Review: The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks

This is a collection of short stories by Iain M. Banks:

Road of Skulls, A Gift from the Culture, and Descendant are all well-written, introduce interesting concepts… and then end just as they start to get interesting.

Odd Attachment is basically the short story equivalent of a dark one-liner joke: super short, amusing, and disturbing. Cleaning Up felt like a slightly longer anecdote that had me chuckling.

Piece I ready and then immediately forgot what it was about. Scratch I didn’t understand at all.

Finally, The State of the Art, which makes up the majority of this book, and the one from which the book derives its name, has several interesting ideas and a takes a fun look at humanity. It also ties into some of the other books in the Culture series. However, even this story still felt like it ended before it got really interesting.

So, overall, most of the stories are well-written, entertaining, and thought-provoking, but they feel incomplete, ending just as you start to get into them.

Rating: 4 stars