Product Description

The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action. The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought. The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2851 in Books
• Published on: 1992-03-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 434 pages

Review
'There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness' The Times

About the Author
Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, THE WASP FACTORY, in 1984. He has since gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels.

Customer Reviews

The only book that's ever made my hair stand on end
Many other reviews of 'Use of Weapons' will hint at its parallel linear/reverse linear narrative, the nature and occupation of the complex and not-very-nice Mr Zakalwe, the beautifully painted Culture, and the terrific hat joke, but I think they miss the visceral nature of the book.

There's a page thumbed down in my much-read edition that describes the origin and nature of a certain chair - the central metaphor of the book. Even as I write about it, my hackles are starting to rise at the thought of what this character did. And yet I liked him, loved the Culture and are lost in awe at Mr Banks' grasp of his art.

There are very few science fiction books that stand up as good literature - this is certainly one of them. Even though I had nightmares for weeks, thank you Iain, for this and for Consider Phlebas (PS I >hated< 'Canal Dreams').

Entering the whirlpool ...
As the first strand of the narrative rushes forwards in the present, the second strand twists backwards, into the past and into the formative episodes of Zakalwe's life. When it reaches the core of his past, you see that the story you thought you'd read has another, and very different, cast to it, like a face-or-vase illusion.
A disturbing, haunting, and fascinating book that demands to be re-read from time to time. Banks has one hell of an imagination.

Even as I type, I can feel the goosebumps rising !
This book was the first I've read since I can't remember when that made me truly horrified : fair enough, Iain M does like to put the odd grisly bit in his works, but in Use Of Weapons he systematically prepares you psychologically for one paragraph, three quarters of the way through the book, where you find out exactly what all that business with the white chairs is all about. I was drawn in, fascinated, by the use of alternating chapters - chapters 1, 3, 5 etc tell an on-going real-time story in the hero's career, while chapters 2, 4, 6 etc go backwards in time in his life, revealing an increasing uneasiness with white chairs as the actual reason becomes closer in time in his memory. The uneasiness turns to paranoia and horror as you get closer to the event and the half-page when you find out the truth hit me like a steamhammer : I found myself muttering "oh no. ugh. no!" and I as I type this I can feel my hackles rising. A twist in the tale at the end which turns out to be factually correct through the whole book only made it better. In an attempt to cheer up the review, though, there are several top jokes in too. My favourite : the hero finds himself captured by savages on an undeveloped world and is beheaded for being a demon from the skies after his ship crashlands. Luckily, it IS the Culture so his head is effected back onto the big ship for re-growing in a tank. When he regains consciousness, just a head in a tank with full regrowth still a month away, various friends visit him in the sick bay : a Drone friend of his has brought him a present. It's a hat.