A War Novel Told Backwards And Forwards At The Same Time, And It Actually Works

This was my third Culture book and I think it’s the one that actually made me a believer, not just a tourist. Cheradenine Zakalwe is a mercenary the Culture keeps pulling back out of retirement to go do their dirty work on planets that aren’t civilized enough yet to say no to interference. The structure is the whole trick, chapters numbered forward tell his present job start to finish, chapters numbered backward peel his past open in reverse, so you’re closing in on whatever happened to him from both directions at once.

I won’t lie, the middle sagged for me a little, all the flashback jumping made it hard some days to remember which timeline I was even in. But then that ending lands, and it’s not just a twist, it recontextualizes basically every scene that came before it. Someone described it as being punched in the stomach and honestly that’s about right, I had to sit there for a minute after.

The small stuff is what I keep thinking about though, more than the plot even. There’s a bit with Zakalwe grumbling to Diziet Sma about how deeply annoying it is when a planet maps itself upside down compared to what he’s used to, total non sequitur, completely stuck with me. Somebody else brought up the kitty avatar and the janitor drone that got sick on purpose as their favorite bit, which I’d honestly forgotten and now can’t. And under all the space opera plumbing there’s a genuinely sad thread about Zakalwe’s sister, Livueta, that a handful of reviewers pointed to as the real emotional core once you know where it’s headed.

Five stars, comparisons to Memento for the structure feel earned, read the earlier Culture books first if you can but it’s not strictly required.