Iain Banks was a Scottish author. He wrote mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. The Algebraist, like much of Banks's sci-fi, is a dense character-driven epic complete with alien races, warring cultures, interstellar travel, and humour. The novel takes place in 4034. With the assistance of other species, humans have spread across the galaxy, which is largely ruled by the Mercatoria, a complex feudal hierarchy, with a religious zeal to rid the galaxy of artificial intelligence, which was blamed for a previous war. In centre-stage, Banks portrays the human Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers. The Beyonders, a large fleet of space marauders originating on the fringes of the galaxy, have cut the system of Nasqueron's star off from the rest of Mercatoria civilization by destroying its portal, and the local Mercatoria adherents await the delivery of a wormhole connection from a neighbouring system via sub-lightspeed travel. The Dwellers, an advanced and ancient civilisation of non-humanoids who inhabit gas giants, lead an almost anarchic existence based on kudos and inhabit the majority of gas-giant planets in the galaxy. They are the only major species outside the control of the Mercatoria, being rumoured to possess devastating defensive weaponry… You can listen online to free English audiobook “The Algebraist” by Iain Banks on our website.
