of his Culture novels, it is actually set almost entirely in a more primitive region of the galaxy, an Open Cluster of approximately half a million worlds where aircraft still land on wheels, for goodness' sake, and where the Culture's Special Circumstances branch has an easier time remaining out of sight while engaging in some serious meddling.

That's where Zakalwe enters the picture. He is originally from somewhere within the Cluster but was picked up - rescued, really - by Sma while in extremis several decades earlier and trained as a Special Circumstances agent himself. The relationship between Sma and Zakalwe is a significant aspect of the book; those two have a substantial history together.

Zakalwe's training doesn't mean he is impervious to harm - and he endures some severe harm throughout the course of this book - but his Culture-inculcated skills do give him an edge over almost anyone he encounters. And Zakalwe's experience with the Open Cluster's small-c culture provides him with an advantage that few Culture agents could rival. So when it comes time to launch a retrieval operation for an old politician that Zakalwe used to know... he is pretty much the only option the Culture has.

This merely scratches the surface of what occurs in Use of Weapons. One of my major issues with Banks' Culture novels, in fact, is that there is so much happening that it is easy to become lost in all the intrigues, plot twists, and sheer volume of detail that he presents. But truly, if that is the worst thing I can think of regarding this book... I have to admit, that is quite good.

I read Consider Phlebas and I truly loathed it. After much persuasion from friends, I picked up Use of Weapons, which was supposed to be significantly better.

Surprisingly, it turned out to be exactly the same book.

We have one character, the culture agent, whose main talent seems to be having sex. I stopped reading at 46%, and by then, she had only done two things: begun seducing a hapless journalist in her first scene and had an orgy with the crew of the ship. Supposedly, she is a Special Circumstances agent, the best of the best of the Culture. However, I find her to be a sexist and demeaning two-dimensional adolescent fantasy. The other character is a violent sociopath. He comes from a lower-tech culture, so he should be the fish-out-of-water through whose eyes we see the world. Unfortunately, he is an old and grizzled veteran who is disinterested in everyone and everything he encounters. He is supposed to be a genius tactician, but so far, his only plan has been "bribe someone with enough money to buy a nation". He is also supposed to be a skilled soldier, yet his only exploits were shooting an elder in his bed and beating a kid tied to a chair. He is a carbon copy of Horza from Consider Phlebas. His chapters are written in the same infuriatingly sloppy first-person style as Horza. It's painful to read, breaks the pace of action and narration, and is overall very clumsy.

Consider Phlebas had some bouts of creative worldbuilding. Use of Weapons has none: the characters visit planets populated by aliens indistinguishable from humans, at tech levels of Earth in the XX century or lower. It's like watching a low-budget TV show.

The plot: there is no real plot, or more precisely, it's recursive, and I feel mocked. We have a drone that has to fetch a Contact agent. The Contact agent has to fetch a sociopath soldier. The sociopath soldier has to fetch... someone. But wait: it's all irrelevant! The Contact agent clearly states that if she fails her mission, a dropship will descend from orbit, break the roof, and abduct the guy. So, why should we care? I would have accepted it if the Culture agents preferred to do things "by hand" because they are bored, decadent transhumans, but no, the character is as bored as we are and feels that she is losing her time. So do I, my dear.

The morals: in the very first flashback chapter, Zakalwe assassinates a dictator, declaring that he has gone rogue because the Culture is soft and would never do something like that. Then we are treated to a flashback in which the drone assassinates a whole host of brigands, liberally splattering bystanders with their entrails, while the Special Circumstances agent is just a damsel in distress. After he murders everybody, she tells him he has been a bad bad robot and threatens to ask for another companion. AND HIS FEELINGS ARE HURT. Is this supposed to be character development, where we see that sometimes even the Culture is forced to do what is needed? No: Zakalwe is explicitly recruited because he can do things no Culture citizen can do. Is it supposed to be comedy, with the drone as a lovable sociopath? No, because the drone dislikes Zakalwe because he is a sociopath murderer. I call it trash.

I truly wish I could bestow more stars upon Use of Weapons and offer the kind of appreciation that some people are so capable of heaping on it. I do understand the perspective from which they come. However, I just couldn't manage to focus intently enough on some of the details within this novel to fully grasp it. I know I need to read it again. And perhaps I should even attempt reading the Roman numeral chapters backwards, since I didn't realize initially that they were in reverse chronological order. This might help me to appreciate it more fully. For the moment, though, all I can say with certainty is that this is a thorough book. Iain M Banks showcases a remarkable versatility that would make a trained singer shed tears of envy.

You see, I had a great fondness for The Player of Games because it boasted a strong main character that I could easily enjoy. I really needed that, considering that the defining characteristic of the Culture is a sort of aggressive, generic facelessness. The Minds and, to some extent, even the citizens are interchangeable. No one individual is truly essential to the overall operation. Most people don't really make a significant difference because everything is managed behind the scenes by the machines. So having that one exceptional person around as an anchor can truly be of great help.

Neither of the main characters in Use of Weapons really serves that purpose for me. Once the main plot of the novel gets underway, we don't spend a great deal of time with Sma. She sets up the plot and tags along for the ride, but then we follow Zakalwe – and he is something entirely different. Without spoiling the magnificent twist at the end, Zakalwe is not who we think he is, and perhaps not even who he thinks he is himself. In creating Zakalwe, Banks has crafted such a naughty, knotty, and complicated character. He still doesn't quite capture my attention in the same way that Gurgeh did in The Player of Games, but I can definitely admire what Banks does with Zakalwe's psychology.

Not directly of the Culture, Zakalwe comes to work for them after concluding his own private little war. He is extremely proficient at war – so good, in fact, that it scares people, including himself. He becomes a highly skilled member of Special Circumstances, the branch of the Culture's Contact division that is responsible for cleaning up messes (or sometimes creating them). Then, after a mission goes awry, he decides to retire by going AWOL. Now Sma has been dispatched to retrieve him because he is the only one who can assist in defusing the war that is brewing in another star cluster.

The politics in this story are a bit byzantine, and there is that constant sense, as is the case with most Culture novels, that they don't really matter all that much. If the cluster goes to war... well, that won't cause any harm to the Culture. We are left to simply accept that the Culture just likes to meddle and go along with it. What this part of the story does is establish a contrast between the way Zakalwe is currently proceeding and the way he has operated in the past, as is revealed in the flashback chapters with those descending Roman numerals.

I don't have any regrets about reading the entire book from front to back the first time through. After all, Banks could have placed the last chapter with Roman numerals (which, chronologically speaking, is the first) at the very front of the book. But he chose not to. So there is definitely something to be said for playing along and experiencing it in this way, even if the narrative itself might make a little more sense if read in the opposite order.

Use of Weapons, as its name implies, paints a vivid picture for us of the various ways in which force can be deployed and people can be manipulated in order to achieve one's ends. The weapons here include not just ordinance but also individuals – those within armies, and the big thinkers at the top, such as Zakalwe, who come up with ways to get the armies killed. There are numerous scenes throughout the book that emphasize Zakalwe's status as a weapon, a kind of loaded pistol that is always threatening to go off.

I guess my main issue with this book is that I constantly had the feeling that it hadn't actually begun – and then suddenly it was over. I kept turning the page, eagerly waiting for the main plot to unfold and something truly interesting to occur, but I was never quite satisfied. There are some great moments, such as the chapter when Zakalwe rescues Tsoldrin Beychae only for their means of escape to be shot down. In such moments, I was able to enjoy the scene for what it was. Overall, however, Use of Weapons just feels very flat as a narrative, and this really distracted me.

I would very much like to re-read it one day and give it another chance. While I can truthfully say that I did enjoy it to some extent this time around, it didn't quite leave me with the same profound impression that it has left on others.

My reviews of the Culture novels:

← The Player of Games | Excession →

  

Possibly the darkest of the late Ian M. Banks’s science-fiction novels set in the Culture Universe, this work offers a profound exploration. The plot revolves around former rebel general Cheradenine Zakalwe. He is recruited by the utopian Culture’s Special Circumstances Division to carry out a series of morally ambiguous interventions in the affairs of potential member-worlds.

It presents a bleak and unflinchingly unsentimental examination of the dehumanizing nature of war, seen through the lens of space opera. Zakalwe, initially likeable, seems to be a hero with a tragic past. However, through one of Banks’ trademark twists, he is ultimately revealed to be something entirely different.

This novel is a thoroughly compelling read that keeps the reader engaged from start to finish. But don't expect a rosy or idealized ending. Instead, it offers a realistic and often harsh portrayal of the consequences of war and the complex nature of the characters involved. It forces the reader to confront the darker aspects of human nature and the choices that are made in the name of progress and intervention.