[fantasyfan]

I've finished reading Surface Detail by the late Iain M. Banks and would recommend it to anyone interested in his science-fiction books. This is the penultimate novel in the "Culture" Universe created in a series of 10 volumes.

It is a vast epic spanning The Galaxy and a series of equally complex virtual Universes--simulations within simulations. There are four beautifully integrated plot threads dealing with murder, revenge, individual tragedy, complex social issues, and ethical questions.

The characters are quite vivid, and not least interesting are the sentient starships with wonderful names such as "Sense Amid Madness, Wit Amidst Folly", "Me, I'm Counting", and "Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints" to name but three interesting examples.

There is a memorable villain and the virtual "worlds" are brilliantly imagined. Particularly vivid are the Dante-esque Hells. The various resolutions to the individual plots are satisfying and reasonable.

All-in-all, this is Banks at his best.