"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."

-- Francis Bacon

Excession

Ian M. Banks
paperback, $5.99
499 Pages

Genar-Hofoen was particularly pleased with his new suit. It was made of his own skin, genetically altered in various subtle ways, specially vat-grown and carefully tailored to his exact specifications.

Banks' Culture universe is a spectacular backdrop of wild ideas, technologies, and cultures. He has set several books in this universe, and Excession is the latest. They don't form a series, so readers should feel free to tackle whatever Culture book they wish in whatever order they stumble across them. Here, as in other Culture novels, the plot is Byzantine and epochal, yet tied to the most mundane of human thoughts and emotions. Genar-Hofoen works for Contact (the branch of the Culture that handles diplomatic missions).

He is coerced into a jaunt that takes him on a winding journey hither and yon. Alt the while, a phenomena termed the Excession has appeared, and it proves to be an intense focus of skullduggery as the book wears on. There's no way to summarize the plot without going on for pages and pages there's just too much!

Banks is a master of the uber-space opera. Hyperintelligent beings in the form of ships (super-Al's) run the Culture: they sport names ranging from The Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, to Attitude Adjuster and Killing Time (warships). These names are all too often the basis for some pun that becomes obvious only as the plot proceeds. This is the sort of book that skips between points of view constantly: readers who have a hard time keeping track of a cast of thousands should beware (or at least take notes).

Lovers of space tales should at least sample Banks' work, keeping in mind with Excession that it isn't necessarily the best of his Culture novels.

Feet of Day
Terry Pratchett
paperback, $5.99
357 pages

"Stacking garlic? You're a vampire, aren't you? I mean, let's see what jobs you've been doing... Post sharpener for a fencing firm, sunglasses tester for Argus Opticians... Is it me, or is there some underlying trend here?"

If you're already a Pratchett reader, I'm preaching to the initiated. If you're not, beat yourself on the head with a fish, run down to your local bookstore, and join the club. In this not quite most recent discworld book [discworld: a flat planet carried through universe on back of giant turtle - of course], Commander Vimes has to contend with a poisoning and a bunch of golems doing odd things, all the while dodging the usual attempts on his life (he pissed off the assassin's guild in a previous discworld book) and attempting to continue the process of integrating his police force (trolls and dwarves have made it, but he draws the line at undead). Get all that?

In every discworld novel, Pratchett skewers some realworld issue while at the same time mocking one or more precepts of fantasy - those things readers are supposed to take for granted. In this case, golems, or mindless magical automatons. Pratchett takes a golem and displays it with a modern twist (we're talking about mindless, tireless slaves here). He brings the question of self- determination to light in a humorous but effective way in Feet of Clay.

Since this novel contains many of the same characters as previous discworld books (those that take place in AnkhMorpork to be specific), eager series readers may wish to track down an earlier novel, one that sports a slightly less elevated Vimes. In order to better appreciate the current cast of central characters, which includes a super- charismatic yet dead-pan serious heir to the throne, a vegetarian werewolf, and so on. If you're nor convinced yet, remember that in Ankh-Morpork, all mimes are (by law) thrown into a deep pit tined with spikes... and on the wall of the pit is written "Learn the Words."