I finished Iain M. Banks’ Look to Windward yesterday, and I liked it very much.

This is one more book in the author’s Culture series; if you’re not familiar with it, this book may be a good introduction. As usual for Banks, some parts are darkly pessimistic but a few shorter passages are simply hilarious. My favorite is where a pair of unnamed characters talk about (and, at the end, exclusively in) ship names:

…”Oh, come on. You have Zero Credibility.”

“And you’re Charming But Irrational.”

“While you’re Demented But Determined.”

“And You May Not Be The Coolest Person Here.”

“You’re making these up.”

“No I’m… hold on, sorry; was that a ship’s name?”

As I’ve said before, most of Banks’ ship names also sound perfectly plausible for weblogs.