Even if you aren't as interested in the Culture as I, the story of Quilan will keep you turning those pages.Look to Windward is the seventh book in Banks' science fiction universe based on a utopian society of advanced artificial intelligences and the humans (and other organic life forms) that originally created them, loosely termed the Culture. Most of the story is composed of musing, about the Culture between Ziller and a fellow alien named Kabe, between Kabe and the Core (the AI mind of the Orbital) and between Kabe and Quilan, as they move around the Orbital (Ziller is trying to avoid meeting with Quilan). At least that's what Quilan thinks in the beginning, but there's a lot more on his mind, which even Quilan himself doesn't know about.

Quilan (who's a Chelgrian) is send to Masaq' to try to convince his fellow Chelgrian Ziller to return to Chelgrian with him. Look to Windward is centred on the Culture Orbital Masaq', where most of the story takes place. There you have it I'm starting to revert to nonsense, as good books have a tendency to make me. It may not be the most exciting Culture novel (that will probably be Use of Weapons) or the funniest (that would be Against A Dark Background), but if it had tried to be that, it wouldn't have been what it is. And in that sense it is the ultimate Culture novel as it tells us as much about the Culture as possible. And it is accurate, because Look to Windward tells us as much about the Culture as it is possible to tell in three hundred and fifty pages while still keeping a story flowing. It can't get any shorter than that and still hold meaning or any degree of accuracy.

So let me sum up Look to Windward in one sentence: Look to Windward is the ultimate Culture novel.

I know that I've used this excuse before, but that doesn't make it less true.

Sometimes a book is just so good, that it becomes hard to review properly, without reverting to long sentences overflowing with superlatives (which quickly becomes boring). To think that it has been nearly a year since I read any Banks last – not strange that I had to consume this one over a single weekend.

Iain banks look to windward