 Cover of an early edition of the book Inversions is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1998. Image File history File links IainMBanksInversions. ...
Image File history File links IainMBanksInversions. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ...
Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ...
Iain Menzies Banks (born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. ...
Summary A Culture novel from the point of view of a planet being intervened in by the Culture. The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...
Description It tells the story of two influential 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 (King Quience, in Hapside), and the bodyguard, DeWar, of a rival and more "progressive" country's Cromwellian Protector (General UrLeyn). Vosill believes she can moderate the conservatism of the ruler by argument. DeWar 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. Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one. ...
In politics, a country (or in some cases, a group of countries) over which a king or queen reigns, is a kingdom, see: monarchy. ...
Absolute monarchy is an idealized form of government, a monarchy where the ruler has the power to rule his or her country and citizens freely with no laws or legally-organized direct opposition telling him or her what to do, although some religious authority may be able to discourage the...
Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1657. ...
Analysis 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 us 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 book's world, develop different notions of the extent to which they can morally enforce change on an unwitting "weaker" society, and the two outlooks appear reflected in the way they choose to intervene in the societies they come to influence.
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 and microscopic portrayal in the Culture series of the ways in which Culture citizens can affect the paths of other societies.
There is some stylistic resemblance to A Song of Stone. Cover of an early edition of the book Spoiler warning: A Song of Stone is a novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1997. ...
The character DeWar's name bears a close resemblance to the surname of Donald Dewar. Statue of Donald Dewar in Glasgows Buchanan Street The Right Honourable Donald Campbell Dewar (August 21, 1937 – October 11, 2000) was a Scottish politician and the first First Minister of Scotland after devolution in 1999. ...
Title The exact reason for the title Inversions is not obvious. Possibilities include that: - it is a Culture novel set on a low technology world
- it is about a relationship between two people who never interact
- it is a science fiction novel that appears to be fantasy (though what "magic" there is in Inversions is clearly advanced technology, recalling Arthur C. Clarke's famous statement that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"), or even a historical novel.
- the two protagonists (initially friends, both from the same off-world culture, perhaps the Culture) end up taking stances opposite to their initial convictions. The one who initially proposes radical modification of a culture supports the status quo, the one in favour of avoiding actively modifying a foreign culture takes the most action.
The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
For other meanings see Fantasy (disambiguation) Fantasy is a genre of art, literature, film, television, and music that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of either plot, theme, setting, or all three. ...
Insert non-formatted text here Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (born December 16, 1917) is a British author and inventor, most famous for his science-fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director [[Link title#REDIRECT Insert textStanley Kubrick]] on the film of the same...
A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ...
The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...
Culture book? Some have debated whether Inversions was a Culture novel. It soon becomes apparent to readers of the other Culture novels that the story is one of a Special Circumstances mission seen from the other side. The Culture is a fictional anarchic, socialistic and utopian society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and described by him in several of his novels and shorter fictions. ...
In the science fiction of Iain M. Banks, Special Circumstances (SC) is an organisation that exists within the anarcho-socialist civilisation known as the Culture (which forms the basis of several of his novels and shorter works). ...
The initial hardback printing of the book contained the following brief 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 excised from subsequent paperback editions. However another clue to the origins of the characters remains in the form of a reference to "an indisposition due to special circumstances".
To quote Banks, "Inversions was an attempt to write a Culture novel that wasn't." [1]
Bibliography Inversions, Iain M. Banks, London: Orbit, 1998, ISBN 1857237633
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