Ancient mistakes: Look to Windward (2000) by Iain M. Banks

War’s long shadow falls on a Culture orbital

800 years ago, two stars and all the lives they supported were abruptly destroyed during the course of a single battle. Eight centuries later, the light of these ancient mistakes is about to reach Masaq' orbital, a Culture ringworld that supports billions of lives of its own. Several particular individuals are gathered there, each with their own connection to the old war. Past battles cast long shadows, and Masaq' may be about to undergo a tragic disaster of its own.

Look to Windward is the sixth Culture novel by Iain M. Banks, the last one before a long eight-year hiatus. In part a very loose sequel to Consider Phlebas (1987), the novel explores some consequences of the Idiran War. More generally, Banks examines the lingering effects of war on individuals and societies, as well as the topics of hedonism, loss, duty, and sacrifice. This is also the closest look yet at a Culture orbital, and the immensely capable AI Mind entrusted with its care.

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Look to Windward is the final novel of the second phase of the Culture series. A successor to Excession (1996) and Inversions (1998), it was followed by a long eight year hiatus. During that period, Banks published a non-Culture SF novel (The Algebraist, in 2004), two non-SF novels, and a work of nonfiction. 

Orbital mechanics

The bulk of Look to Windward is set on Masaq’, a Culture orbital. A vast loop in space, it is 100 million kilometres long and six thousand kilometres wide. This slender bracelet of a world orbits the volatile star Lacelere, and houses fifty billion Culture citizens. The novel focuses primarily not on citizens, but rather guests on Masaq’ - three in particular. 

• Kabe is an affable member of the Homomdan species, which for a time fought against the Culture during the Idiran War. The only one of his people on the orbital, his body obeys its own rule of threes - around three meters tall, Kabe is pyramid-shaped and has three arms, legs, and ears. 
• Mahrai Ziller is a Chelgrian, a member of an intelligent cat-like species. A brilliant composer, he is also a political dissident, exiled from Chel due to his incendiary “caste denier” beliefs. Angry and reclusive, he lives in relative isolation.
• Tibilo Quilan is also a Chelgrian, a former soldier who lost his wife during Chel’s vicious Caste War and became a monk in peacetime. He is sent by the government on Chel to visit Masaq’, ostensibly to convince Ziller to return home.

These characters become linked in a complex dance of plot. E. H. Tersono, a Culture drone, is keen for Quilan and Ziller to meet, and recruits Kabe to try to make this happen. Ziller is determined to avoid this, and instead spends time with an avatar, or personification of the Mind which operates and maintains Masaq. The Mind, for its part, has commissioned Ziller to compose an epic piece of music to commemorate the tragic destruction of the two stars during the Idiran War 800 years earlier.

Ziller’s work may produce an immortal masterpiece, and the commemoration promises to be an unforgettable event. What very few people realise is that Quilan has a secret mission, initially unknown even to him, that poses a deadly threat to the survival of Masaq’ itself.

War’s long shadow

Look to Windward is ultimately about the long-term effects of two very different wars, and how they have damaged and warped not just individuals, but whole societies. On the one hand there is the Idiran War, a vast interstellar conflict in which the Culture eventually triumphed over another “Involved” species with expansionist goals. Only a very small episode of this conflict was depicted in Consider Phlebas. 

The Caste War on Chel was a conflict of a different order. Taking only around 50 days, it caused the deaths of four and a half billion Chelgrians. The war was the fault of the Culture, as it was triggered by a flawed attempt at engineering Chelgrian society concocted by the Culture’s Minds. 

Banks explores how these conflicts affected various societies and characters. Major Quilan is grief-stricken following the loss of his wife in the Caste War, and begins to attach little or no value to his own life - this makes him an attractive tool for a particular faction on Chel. By contrast, Mahrai Ziller is able to remain aloof and reclusive in part because he left Chel before the Caste War began. The Mind of Masaq’ orbital was formerly installed in the aptly-named Lasting Damage, a vast Culture vessel with a traumatic service history during the Idiran War.

The resolution to the intricate plot of Look to Windward is also the resolution of the various traumas of these characters. The novel asks what sacrifices are necessary to break a cycle of deadly violence, which on the galactic scale of the Culture has lasted the better part of a thousand years.

A place to belong

One aspect of Look to Windward which makes it so effective is Banks’ vivid description of Masaq’ orbital. Previous novels had offered some glimpses of “ordinary” life in the Culture. These include Gurgeh’s social scene on Chiark orbital in the opening section of The Player of Games (1988), and Zakalwe’s brief time on a General Systems Vehicle in Use of Weapons (1990). But it is this novel which makes clear the sheer scale of an orbital, and better explores the decadent lives of its inhabitants. Banks’ description of the Great River, which winds its way around the entire orbital with no beginning and no end, is one of the loveliest passages in the series up to this point.

Closing the loop

Look to Windward is a superb entry in the Culture series, which picks up and runs with several elements established in earlier volumes. As well as a rich and witty exploration of life in the Culture, it is also a sometimes moving meditation on interventionism, trauma, and the long shadow of war.