Synopsis
It starts with a young woman being murdered.
Miraculously, a secret deal means she lives again within the Culture. Now, she vows to return and kill her own murderer.
Meanwhile, a war in heaven is brewing. Or rather a war between the Heavens.
Heavens are the network of uploaded consciousnesses - a cyber life after death. But where there are Heavens, Hells soon follow. Wars between these realms are formal, digital, affairs but now there are rumors of secret factories building warships and all signs point to the factions of the long-dead and digitized.
One man holds the key to making this war manifest in the Real. And a young woman wants her revenge on him.
Publishers Weekly
Banks's labyrinthine and devious ninth Culture space opera novel (after 2008's Matter) adeptly shifts perspective between vast concepts and individual passions. The blissfully disorganized, galaxy-spanning Culture has fabulous technology that gives human and alien entities freedom to choose who and what they want to be. When sex slave Lededje Y'breq is murdered by a politician on the planet Sichult, the artificial intelligence running one of the Culture's immense starships resurrects her so she can seek revenge. Meanwhile, the Culture is uneasily watching the conflict over whether to preserve virtual Hells for the souls of "sinners" or give them the release of death. Leaping with jaw-dropping speed from character to character and from reality to virtuality, the narrative swiftly pulls these concerns together. New readers may be taken aback by the rapid pace, but fans will dive right in and won't come up for air until the final page. (Nov.)