For those of you not familiar with Iain M Banks’ Culture novels, I suggest that you do not read this book. Not right away. Instead, I would suggest that you acquaint yourself with the Culture by reading, at the very least, Use of Weapons or Consider Phlebas. And then you read this book.
If you didn’t know any better, it would be very easy to disregard Inversions as having anything to do with the Culture. Or anything to do with science fiction at all. In fact, it reads almost exactly like an historical drama, a faux-medieval setting populated with kings and dukes and ladies in waiting and guards and waifs and wastrels. Given that this sort of setting is so beloved by fantasy stories, it is not hard to imagine it as a tale of magic, even if what magic there might be is so subtle that it’s doubtful you could even call it magic.
Yes, it is possible to enjoy this book without knowing an ounce about the Culture. It is possible to enjoy whilst ignoring the intimations that the story is science fiction: two suns and many moons; a character’s seeming preternatural ability to listen in on conversations she shouldn’t be able to. It is possible to enjoy by twisting it into full-blown fantasy. It is possible to enjoy the rounded characters and thought-provoking situations at face value.
But to get the full dimensionality of the story, to read it as I think Banks intended, you do need to know about the Culture.
