It is hard to believe, but it is only recently I read some of Banks novels. What struck me is that his themes overlap with Strugatsky brothers themes more than could be said for any of other writers I know about.
(Excession -- Beetle in the Anthill , The Time Wanderers, Inversions, Use of Weapons -- Hard to be a God).
But this is just me. Maybe I will find more parallels after I read all of Culture books, maybe not.
]]>The nice thing about asteroids is that they don't come out of nowhere
15 m in diameter of dark, cold carbonaceous rock at 18 km/sec out of the sector you do not expect ICBMs from.
Not a chance.
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