Reviews for The Algebraist

The average rating for The Algebraist based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-08-28 00:00:00 Michael Wann I've been reading through all of Banks' novels these last few years, mostly focusing on The Culture series and working my way outward through his other "M." novels, and into his "non-M." writing. This is my fourteenth Banks book, and my second non-culture "M." novel. Banks' had such an interesting way of writing his novels so that the real story unfolds in the background the whole time, mostly hidden. He did this in Consider Phlebas, and again here in The Algebraist. The foreground story is of course, engaging, and action-packed in the typical space opera sense, but the more interesting story for me, is what's happening on the periphery of the main narrative, and it of course deals with Artificial Intelligence, human rights, religion, and the nature of reality. I have a little headcanon that allows The Algebraist to be a Culture novel, even though officially, I know that it isn't. My evidence is very thin, and involves something so tropey that I'm glad it just can't be. It definitely reads like a Culture novel though, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much more than Against a Dark Background. I really struggled with that one, and I'm very pleased that The Algebraist felt like a return to form. The prose isn't quite as good as some of his other work, but it's serviceable, and I can overlook what it lacks in poetic quality in favor of the interesting concepts it explored.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-02-14 00:00:00 W Scott Roesener The dangers of AI and what the best long-time approach might be is one of the key elements of this novel and an everlasting hot topic that might lead to some interesting real-life events. Of course, in a perfect universe, benevolent AIs would help happily evolving humans and aliens, forever peacefully and symbiotic united. But if any of those parties might be evil it could get exponentially nasty and, let´s face it, nothing beats an AI. But banning it after it nearly killed everyone damns the civilization to stagnation and loss of any technological progress in comparison to other aliens that use AI as a driving force of anything. Reducing the abilities of an AI to gain consciousness or to give it consciousness and incarcerate it in an escape-proof cyber prison may be an option, but it´s not able to remain competitive that way too. So what to do with a pesky civilization that has chosen "Kill all AIs." as their mantra and logo when you are an AI or an alien race that wasn´t too stupid to integrate important preventive measures while developing AIs or still has some secret trigger hands in the background? Ignoring or preventing them from spreading might bet the only options, because to feed those dull trolls by interacting with them might not be helpful. How the longevity of a species might influence their view of the galaxy, intergalactic politics, social life and diplomacy is the second big topic. Million of years of natural lifetime with a childhood of a few hundred thousand years or something even closer to immortality may lead to apathy, arrogance, aggressive expansion, isolation, a god complex, etc. or even to something boring and positive. There is no real answer to this question and how a society deals with both godlike power and a never-ending life may be a question and mixture of culture, coincidence and the motivation, technology, and mentality of the species they meet on their way to ultimate power. Finally, there is the question of what stays important for a species that has reached everything. If the universe is understood, no borders exist and every endless life can be lived free, probably just philosophy, wisdom, and the interest in giving little pieces of it to other species to help them evolving may be interesting hobbies. Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: