Iain M. Banks: Inversions (Culture #6)

The next book in the Culture series, takes a slightly different approach than the others. The viewpoint is from a backward, vaguely late, middle-age type of society. There are two separate stories.

One follows a female doctor who has received an appointment to treat the king. She appears to have a much better understanding of medicine than the current standard and she seems to be the best doctor around, which naturally arouses envy and curiosity among the nobility and local doctors, even though she seems to have strange ideas about cleanliness and disinfection.

The other story follows another king, someone who has recently risen to power. A man working as his main bodyguard, is apparently extremely loyal and more capable than anyone else, saving the king’s life from a carefully planned assassination attempt. He becomes friends with the king, his son, and the king’s favorite concubine and engages in long discussions with them. He tells the son stories of a faraway place where people can do almost anything they want and about the friendship of a young man and woman who used to live in that world.

From the beginning, it is clear that the female doctor is a Culture agent, who is most likely working for Special Circumstances, the Culture’s quasi-military/research/first contact organization. It is less clear in the case of the bodyguard, but his attitudes are very different from those prevalent at the time. And his “fairy tales” are a clear allusion to the Culture.

If you are not familiar with the other books in the series, you might even read this as a fantasy where the doctor has some supernatural help. There is a scene where she escapes rape and torture using a Culture knife missile. Her assailants largely just disintegrate in seconds.

The book offers an interesting look at the Culture and its agents from the point of view of someone who has no clue what is going on. It differs somewhat from the other books in the series, as there are no orbitals, Minds, AIs, or other super high technology, other than that knife drone, which was appropriately concealed as an ancient actual knife. As a whole, the book provides an interesting perspective on how the Culture influences and slightly steers the development of primitive societies.

405 pp.