Use of Weapons - yet another Culture novel by Iain M. Banks - is a book that sucked me in, spit me out, and left me wondering what the heck just happened. It follows the fortunes of a Culture agent with a tragic past. It’s kind of the “Memento” of the book world in that the storyline moves forwards and backwards in time in parallel, so at the end of the book you experience the climax of two different stories: the one that takes place in the present, and the one that explains the dark secret in the protagonist’s past.

Use of Weapons is a book that seems to divide opinion: you either love it, or you’re repulsed by it. I loved it. I thought it was absolutely gripping - but it’s also very grim. Very grim. And while there’s certainly humor in it (as there seems to be in all of Banks’ books), the overwhelming atmosphere is one of somberness. The book is twisted both in the sense that the story takes unexpected turns and in the sense that some really perverse things happen in it. It’s another book that has just gotten under my skin and stayed there; I finished reading it months ago, but even now when I think about it, it makes me uneasy. It’s not a book for the faint of heart, but if you like your science fiction dark and surprising, this may be the book for you.

Further reading…