Inversions

: "This article is about the book by Iain Banks. There is also a 1981 book of art with the same name, by puzzle designer Scott Kim."infobox Book |
name = Inversions
orig title =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Iain M. Banks
cover_artist =
country = Scotland
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Orbit Books
release_date = 1998
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 393 pp
isbn = ISBN 1-85723-763-3
preceded_by = A Song of Stone
followed_by = The Business

"Inversions" is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1998. It is considered a novel set in his Culture universe. However, the term 'The Culture' is never used anywhere within the book, and unlike most other recent editions of Banks' SF novels, does not carry the tag 'A Culture Novel' on the cover.

Plot

It tells the story of two influential, and possibly extraplanetary, strangers within two competing societies on a world whose state of civilisation broadly resembles that of early modern Europe. The two entwined stories are of Vosill, or 'The Doctor', who looks after one kingdom's absolute monarch, and the bodyguard, DeWar, of a rival and more "progressive" country's Cromwellian Protector.

Vosill believes she can moderate the conservative, authoritarian rule of the king by argument and good works, while (it is heavily implied) also secretly assassinating those she considers a personal danger or a threat to a more positive future for the kingdom. DeWar in turn becomes convinced that someone connected to UrLeyn is trying to kill him. Both, it turns out, are mysterious outsiders from farther away than the King or Protector can possibly imagine.

Literary significance & criticism

Like many other Banks books, "Inversions" has an interlaced structure; the grandson of the purported reporter of some of the events portrayed introduces the reader to the tales of his grandfather, thus giving three or four distinct layers of supposed narration (the two original fictional "authors", the fictional "editor" and Banks himself).

The two interlopers, intimate friends in the Culture before each came to intervene in the affairs of the world, develop different notions of the extent to which they can morally enforce change on an unwitting "weaker" society. Their respective outlooks are reflected in the way they choose to intervene in their respective societies.

The book stands out in the context of the Culture novels for the relatively confined space in which it is set - the other novels tend to span many worlds, and often much longer timespans. "Inversions" represents the most intimate portrayal in the Culture series of the ways in which Culture citizens can affect the paths of other societies.

Culture book?

Banks has said "Inversions" was an attempt to write a Culture novel that wasn't". [ [http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue274/interview.html Cultured futurist Iain M. Banks creates an ornate utopia] (from a Science Fiction Weekly Interview)] The book never directly references the Culture or makes plain that any of the characters are alien in origin. Vosill and DeWar refer to distant lands where other political systems hold sway; readers familiar with the Culture can recognize it in these descriptions, but the book never makes this plain. There are references to an antique dagger which Vossil carries which has a decorative stone that tends to vanish and return when mysterious events happen. Readers familiar with Culture technology will recognize the stone as a knife missile which is acting to defend Vosill from attack, or responding to her orders, but again this is never made plain in the book. As a result, a reader unversed in Banks' other novels could read Inversions without ever realizing that it is even a science fiction work at all.

Original preface

The initial hardback printing of the book contained the following preface:

A Note on the Text

This Text, in two Parts, was discovered amongst the Papers of my late Grandfather. One Part concerns the Story of the Bodyguard to the then Protector of Tassasen, one UrLeyn, and is related, it is alleged, by a Person of his Court at the time, while the other, told by my Grandfather, tells the Story of the Woman Vosill, a Royal Physician during the Reign of King Quience, and who may, or may not, have been from the distant Archipelago of Drezen but who was, without Argument, from a different Culture. Like my much esteemed Grandfather, I have taken on the Task of making the Text I inherited more comprehensible and clear, and hope that I have succeeded in this Aim. Nevertheless, it is in a Spirit of the utmost Humility that I present it to the Society and to whomever might see fit to read it.

— O. Derlan-Haspid III, D.Phys, OM (1st class), ESt, RS (hons).

This has been omitted from subsequent paperback editions. Some reviewers [ [http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/2547/skyr.htm Parsec review] ] noted the joking reference to "Culture" in this.

Bibliography

"Inversions", Iain M. Banks, London: Orbit, 1998, ISBN 1-85723-763-3

References

External links

* " [http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/books/inversions_000217.html New Iain Banks Novel Sets Archaic Setting Against the Stars] " (book review on Space.com)