I knew I had to reach for an Iain M. Banks book after reading about M. John Harrison's friendship with the great writer. It had been a while, after all.

The State of the Art is a rarity in Banks' cannon, a collection of short stories. It's a curious bunch of stories. The first two seem like fragments, or experiments in preparation for bigger works. Road of Skulls (1988) is a gothic curio. I'm still thinking about it even though it seems inconsequential. Two misfits travel along a road of skulls, literally, and only one person seems to know what it's all about, and it's not them. The second, A Gift from the Culture (1987), really does seem like a fragment. A former citizen of the Culture is blackmailed to do the bidding of terrorists and is the most inconsequential story in the collection.

Odd Attachment (1989) is darkly hilarious, exactly the kind of humour you find in his work, and is very entertaining. Descendant (1987) is very clever, making you go back to check how it all plays out. Cleaning Up (1987) is perhaps the best non-Culture story in this collection. It's very clever and darkly humorous, with a touch of misanthropy thrown in for good measure. Piece (1989) could be described in exactly the same way. So far so good.

The real highlight of this collection is the near novella set in the Culture universe, The State of the Art (1989). The story is brilliant and fully formed. The Culture visits Earth in 1977 and acts very much the anthropologist. Culture humanoids visit the surface to sample different countries and all the Earth has to offer. Some are cynics, some are entranced and want to save humans from themselves with contact (by, erm, Contact), and one individual wants a whole lot more. As with all Culture stories, there's a massive space-craft with an AI 'Mind' who is very much in control, pondering over the moral implications of interference. Banks' cynical approach to humanity is perhaps a bit overdone, but this was the Cold War era, so fair enough. It's fantastic writing and, as usual, Banks explores all kinds of existential issues throughout the narrative, coupled with the Culture's amazing technology. It's stirring stuff and made me immediately want to read the remaining Culture novels I haven't read yet. I'd forgotten just how much I love his writing.

The collection ends with Scratch (1987), which is both slight and one of the most obtuse existential jokes ever. It made me think that Banks had been reading J G Ballard's more experimental short stories from the late seventies, which he probably had been, I'd say. Despite a couple of minor curios, this collection is well worth the effort.

The stories were truly of 5-star caliber. They had the power to engage and captivate the reader from start to finish. However, there was one novella that really disappointed me, and that was State of the Art. I would give it at most 2 stars. It seemed to go on and on for page after page, rambling about things that held no real interest for me. At times, I found it almost难以置信 that this was written by Banks, a writer known for his brilliant and engaging works.

Thankfully, the other stories more than made up for this disappointment. They were truly brilliant, with well-developed characters, interesting plots, and beautiful prose. Each one was a joy to read and left me wanting more. Overall, despite the let-down of State of the Art, I would still highly recommend this collection of stories to anyone looking for a great read.

The State of the Art is a compilation of short stories. Some of these stories are related to the Culture novels, while others are not (or at least not overtly). In fact, it seems that Iain M. Banks didn't make a great impression on me as a short story writer. The best story in the collection was the titular one, which is both a Culture story and significantly longer than the others. This extra length gave it more room to engage me and for Banks to construct the kind of story that has hooked me in his novels.

The stories themselves are not bad, but they didn't capture my interest at all (except for the one already mentioned and 'A Gift from the Culture'). I was only interested when the stories were closest to Banks' other SF work. Otherwise, they seemed rather unremarkable. There are, however, some interesting humorous elements and wry perspectives on the staples of the genre.

I hope this isn't a general reaction to Banks' work, as I know I enjoyed several of his Culture novels and was looking forward to reading the rest. Maybe he just doesn't suit my taste as a short story writer.

Originally reviewed here.

The short stories included in this collection were just okay. In my opinion, my personal favorites were "Descendant" and "Odd Attachment".

The title novella did have certain interesting aspects, yet I had difficulties in accepting the unprofessional behavior of the ship's crew. Seriously, a captain in exile?

For those who are reading this as a part of the Culture series, the three stories from that universe present here are "A Gift from the Culture" (which doesn't seem to have any clear indications regarding the time it takes place), "Descendant" (which appears to occur around the same time as "Consider Phelbas"), and "State of the Art" (which is set in 1977).

Finally, if you are not familiar with the Lockerbie Disaster, it would be beneficial to read a couple of sentence summaries before delving into "Piece". I'm not certain if it makes the story better, but it does transform it from being completely incomprehensible to at least understandable.

Overall, while there were some亮点 in the collection, it also had its flaws and areas that could have been improved upon.