Banks' Culture series so far has been, what I will refer to as, hard sci-fi. Gargantuan megaships which house billions of people, immensely advanced Artificial Intelligences independently managing entire worlds, tiny drones with the ability to kill several people in a matter of seconds, Orbitals 3million kilometres in diameter, ships capable of travelling at hundreds of thousands of times the speed of light, tiny weapons with enormous destructive capabilities which can shrink down to a false tooth or brooch when not in use, galactic warfare, assassins, and an array of bizarre and wonderful alien species. His imagination in the series is seemingly limitless, almost boasting of what science fiction is capable of, in all its pomp and excess. Inversions is the exact opposite. As Banks has described, it was his "attempt to write a Culture novel that wasn't", and as such all of the common motifs that I have grown to love in the series are completely absent. Described as science fiction as fantasy, the book takes place on a world which closely resembles medieval Europe, with castles, palaces, kings, emperors, military generals, balls and banquets. Indeed, the entire locale could be medieval Earth, if not for the binary system in which the planet is located and the descriptions of the two moons in the sky. Where the book is similar to other Culture novels however, is the fantastic twist at the end which if you know of beforehand, I imagine would ruin the book somewhat. The book takes the form of two alternating narratives, one told in first person concerning a woman named Vosill, physician to the King of a nation named Haspidus. The narrator is a man named Oelph, appearing to be the doctor's assistant, but giving every indication that he is actually a spy for some unknown character referred to as Master. Haspidus is a typical medieval style society in which the country has a King, lands are ruled over by lords and nobles, a caste system is in place, women expected to be nothing more than wives and mothers, and the poor are looked upon with disdain and even disgust by the ruling classes, used to perform menial labour, farming etc. and nothing more. Some of these ingrained prejudices are presented through Oelph, as he is insulting to the poor, acquiescent in regards to the nobility, and at times highly judgmental whenever the doctor does something considered unwomanly. On the other hand, it is revealed that the King whom the doctor serves has a very progressive attitude for the time, as he enacts reforms which take power away from the country lords and hands it over to the people, allowing them to own their own land, create city councils, and have greater independence from the tyranny of the nobility. Additionally of course, there is the fact that the King has employed a female doctor, who he places a huge amount of trust in and openly treats as an equal, asking her opinion on matters of politics, cartography, and obviously medicine, which supposed experts in these matters snuff with overt scorn, believing that women have no place to have any opinion at all. Because she is held in such high regard by the King, Vosill has many enemies in the Court, and as Oelph narrates the events of the story, a conspiracy is in which dukes, high ranking officials, and other characters plot to dispose of her. Whenever one of these figures comes close to carrying out such actions however, they are conspicuously murdered, and it becomes obvious that Vosill is in fact an agent of Special Circumstances, working on behalf of the Culture. It is possible to deduce that considering the King's progressive direction, that the Culture has placed Vosill in Haspidus in order to keep the King alive as he brings about radical changes and drives the state towards a more equal society; something which would be greatly hindered if the existing nobility which surround the King were allowed to instill their influence or, much more probably, dispose of the King as he begins to change the status quo which they hold so sacred.The fact that the characters who seek to do Vosill harm are all killed leads one to the assumption that, although never actually appearing in the course of the novel, Vosill is accompanied on her mission by some sort of Culture device which is able to provide aid and protection as required. Our attention is frequently drawn to a battered old dagger which the doctor carries everywhere. The hilt of the dagger is embedded with a number of small jewels, as well as many empty spaces where jewels once were. Since it is never explicitly stated what this dagger is, we must draw our own conclusions, but it seems fairly obvious that it is some sort of drone or knife missile, able to quickly despatch of any threats on command, and that the jewels could be bugging devices that the doctor uses to spy upon the various conspiracists. Indeed there are a couple of sections which are written as a transcript, which hints that some sort of recording device has been used to uncover the plots being made by Vosill's enemies. The other story tells of DeWar, chief bodyguard to Urleyn, the Protector of Tasassen, a ruler who gained control of the land after the downfall of the pervious Empire. DeWar is in every sense a loyal servant to Urleyn, and it is frequently mentioned that he never lets his guard down, remaining alert and suspicious at all times, in close proximity to Urleyn in order to step in whenever any threat presents itself. DeWar is obsessive to the extent that he cannot eve play simple board games without his duty being reflected in his gaming style. It would initially seem that the Protector is the more progressive of the book's two rulers, disposing of titles such as King, Emperor etc. in favour of more positive and/or neutral titles, such as Protector, as well as being responsible for the downfall of the previous Empire. It becomes apparent however, that Uleyn is not the entirely benevolent leader he appears to be, still retaining various militaristic and oppressive stances. Notably, as a direct contrast to the King of Haspidus, when the leaders of a nearby land named Ladenscion desire greater autonomy from Protectorate control, Urleyn responds by denying their requests and threatening war. The barons of Ladenscion initially supported Urleyn's revolution, apparently wishing for freedom from the previous monarch, and now wish for complete independence. A large number of DeWar's chapters see new problems and threats to the Protector as they present themselves. An assassin almost manages to kill Urleyn, but is closely prevented from doing to by DeWar; the Protector's son Lattens is stricken with a mysterious and debilitating illness, the war in Ladenscion escalates, forcing Urleyn to leave the capital and lead the attacks against the enemy. And overshadowing all this is DeWar's suspicions that there are spies within the court, betraying the Protector's plans to Ladenscion and helping them win the war.Another character who makes frequent appearances throughout the book is the Protector's confidant, an ex-Concubine named Perrund. Her relationship with Urleyn and her deep friendship with DeWar signify that Perrund an important figure in the narrative, not least because she once saved Urleyn from assassination and was crippled as a result. There is also another contrast here between Urleyn and the King, in that while King Quience has a degree of respect for women, Urleyn is depicted as a womaniser, frequently visiting the palace brothel, and with a sun but no mention of a wife. These subtle hints at Urleyn's character served to generate a growing dislike for him, a man who had such potential for greatness at the onset of the book, but frequently displays unfavourable opinions and actions. It isn't long after the Protector leaves to take control of the war that he is forced to return home as his son's condition worsens. Urleyn completely fails in his leadership as he locks himself away and refuses to speak to any of his advisors and generals, who begin to question and mock his position. In the final chapters, the suspicions that DeWar has had through the book come to fruition, as he works out that Lattens is being poisoned, and the great twist, that Perrund is responsible, and has also killed Urleyn. In a tense confrontation, the negative attributes of the Protector's character and leadership come together as Perrund explains how he and his squadron once raped her and her family, killing her parents but allowing Perrund to escape. Banks very cleverly presents a complete evolution of both Perrund's and Urleyn's characters, as the Protector appears at the beginning as an idealistic harbinger, who then shows signs of being prejudiced and somewhat despotic, now revealed to be a rapist and murder wearing a guise of altruism. There is a point in Vosill's story in which the King learns about the Protectorate's war with Ladenscion (which dispelled some of my suspicions that the two narratives may actually have happened at different times). Although the King clearly does not support the Protectorate, he states that he must make every effort in seeming to whilst taking the opportunity to move against Urleyn as it presents itself. I thought nothing of these comments when reading them I will admit, thinking that it was just simple political banter. But as Perrund reveals her history, we learn that she is in fact the opportunity the King is referring to, having escaped to Haspidus after Urleyn killed her family, and acting on the orders of the King to kill Urleyn, but not before bringing about his utter ruin. I am beginning to thoroughly enjoy the enormous twists that Banks employs in most of his novels. It isn't quite on par with Use of Weapons, but it was certainly a good one. As Banks stated, this is his Culture novel that wasn't really a Culture novel, and I admit that I was in fact expecting at least some explicit clarification toward the end, with a drone or a hips appearing, or one of the characters explaining who they are and who they work for. None of this happens, and after a little mulling over, I have decided that I actually prefer this ambiguity and subtlety. The fact that Inversions is so completely different from the other Culture novels, and in fact, that each Culture novel is so unique, establishes Banks as a brilliant writer. Rather than just give it all away at the end, he decided to use a tale that DeWar tells concerning two children who lived in a country far away, and who disagreed on whether an advanced society should handle primitive cultures, the girl believing in intervention, and the boy believing they should be left to their own devices. It is clear the children are Vosill and DeWar, and that Vosill joined Special Circumstances to continue with her philosophy of instigating change within primitive cultures, whereas it can be guessed that DeWar is a kind of exile from the Culture working by his own means. Inversions is a beautifully written novel, expertly constructed and never giving away more than it needs to to keep the reader guessing, using subtle hints and references to maintain that this is in fact a Culture novel, whilst exploring a world with a totally different aesthetic. Since the previous book I read was Excession, Inversions was a welcome relief from the intense concentration required by that book, whilst still being incredibly thought provoking, tackling certain issues of equality and prejudice with wit and humour. One of the most memorable scenes involves a ball in which Vosill and Oelph are invited, to mingle with the upper echelons of society, where one noble lady suggests that when the King grows bored of Vosill she may hire her as a wet-nurse (or something similar), and Oelph reacts be saying that this would be demeaning to the doctor's talents. The lady is gravely offended that her opinion has been questioned, and when she discovers that Oelph was an orphan, she is further mortified. The entire scene explores the notion that the privileged classes believe themselves deserving of respect, better than the poor, no matter how useless they may be by comparison. The lady, I gathered, is the wife to some lord, has no education, no career, and nothing better to do than attend society balls, but still believes herself better than the doctor, despite the doctor being a highly educated and intelligent medical professional. Amusing as this scene is, it is still a distressingly accurate portrayal of society even in the 21st century. Overall, Banks succeeds in creating a non-Culture Culture novel that is every bit as exciting, intriguing and memorable as the others, and may well stand out even further for being so unique.
As my friend Seamus once commented about Inversions, it is a Culture novel without being a Culture novel. If a reader were to pick up this Iain M. Banks novel without having read any of the other Culture series he or she would never guess that Doctor Vosill is a citizen of the Culture. Surely an astute reader would recognize that her skill and knowledge is advanced from that of the society she lives in at present, and one would no doubt have reason to suspect that she is not from where she claims to be from, as many of the local Dukes speculate, but you would never know she is a Culture citizen, far more advanced in all ways a society might imagine from the vaguely medieval setting she has chosen to live in. She tells her apprentice Oleph, who is the novel's narrator for better or worse, that she left her home because she lost in love and that is really all we learn about her life outside of what is reported of her adventures in Medievalworld. For my own good self, Inversions just was not all that interesting up to the final 150 pages of the novel. I love Banks's Culture novels and I generally love Medieval studies having studied and written about Chaucer in grad school, but Inversions is slow at developing plot until Vosill reveals, somewhat shockingly, to the King that she is in love with him and is rebuffed as the King claims he only wants to be with women who are essentially empty bubbleheads. Vosill is definitely not this! In the second story that is interwoven with that of Doctor Vosill we read of DeWar, bodyguard to the Protector of another realm in Medievalworld. As with Vosill's story, the plot plods forward slowly with not much happening until we learn that one of DeWar's intimates, with whom he also enjoys gaming, has been slowly poisoning the Protector's son in revenge for doing her an her family great harm in the past. She made a ghost of her, she will visit the same in vengeance upon him, etc... Just not all that interesting. I do like the way Inversions ends, especially Vosill's story. She escapes certain rape and torture at the hands of a Torturer in on a frame up of her for the murder of one Duke by some other suspicious dipshit Dukes possessing the combined brain power of a plotted plant. Actually this might be insulting to the plant. Vosill uses what I suspect might be a Culture knife missile (she always carries with her a "dagger" from home) that quickly and thoroughly fucks over her assailants in mostly bloody absolute fashion. In the end she leaves Medievalworld behind ostensibly returning to the far part of the planet she purports to come from and in so doing she leaves our humble narrator and apprentice Oleph heartbroken but determined to be a good doctor and better man, both of which he achieves as does the King Vosill serves, living another 40 years after Vosill departs. Inversions isn't a bad novel per se. I'm pretty sure Banks is (was, sigh) incapable of writing a bad novel, it just left me wanting more of an actual Culture novel. If one wants a proper Culture novel within a mostly medieval context I would suggest the excellent Matter.
What do You think about Inversions (2001)?
Huh. A Culture novel that is barely a Culture novel, set in basically another genre (pseudo-European medieval) and at the far, far, far edges of a vast galactic civilization--think if Star Wars had never left Tattooine, or indeed the provinces of Tattooine. I'll be honest that this book got more interesting after I wikipedia'd it after finishing--to my shame, I didn't notice the entirety of what had gone on until afterwards, when I could figure out (with help) the precise nature of the characters. Page-to-page this can drag in places; Banks does ideas very well, but his prose occasionally makes these ideas, and that wonderful sort of science-fictiony scope he occasionally achieves, seem dull.
—Michael Meeuwis
If you hadn't read any of the other Culture novels, you wouldn't understand what was happening in "Inversions" at all, as it seems to be a fantasy novel about the bodyguard of the Protector of a land that is at a similar level to 16th/17th century Europe, and the female doctor who attends the King of a nearby country. The doctor's story is told by her assistant in the form of reports to his master who is getting him to spy on her, while the bodyguard's tale . . .But when you know the ways of the
—Isabel (kittiwake)
After finishing this, Inversions is now tied with The Player of Games as my favorite in the Culture series.It’s definitely the most subtle of the Culture novels so far; so subtle in fact, that I fear a lot of readers aren’t grasping the scope of what it is about. I would suggest only reading this one after having read a few other culture novels prior and in close succession; it is very, very subtle but absolutely brilliant.Told from the perspective of two very different characters, one a personal account, one a dramatization of events prior, it is a story about the brutalities of man, war, and sovereignty, but ultimately about a difference of opinion on intervention policy, and a difference of opinion on how that intervention should be executed.It’s very, very good. Very good.
—Kevin Kelsey
