In form but the bottom ...

I would like first of all to say that this is my first novel of Banks and Culture.
Let's start with the positives of this novel:
- Construction of the novel is certainly very convoluted but original enough with a series of chronological chapter and chapter in a series of chronological decay makes alternating digression.
- The style of the author, vocabulary very rich, very detailed descriptions and good construction of the main characters.

Now for the negatives:
- The digressions are sometimes confused, not bringing much to history for some and as said in a previous review, no equal qualities.
- Failure to quality, it is very difficult to read in VO. Due to its rich vocabulary and confusion of some chapters, I had to buy the French version to read and fully realize that this is not my English which made the confused history (especially if one does not know not the world of culture beforehand).
The character of SMA is well done and that seemed interesting clearly and simply disappear from history to half of the novel.
- A very poor baseline scenario, basically is the story of a girl who will look for a guy to go get another guy in all this the stars !!!
- Finally, the supposedly unexpected end which for me was unveiled in mid-novel!

In conclusion, I would say that I was disappointed by this novel supposedly the best cycle of Culture. Certainly the author's writing talent but that is not for me a history counter. I'm not about to return to the Culture anytime soon.