Storyline: 2/5 
 Characters: 2/5 
 Writing Style: 3/5 
 World: 3/5 
 --Below information added approximately a year after original reading-- 
 I think the original connotation of the term "space opera" was pejorative. It was supposed to indicate a work that relied upon repetitive, stock adventure scenes devoid of any originality or depth. Consider Phlebas showcased that lack of depth and the repetitive, stock adventure scenes that plagued science fiction through the 1930s. The last time I remember encountering anything so very bad (in this regard) was the movie 2012. I don't remember it that well, but I do remember that it was action scene after action scene of the same thing: a limousine racing away from an earthquake, an airplane speeding away from a tornado, a Winnebago (yes you read that correctly) veering out of the path of volcanic eruption, and ships buoying through end-of-the-world torrential rain. It was dumb. Plain dumb. [Insert vehicle here] + [Insert natural disaster here] x 10. So much of the "space opera" element of Consider Phlebas was equally hackneyed. I really wanted to know more about Culture and the Idirans. Both civilizations had great potential. Horza and many of the citizens from the two parties were interesting and decently grounded. Once the story settled down and stuck to one location, I even enjoyed myself for a while. 
 In the end it was too much of a tour - the kind where you get off the cruiseship at a port-of-call, see the goods being sold by hawkers at the quayside, eat an internationalized version of an supposedly ethnic meal, and go back to the ship a few hours later. I'm much more interested in backpacking the country (hey, even a month-long, guided tour), and getting to know some people. The tour Banks offered here was superficial, which is really too bad, because the worlds he created are places I would have liked to have spent more time at. The people (a few at least) would also have been fun to get to know a little better.