A book with a huge twist that makes you re-think the whole novel after the reveal. Stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled.
The novel has two plot lines, one moving forward in time, and one moving backwards. The reveal comes when we find out that Zakalwe as we know him is actually Elethiomel, and that the fear of chairs that 'Zakalwe' has is due to the huge weight of guilt he has for making Zakalwe's sister into a chair. Literally a chair, he made a chair out of her bones covered with her skin and sent it to Zakalwe. The ploy was to send the command of the opposing army (the real Zakalwe) into disarray and confusion due to the horror of the act just as Elethiomel's forces mounted a breakout attempt from the
Staberinde.
The problem with the twist was that I couldn't reconcile the ability to perform this horrendous act with E's later guilt and multi-century attempt at atonement by doing the bidding of the Culture, who he hopes are the good guys. This twist, while an interesting idea and a fairly spectacular reveal, didn't gel with me at all. In the following quote, during his 'retirement', he doesn't sound like the sort of person willing to win at all costs, even if it requires turning his girlfriend into furniture to distract his childhood friend:
He told her about a man, a warrior, who'd worked for the wizards doing things they could or would not bring themselves to do, and who eventually could work for them no more, because in the course of some driven, personal campaign to rid himself of a burden he would not admit to - and even the wizards had not discovered - he found, in the end, that he had only added to that weight, and his ability to bear was not without limit after all.
This also begs the question, could the Culture really not have known who they were dealing with? Zakalwe seems to think they didn't, and certainly Sma and the drone didn't seem to know until the reveal, but it would be such a trivial thing for a Culture Mind to find out that it strikes me as unbelievable they wouldn't have such basic background on someone they place in critical roles on many occasions. So, if they did know, it feels more ruthless than I expected from the Culture, but perhaps someone that will try to win at all costs and who can be manipulated by his past is exactly the weapon they need. That's certainly Zakalwe's impression:
You used those weapons, whatever they might happen to be. Given a goal, or having thought up a goal, you had to aim for it, no matter what stood in your way. Even the Culture recognized that.
There's some great stuff about the nature, necessity, and futility of war throughout the novel. Here's a few choice quotes to end with:
...in all the human societies we have ever reviewed, in every age and every state, there has seldom if ever been a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this simple fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots.
"I strongly suspect the things people believe in are usually just what they instinctively feel is right; the excuses, the justifications, the things you're supposed to argue about, come later. They're the least important part of the belief. That's why you can destroy them, win an argument, prove the other person wrong, and still they believe what they did in the first place." He looked at Erens. "You've attacked the wrong thing."
"So what do you suggest one does, Professor, if one is not to indulge in this futile...arguing stuff?"
"Agree to disagree," he said. "Or fight."
4 stars.
PS. My favourite ship names from this one: "What Are the Civilian Applications?" and "Very Little Gravitas Indeed".
