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Some mistake, surely.
Charles Matthews 20:47, 5 May 2004 (UTC)
So. will be published. Is this encyclopedic?
Charles Matthews 07:13, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
OK - I read Bsnks too. But, isn't this really just an advertisement, as it stands?
Charles Matthews 09:11, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
Could redirect to Iain M. Banks and place this plot summary there, for now.
Charles Matthews 10:52, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
As this book will be released very soon, I have given this book it's own page again. -- Dan Huby 15:58, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I remember reading in an interview somewhere that The Algebraist might be the first of a series of books - but I can't for the life of me remember where. Anyone better at Googling than me able to find it?
I was reminded of this book when looking through Cassini pictures earlier. Here, have the original photo for the front cover! 194.247.44.210 3 July 2005 15:18 (UTC)
This library catalog ([ here]) has a thumbnail-sized cover picture (and a larger one available on clicking). Can we use this picture? Can we use pictures from there in general (there are cover pictures for most, if not all books in the catalog)? I'm not sure of the copyright status. Golwengaud 05:29, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
Guinnog: perhaps read the book again? http://www.hex4.com/ Joncolvin
I take it this is not set in the Culture universe?
Has anyone else noticed some eerie similarities between the Dweller society and wikipedia?
hmm... any other ideas?
-- Bfigura ( talk) 04:31, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
htom ( talk) 19:16, 23 June 2010 (UTC)Picking a fight with a species as widespread, long-lived, irascible and - when it suited them - single-minded as the Dwellers too often meant that just when - or even geological ages after when - you thought that the dust had long since settled, bygones were bygones and any unfortunate disputes were all ancient history, a small planet appeared without warning in your home system, accompanied by a fleet of moons, themselves surrounded with multitudes of asteroid-sized chunks, each of those riding cocooned in a fuzzy shell made up of untold numbers of decently hefty rocks, every one of them travelling surrounded by a large landslide's worth of still smaller rocks and pebbles, the whole ghastly collection travelling at so close to the speed of light that the amount of warning even an especially wary and observant species would have generally amounted to just about sufficient time to gasp the local equivalent of 'What the fu—?' before they disappeared in an impressive if wasteful blaze of radiation.
There was this section below at the beginning:
Plot introduction The book largely focuses on the challenges of interacting with intelligences that operates at different timescales than humans. Banks covers common themes in his work, such as cultural activity in post-scarcity societies, identity construction in a post-death society, with a special focus on different forms that intelligence might take and how cultural constructions might evolve in alien societies.
It's full of undefined terms ("post-death society"??) and the parts that are intelligible are either original research or some unnamed person's opinion. And it seems quite unnecessary, so I deleted it. Any revival, please try to address these points. Barsoomian ( talk) 16:44, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
Significant in the novel - but I read it a while ago. Anyone with wider knowledge able to add a section in? Regards Springnuts ( talk) 18:35, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
Ah, this might not strike most maintainers of this article as particularly relevant, but I was wondering if there was any reviews which underlined the sheer stupidity of the plot "twist"? Anyone that's taken a first year, extremely basic course in differential equations (enough to solve Poisson's equation) can see from the very first chapter how the resolution is going to play out; it beggars belief that an entire spacefaring civilisation wouldn't come to the same conclusion in about five seconds. Especially with the stupid and unnecessary hint about "water moons". I accept that I might not be the target audience for the book, but it puts a quite different complexion on things when you have to assume every single character is severely mentally impaired. 7daysahead ( talk) 12:58, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
bollocks Derekbd ( talk) 17:10, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
I could see how the Merc. might disregard the possibility due to "thinking in a box" plus the very significant engineering involved. Banks carefully sets up the Dwellers as appearing to be technologically inept. 1Z ( talk) 18:05, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
I was wondering if there have been any sources commenting on the similarity between the Dwellers and the hydrogues in Kevin Anderson's series. Hidden Empire was published two years before this novel, and it contains many similar aspects. Large spherical ships. Portals at the centers of gas giants. Seems like it would be worth a mention, if there's a reliable source out there. 209.169.104.28 ( talk) 14:54, 2 May 2015 (UTC)
My take from reading the book was that 'quick' species are those which may wipe themselves out within so many millenia (or even '00,000s or some millions of years), and hence 'come and go' with relative speed compared to the billions-year-old Dweller civilization. Hence humans were considered quicks as humans have only been around ~200,000 years. The Dwellers appeared to have no problems living at 'normal' speed, although some of the older Dwellers preferred to live more slowly and Taak etc were able to slow down to accommodate this. Much of the 'action' in the novel does appear to occur within short time frames, and it is explicitly mentioned when Taak slows down to converse with a Dweller. Other time lapses in the book occur due to various short sub-light trips in spacecraft, not due to Dwellers living at below normal speed. I think the following lines from the article are wrong:
"Dweller societies try not to get involved with "Quick" species, those with sentient beings who experience life at around the speed human beings experience it. Dwellers are one of the "Slow" species who experience life at a much slower temporal rate."