A few days ago, I wrote about Trevor Hopkins’ site and his hosting of some very nice material concerning Iain M Banks’ Culture universe. My post was about a detailed description of the Culture and how it works that was written by Banks but I also noted that Hopkins also had some of his own stories written about the Culture.
I finally got around to reading one of his short stories, Phrontisterion. It’s a nice story that faithfully reproduces the tone of Banks’ writing. I won’t spoil the story by describing the plot but one nice feature is that explored the idea of group minds that have sublimed. Banks mentions the concept in several stories but never explained how it worked or what it was like to be part of one.
Much of Phrontisterion explores that question and gives us a flavor of what it might be like to be part of a group intelligence. If you’re familiar with the Culture novels, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this story. It’s not, to be sure, the Master but Hopkins does a good job and wrote an enjoyable story. If you’re a Culture fan, you’ll almost certainly enjoy it. Take a look; it’s short and won’t take you long.