Outside context problem: Excession (1996) by Iain M. Banks [Review]

The Culture discovers that even its abilities have limits, in the fourth novel in Banks’ revered series.

Following the publication of Useof Weapons in 1990, Iain M. Banks took a break from his Culture setting. Over the next several years, he published three so-called “mainstream” novels and Feersum Endjinn (1994), a standalone science fiction book which won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. Banks returned to his post-scarcity setting with Excession (1996), which secured Banks his second BSFA Award within three years. Today, Excession remains one of the most popular entries in the series, and some consider it to be the best.

The novel takes its title from a designation given by the Culture to a strange, vast artefact which suddenly appears on the edge of known space. The Excession is a black body sphere over 50 km across, which appears able to exert previously unseen influence on nearby space. Its emergence draws in two separate Culture factions, an ex-Culture splinter group, a militaristic empire known as the Affront, and a handful of humans. The novel allows Banks to explore how the Culture responds to an issue outside their previous experience, what he calls an “outside context problem”.

While Excession is very much a Culture novel, and is suffused with Banks’ familiar techniques and preoccupations, it breaks new ground for the series. All three of his previous Culture books had focused mainly on one specific individual. Instead, Excession takes a widescreen, ensemble approach. Strikingly, its few human characters play a secondary role. The main players are numerous Minds, the super-intelligent AIs which oversee the Culture and its splinter factions. 

Minds had played a significant role in the previous novels; for example, an attempt to capture a stranded Mind is the key plot thread in the first Culture book, Consider Phlebas (1987). Here they take centre stage. In particular, the novel follows the various Minds which form a part of a loose club called the Interesting Times Gang (ITG). The ITG is made up of Minds which take an interest in strange happenings in Culture space. They become split over both the emergence of the Excession, and the increasing aggression of the Affront. The response to these two linked threats is the driving force of the story.

The frequently shifting perspectives used in Excession allow Banks to explore the Culture more thoroughly than ever before. The novel allows an insight into the workings of Minds by detailing their communications, which range from terse to witty. Their diverse personalities are explored at length - from the officious machine which takes on the role of incident coordinator to the subversive Mind-ship Grey Area, which routinely commits a Culture faux pas by exploring the brains of sentient beings. At times though, it can be difficult to tell one Mind from another.

Excession has no equivalent of the strong central human characters from earlier books, like Jernau Morat Gurgeh from The Player of Games or Cheradenine Zakalwe from Use of Weapons. However, two humans do play a significant role in the story. Genar-Hofoen is a reckless, confident playboy - a Contact agent who serves as an ambassador to the Affront. Dajeil Gelian lives in seclusion aboard the ship Sleeper Service, which the Culture at large regards as an “Eccentric”. Dajeil has been in a state of suspended pregnancy for 40 years, for reasons best known to herself. 

Some of the novel’s most memorable sections focus on these characters. A humorous episode early on in Excession deals with Genar-Hofoen attending an Affront dinner party. The Affront are large, floating, tentacled aliens with an incredibly aggressive, violent, and cruel culture. Even at the dinner table, they use miniature harpoons to try to steal food from the plates of their friends and rivals. Genar-Hofoen can only survive in their habitats by using a marvel of Culture tech. This is a gelsuit which protects him from their hostile environment, not to mention their brutal, full-contact sports.

Excession variants: the US Bantam Spectra edition (1997), the Italian translation (1997), and the current UK Orbit edition (2023)

While the perspective-hopping approach of Excession is one of its biggest strengths, it is also arguably a weakness. At times, the novel can be confusing especially when its very large cast of oddly-named Minds is the focus. At times, the novel has an unfortunately diffuse or scattered feeling. No one character or even plot thread is followed at length, and the book has little in the way of a coherent through-line to tie it together. 

This approach means that certain elements that should be key to the plot can appear somewhat flimsy. For example, the Affront are supposed to be so cruel, uncivilised and expansionist that their existence would be a prime factor motivating the actions of numerous Minds. However, Banks never really sells the Affront as an antagonistic force in the same way that he did with the Empire of Azad in The Player of Games. The aliens appear too little, and their belligerence is only hinted at, never shown. Some may also feel that the final revelations about the Excession are a little underwhelming.

Excession is a sprawling, genuinely epic science fiction novel which is a cut above much of the genre. As a Culture novel, though, it arguably struggles to reach the heights of its predecessors. The scattered focus robs the plot of some of its momentum, and prevents Banks from really bringing home some of his themes. This is one case where Banks’ formal experimentation did not necessarily deliver on its potential.

In general, though, Excession is another stirring entry in a justly beloved series. Fans of Banks’ elaborate ship names, outlandish characters, and schemes within schemes will find much to enjoy in this huge-scale tale of an outside context problem.

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