This one was BRUTAL! It’s one of those stories that turns dark rather quickly and will leave you with a million questions by the end.
Let’s dive into Against a Dark Background (AaDB)
The main protagonist is Lady Sharrow, a former military pilot and antiquities thief. She lives on Golter, a planet orbiting a star in an isolated planetary system with no nearby galaxies. A cult named the Huhsz is granted permission to assassinate her, believing that their messiah cannot be born until the end of her family’s female bloodline. She is forced to choose between going into hiding for a year or recovering the last Lazy Gun, an ancient weapon of mass destruction that was stolen from the cult by her ancestor.
Banks is a well-known name in the print science fiction world. Indeed, AaDB is not his most prolific work, and I have yet to read the infamous “Culture” series by the author. I picked up AaDB in the hopes of finding an action-packed, world-building adventure book. I was let down, but more on that in a bit.
AaDB is a bit of a longer read, and the first half was based more in adventure compared to action. There are some highlights of action here and there, but the first half of the book follows the usual trope of an ex-treasure hunter getting her team back together.
The book’s beginning wasn’t so bad that I had to skim, but at times, it felt close. You see, I am part of the newer generation of sci-fi readers insofar as books published in the genre from the 90s will be different from recently published books in the genre (like Red Rising.)
It wasn’t until the second half of the book that I felt things really picked up; and, by that, I mean things started to get brutal and dark rather quickly.
I felt it was difficult to connect with Sharrow, the main character, but I really liked the Android’s role in the story. 10/10 character development there.
Another element that I enjoyed was Banks’ use of AI in the story. It’s almost as if he traveled to our current period in time to see what the future would hold, then went back to 1993 and published a book that aged well.
If you read enough books (and their reviews), you will find readers that are all over the spectrum with their ratings. Some books that I fall in love with are HATED by people that love the books that I loathe—so it goes.
I’ll give this one a solid 4/5 stars. I am excited to continue on to the Culture series by this author. But, for now, I am currently diving into the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.
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