In the Shadow of the Culture: The Ethics of Intervention, AI Rights, and Utopia in Iain M. Banks's The Algebraist. Issue 2 (1st June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martín, Sara
• Is Part Of: Extrapolation. Volume 62:Issue 2(2021)
• Page Start: 181
• Page End: 197
• Publication Date: 2021-06-01
• Subjects: Science fiction -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Science fiction -- Bibliography -- Periodicals; Science fiction; Bibliography; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; 809.38762
• DOI: 10.3828/extr.2021.10
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0014-5483

Abstract

Abstract : Iain M. Banks's The Algebraist (2004), a Hugo Award nominee for Best Novel in 2005, has attracted far less critical attention than his Culture novels despite being a remarkable work. Born of the author's wish to develop his science fiction beyond the Culture's universe, The Algebraist is a complex novel displaying in its dense pages Banks's wondrous imagination. Here I consider the ways in which the main civilizations he depicts in it, the Mercatoria and the Dwellers, connect with key issues raised in the Culture novels: the ethics of intervention in other civilizations, the use of AIs, and the nature of utopia. The Culture, as I argue, casts a long shadow but Banks's decision to explore another narrative universe allows him to examine these fundamental issues from a different angle. The Algebraist complements, nonetheless, his main tenets in the Culture series.