War of souls
Soul Wars (English title: Surface detail ), was published in 2010 as the penultimate science fiction - novel from the culture cycle of Iain M. Banks .
content
Any civilization that gets past the point of painting on cave walls develops the idea of the soul at some point. The older the civilization, the more precise these ideas become, until they eventually dissolve again, or solidify in such a way that the existence of this idea substantially merges with the identity of the respective culture. Giving up this idea is tantamount to giving up one's own species identity. This story becomes interesting when the possibility of dynamic storage of consciousness is added and virtual realities can be produced in high quality. Every civilization that has not completely given up the idea of the soul is tempted to at least offer its deceased the possibility of paradise as a post-mortem virtual reality . However, ethically less advanced species believe that they must also have the negative scenario, hell, on offer. When the heavens and the hells finally network across galaxies, a highly explosive situation can be expected.
For several decades an official, virtual war has raged between proponents of Hell and their opponents. Now the latter threaten to lose the war and decide - against all agreements - to relocate the conflict to the real world. This precarious turning point forms the narrative foundation of the war of souls .
The book does not have a uniform narrative perspective. The events are presented in 29 numbered chapters plus an epilogue. Repeatedly changing panels on different protagonists structure the text. After a few chapters, these perspectives focus on the culmination point - the intended real destruction of the hells and the murder of the most important hell manager. Below are the most important protagonists and their view of things:
Lededje Y'breq , a Sichultian from the Quyn system, is something special. As an intaglate (= tattooed down to the molecular structures), it was labeled as possession for life. Her owner is Joiler Veppers , her father's former fraudulent business partner and the richest and most powerful man of the Sichultian enablement . After Lededje tried to escape, in which she bit off the tip of Veppers' nose and swallowed it, he killed her in a rage.
This is where Himerance comes in. The Avatar of the Culture Ship I count , Lededje has provided a neural border (dynamic memory of consciousness and communication tool of culture) without her knowledge. She had done him a favor and he should surprise her for it. He had succeeded. Just dead, the intaglated woman awakens aboard Reason in the midst of madness, ingenuity with madness . This extremely conservative culture ship absorbed the emergency impulse of the border and let Lededje grow a new physical body after her violent death - but without her intaglia.
After her resurrection, Led has a legitimate interest in taking revenge on her murderer and in turn promoting him to the afterlife. No other retaliation is possible because of Veppers' privileged position. For her return to the Sichultian enablement, Led organizes a lift on the general attack unit with considerable difficulty, falling outside the framework of normal moral restrictions . Their avatar Demeisen , a cynical freak, attaches great importance to the statement that he is not a taxi, but surprisingly is supposed to do something in this corner, and if it just happens ... Yime Nsokyi , a novice in the Quietus of the Special section Circumstances is a somewhat paranoid, militaristic culture purist who refuses all neural extensions and never uses her drug glands on principle. Your job is to intercept Led and prevent her from murdering Veppers. Otherwise, Led does not manage to kill Veppers. The man who turns out to have subcontracted 90% of the galactic hells in the past few decades still comes to an appropriate end - ironically, through some sort of mobile, intelligent tattoo.
Intertwined with the Led / Veppers plot is the story of Prin , a Pavulean who infiltrates the hell of his own civilization with his girlfriend Chay , in order to testify to its existence after a successful return and to fight for its abolition. The detailed descriptions of everyday life in hell make Dante's inferno seem like a trip to elementary school. When returning to the real world, only Prin makes the passage and has to leave his partner behind. From now on, both of your perspectives will be described separately. She fights with the most modest means in Hell against the Prince of Hell, while outside he acts against the real culprits, the bigoted Hell advocates. After the destruction of the hells, it is psychologically impossible for Chay to return to reality. It remains permanently in virtual reality.
The story of the soldier Vatueil is illustratively told across these two strands of text . From the beginning he fought in virtual war on the side of the anti-hell faction and worked his way up from simple private to decorated, influential staff officer. When the virtual war turns into a real one, however, he inadvertently becomes a traitor to his cause. At the very end it turns out that he is an old acquaintance for connoisseurs of Iain Banks' “cultural novels” - Cheradenine Zakalwe or at least a credible copy of his consciousness.
Context within the culture cycle
Culture as a whole merely forms the film on which the war of souls is depicted. Die Kultur is not officially involved in the virtual war . With Quietus , however, a new BU section is presented to us, which should deal with everything beyond. Other civilizations from level 7 to 8, i.e. the most highly developed, are active with both supporters and opponents. Banks uses his characters' activities to contemplate morality, violence, identity and politics. The amalgamation of the individual protagonists in this conflict gradually pulls Die Kultur deeper into the conflict. The different philosophies of the cultural brains, the unspeakable arguments of those who support Hell, problems with the justification of war and pacifism are illuminated in the individual storylines.
The Lededje / Veppers strand largely encompasses questions about the moral valuation of property and property and the resulting relationships of domination. On the plot level Prin / Chay, the universal tendency of authoritarian characters to excessive violence and bigotry is depicted. With Vatueil - the incarnation of war par excellence - the reader is presented with the figure of the eternal soldier and his way of thinking. Linked to this actually simple figure, elementary questions of identity are posed. What happens to a consciousness when it knows that dozens, even hundreds of copies of itself can be active in different places with different goals at the same time? Can these secondary personalities be reintegrated, and if so, what are the consequences? Questions to which the book does not necessarily provide clear answers, but a good question itself is often stimulating enough.