The Culture Novels

Consider Phlebas - 1987    More Stories Vernor Vinge Keeps Raising the Bar for Space Opera Benford's 'The Martian Race' Makes a Vivid Case for Mars 'Prodigal Sun' Raises Curtain on New Space Opera 'Major' Offers Low-Tech, Low-Excitement Military SF    Related Links Simon & Schuster / Pocket Books The Player of Games - 1988 Use of Weapons - 1990 Excession - 1996 Inversions - 2000

At first, there are few cues that Inversions is not a historical drama, but visitors from space prove to be a crucial force in changing two primitive societies from within.

Inversions follows two largely independent storylines centering on a doctor named Vosill -- often referred to as "the Doctor" by the narrator of her portion of the book -- and DeWar, a bodyguard. Each is an adviser to a national leader, and each has a personal agenda.

Both the Doctor and DeWar are regarded with distrust by others in their respective courts. They're forced to deal not only with constant intrigue, but with a world that is changing in ways they can't predict.

Moreover, the two protagonists are obviously outsiders to the societies they inhabit. Banks fans will quickly realize that they are agents of the Culture, a powerful and intrusive star-spanning society chronicled in Banks' space operas Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas and other books.

Even newcomers to Banks, however, will notice that DeWar and Doctor Vosill are more than they appear to be. Their knowledge is uncanny and their skills are magical.

Beyond Clarke's Law

However, Inversions is more than a simple iteration of Arthur C. Clarke's famous statement that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

The SF elements are subtle and mysterious, but they are also intrinsic to the book's message and characters.

The teachings of the Culture shape both Dewar and the Doctor, and Banks handles the latter's implicit biases with a particularly fine touch.

Doctor Vosill is annoyed and amused by the misogyny of the society she lives in, and is supremely confident in her medical skills -- a marked contrast to the uneasy bluster of the more primitive doctors she competes with.

She also holds an idealistic belief that the intelligent leaders of her nation will embrace sensible, egalitarian government once she explains the advantages.

At first, DeWar seems more at home with a primitive life than the Doctor, but he too has his problems and blind spots. His outsider's perspective points him towards a simple, straightforward way to improve his adopted culture, and when the complexities of real life obstruct that clear path, he founders.

This interplay between perspectives is what makes Inversions an interplanetary story even though all the action takes place on one world. The Doctor and the bodyguard's otherworldly origins and their ability to flee back to their home culture give them an alien quality that drives the entire novel.

You don't need to be Cortez to wreak havoc

The Earthly history of European expansion proves that introducing an alien presence into a less advanced culture can cause catastrophic change, but Banks argues in Inversions that this outside influence needn't be as dramatic as an outright invasion.

The changes that the Doctor and the bodyguard make on their new home are profound and very different from what they hope to accomplish.

Banks has touched on similar premises with The Player of Games and Excession, but Inversions is the most subtle of the three in its treatment of the theme.

Still, subtlety comes with a price -- Inversions is short on action and has an ending that's more thought-provoking than satisfying. It is a very coy book, and can be aggravatingly difficult to extract meaning from.

In the end, the effort is worth it.

Inversions grows on you while you think about it. It's too bad, however, that Banks didn't provide that depth along with the same excitement and humor that has characterized his other Culture books.