The flight of missiles cleared the nearest ridge in a glittering arc. The last time they’d been attacked had been a kilometer back, and now they were nearly out of range. One edge of the helmet visor was dark, where it had taken a hit, and the right leg flexed awkwardly, also damaged, making him limp, but otherwise he’d been lucky. It was bright and hot and dry outside, but inside the suit he was shielded from the sun and the baking air cosseted and cool. Somehow he had survived he had not expected to. They were approaching a tall dune, from which they ought to be able to see the coast.
They must be nearly there the noise of distant surf boomed through the helmet soundfield. He limped across the desert, following the suited figure in front. The man is a game-player called “Gurgeh.” The story starts with a battle that is not a battle, and ends with a game that is not a game.ĭust drifted with each footstep. This is the story of a man who went far away for a long time, just to play a game. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. The characters and events in this book are fictitious. The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Ltd. Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA. Visit our website at First eBook Edition: December 2009 Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. “Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth.”Įxcerpt from Matter copyright © 2008 by Iain M. “Pyrotechnic, action-filled, satiric, outlandish, deep and frivolous all at once, these bravura space operas… juggle galactic scale… with a revelatory energy rarely matched in speculative fiction.” “An exquisitely riotous tour de force of the imagination which writes its own rules simply for the pleasure of breaking them.”
They’re about faith in the future, about the belief that societies can make sense of themselves, can have fun doing so, can live by Good Works, and can do so in circumstances far removed from our own little circle of western civilization.” “The Culture Books are not technological just-so stories. “Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.”
“Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy-the books of Iain M. “There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness.”
“Banks is a phenomenon… writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.”
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