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I have been re-reading these books because I finally forgot all of them since the last time I read them (sometime in the 90s), and I really remembered enjoying them the first time round, so... So far, as with the other Culture books, its the pace that has surprised me. I'm not sure if its that I have been recently spoiled by reading particularly fast paced books, but I must admit finding these books rather slow. This is ok for me, Banks takes his time to build the world and the plot slowly, and I think the book benefits greatly from that, but I now understand some of my friends comments about the culture series. At the beginning I began to wonder if this was another "inversions", given the story is majorly focussing on a rather low tech civilisation, and the power wielded by the Royal family of that civilisation. This is, however all set within a planet sized hollow sphere, which gives an indication to the direction things are going to head.

Without going too deep, the tech level and the speed slowly ramp up through the latter half of the book, until the finale is, well, really not what I expected of it anyway.

Still, its a really good book, and I remained gripped throughout. Recommended to anyone who doesn't mind a slower pace