Book 8: "The State of the Art" by Iain M. Banks
Saturday, January 27th, 2007 07:30![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeNow, the Arbitrary wasn't actually insane; it did its job very well, and as far as I know none of its pranks ever actually hurt anybody, at least not physically. But you have to be a bit wary of a ship that collects snowflakes.
A book containing seven short stories and a novella. In the title story, it is 1977 and a General Contact Unit ship from the Culture is in orbit around Earth. The ship and the Contact agents it carries are studying Earth and its inhabitants in minute details in order to decide whether the Culture should make contact with the people of Earth or just continue to observe us. I liked this novella a lot, especially the sarky footnotes by the drone who translated it into English, but the other stories were a bit of a mixed bag.
A book containing seven short stories and a novella. In the title story, it is 1977 and a General Contact Unit ship from the Culture is in orbit around Earth. The ship and the Contact agents it carries are studying Earth and its inhabitants in minute details in order to decide whether the Culture should make contact with the people of Earth or just continue to observe us. I liked this novella a lot, especially the sarky footnotes by the drone who translated it into English, but the other stories were a bit of a mixed bag.
