The State of the Art

by Iain M. Banks

Book Overview

From New York Times bestselling and modern master of science fiction, Iain M. Banks, The State of the Art is the acclaimed collection of Banks's short fiction. "Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1857230302
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: Time Warner Books Uk
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.1" x 0.6" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

A Great Collection.

It's a great collection. Maybe some of the stories are alittle artsy and hard to access, and the novella State of the Art is less a plot driven edge of your seat adventure, and more the musings and meditations on humanity, interventionism, determinism, and aliens (and it's pretty predictable, really). But, even still, I do love it, and plan on rereading it again and again.

Not a short story collection.

...this is not a collection. There is a short-story collection of Banks', but it was only released by his British publisher (Orbit, in 1991). That collection is also called The State of the Art (the title novella does takes up close to 2/3 of the book...)... Any edition that is from 1989, or published by Mark V Ziesing, is the origional American version and only contains the novella.Hope that helps out.

A Masterpiece

Banks is quite simply on of the greatest modern SF writers. His books are always a treat for everyone, SF fan or not. Here, Banks shines up the old SF plot device of aliens studying our culture, and does right well by it. Compare this with any of the Star Trek novelizations and I think you'll agree with me that SF is not dead, it's just stuck in a bit of a loop right at the moment. With writers like Banks, science fiction will always retain its ability to surprise, enlighten and thrill us.

Simply the best sci-fi short story of the last 20 years.

Look at it this way - State of The Art is a great short story with some additional filler between the covers. But what a great short story it is. State of The Art finds the Culture arriving at Earth in 1978. By all accounts, the outlook is bleak for the human race. Contact, and our favorite Culture gal Dziet Sma, have to decide whether to get in touch with a world locked in a seemingly desperate arms race and the slow and painful destruction of the planet's ecosystem. Banks casts an ascerbic eye over the "state of the art" - both the Culture's and Earth's. By setting the story in the recent past, the reader knows that if the Culture had turned up just 10 years later the whole story would be different. Or would it? Sma and her crew-mates travel around the world sampling the delights and the horrors of Earth. Despite various cosmetic changes, is the planet in any better shape than it was 21 years ago? Is the Earth beyond hope? In a fitting gesture to the Culture's perverse tolerance for dissent, a crew member decides to stay. Why? And what, asks Banks, makes us human - and the Culture alien? A clever, philosophic and beautifully written story. Worth the price of the book alone.

Execellent, thought-provoking.

In "State of the Art" Banks gives us an powerful insight into our own culture, its greed, politics, and notion of what it means to be "human." As with the very best science fiction writing, Banks challenges the reader. His gritty writing style, coupled with the slick high-technology Culture clashing with 1960's Earth politics, sets the stage for a explosion of ideas. Many of these ideas fly directly in the face of common wisdom (at least for what *we* consider is wisdom) and forces the reader to reevaluate our own mind-set. Scary stuff indeed. In one of the most telling passages, alien characters play a party game -- describe earthlings in one word. Replies include: industrious, curious and insane. One alien replies "MINE!" A very telling exclamation of modern Earth. I'd rank "State of the Art" as Banks' best work to date - which is certainly a big complement. I'd recommend the book for any sci-fi fan, or - more importantly - any person who believes that capitalism is the only way for the future. You may not agree with Banks, but at least he gets you thinking