I have been wondering how to write a review for this book. I am still at a loss how to describe it, so I'll just mumble on. 
 The book continues the story of The Culture, but to be honest I read the other books so long ago, I have very little memory of the story. I find Ian Banks books very much like that. I read then i forget. 
 We have a story here in two parts, one going forwards from chapters 1 to 10 and one going backwards from chapter X to I. Which can make it confusing, because both stories are about our protagonist Zakalwe, who is an agent of the The Culture used to stop major wars by starting smaller ones (kind of like back burning eh?) 
 The confusion starts when the you are reading the two stories at the same time, because at some time im his past, Zakalwe has a similar experience to the one he is having right now, so you are not sure, which part of the story.... confused? This isn't the first time Banks has written like this. 
 Apart from that, the story is actually quite interesting. There is a major concern with a huge galatic war that needs to be put down, the job of The Hidden Culture, with their main assassin/warlord Zak. At the same time we run a story about how Zak became who he is. Going back to his youth. right from the start you see that he has some serious psychological issues concerning his sister and that story is slowly dragged out of him as the story progresses. 
 So what I liked about this story the most was the humour. At times I literally laughed out loud with the funniness. Most of these moments occurred when a drone, whose name I can't remember and never was able to pronounce, was involved. His interaction with Zak and ship minds was just bloody hilarious. 
 There are some bizarre moments in the story, Banks readers will recognise his style to suddenly throw in something completely out here, like a body part swapping orgy to keep you on your toes and have you checking the cover of the book to make sure you didn't pick up someone else's book on the train. 
 The second half of the story goes very quick, I was struggling at about 25% but couldn't put it down once past 75%. If GR gave us half starts then this is a sold three and a half. It is NOT a 3 star, but I cant give it four either. 
 Interesting read, but hard to discuss as we read.