Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks – A Book Review

Look to Windward is Iain M. Banks’ seventh sci-fi epic about The Culture, his famously quirky post-human, post-scarcity interstellar utopian society. It is – for a Culture novel – a surprisingly simple story (and I can’t say more than that without spoilers). Nevertheless, it still features all the widely exotic and imaginative places, people and side-stories one expects from a Culture novel.

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#1 – What Is This Review All About?

I read sci-fi and fantasy of all kinds, yet since starting Pins of War ~ 1 year ago, I focused heavily on Black Library novels. Yet when the brilliant sci-fi (and not-sci-fi) writer Iain M. Banks, passed away recently, it seemed like the right time for me to return to Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels.

I realize this review will be an odd jump for many.

• For those looking for wargaming-related book reviews: This isn’t one of them.
• Those who don’t know or never read Banks’ Culture novels: This isn’t a review of the novel you should start with. Look to Windward, published in 2000, is actually the 7th Culture novel.

Though the Culture novels aren’t strictly speaking a series, it does make sense to read these books in the order of their publication.

Look to Windward in particular makes frequent references the first Culture novel – Consider Phlebas – with which it shares the inspiration for the title in the form of T.S. Eliot quote:

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

T.S. Eliot,
‘The Waste Land’, IV

Look to Windward is where I left the series some years ago. This is where I picked it up again.

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#2 – Look to Windward – Surprisingly Topical Sci-Fi…

For a Culture novel, Look to Windward is a straightforward story (if told with lots of flourishes).

The novel starts from the premise that, decades ago, the Culture’s penchant for paternalistic meddling with other, less-evolved civilizations in the galaxy, usually to promote its unique brand of egalitarianism, democracy and hedonism, backfired terribly with the space-faring race known as Chelgarians, triggering a terrible civil war. Now the Chelgarians secretly seek retributive justice (and more!) by planning to destroy one of the Culture’s Orbitals (inspiration for the popular Halo Games), hoping to kill billions of Culture citizens.

The sci-fi twist to the story is how the Chelgarians – or anyone – could hope to succeed with an act of intergalactic terrorism against a hyper-advanced civilization like the Culture, which – from a technological perspective at least – have essentially no weaknesses and no practical constraints on what they can do or see or control.

A good part of reading Look to Windward is about discovering, step by step, the full details of the Chelgarians’ plan. Going into details would spoil most of the book. The key however, is that the Chelgarians’ intent is to exploit the one thing the Culture, especially the near omnipotent Culture A.I.s, known as Minds (with a capital “M”), don’t ever want to do (even though they easily could do so): To constantly snoop around in people’s (non-capital m) minds.

Look to Windward may be 13 years old, but it does at times launch into (Culture-flavoured) discussion on the trade-offs between security and privacy, or the importance of privacy even at the prize of a less-perfect defense against potential attacks and atrocities. These parts of the book to me felt oddly like a commentary on some of the more recent spy-snooping scandals.

That said, Look to Windward is still a no-holds Space Opera for the main part, and can just as easily be read as just that.

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#3 –  … that Is Somewhat Spoiled by the End

Unfortunately, I found the ending to be a let-down, taking the edge out of both the suspense (will the Chelgarians succeed or not?) and the more thoughtful issues it raises (e.g. refusing to read people’s minds, even if you could, as matter of principle).

… Spoiler (again)…

The end essentially comes down to: “everybody important knew what the Chelgarians were planning all along“.

I hate these sort of endings.

I feel it somewhat diminishes the story’s suspense, which comes as the reader pieces together the Chelgarians’ plot over the course of the book. If the Culture’s powers-that-be could have stopped everything from “page one”, so to speak, what point was there in letting the plot unfold despite this knowledge (other than the need to have a book)?

On the other hand, the book’s ending also treats to reader to the rare joy of seeing the Culture take the gloves off. That, is truly dark! And finally, Look to Windward also ends on a semi-cliffhanger of sorts. Overall, I definitely look forward to pick up the next Culture book soon!

Z.