Use of Weapons is the third Culture novel by Iain M Banks and is essentially a rewrite of an earlier manuscript. Originally the book had the Culture in it, but was written before the other Culture universe was really created. What I like about the Culture novels so far is that they are very decentralized. All three books I’ve read so far can be read as standalone without any knowledge of the Culture, but the added Culture layer does add to the enjoyment.

Zakalwe is an ex-Special Circumstance agent working with the Culture. Diziet Sma is/was Zakalwe’s handler and along with a drone named Skaffen-Amtiskaw, they are asked to recruit Zakalwe to revisit a past engagement and re-recruit a politician to avoid a war from breaking out. Zakalwe extracts a high price, but eventually agrees to do it. That’s the straight forward story. There is also a secondary story which is a backwards telling history of Zakalwe’s life and history of missions for the Culture. And that is, for the most part, the more interesting story.

The best part of the story is Zakalwe himself. Cheradenine Zakalwe is a warrior. He’s the person you call in to plan a battle, to win a skirmish, to pull a tie out of a certain loss. And he is running from something. Until we get to the shocking reveal at the end of the book, we’re never certain what it is. Zakalwe seems to hate what he does for the Culture and hates how they jerk his strings around. For example, the Culture sends him in to help out a losing side in a war. And on the eve of forcing a truce, they yank him out and let him know that it’s better for the Culture if the side he was helping loses the war. But he always (albeit reluctantly) complies with the Culture. But Zakalwe is more that just a hired gun. He is weary and always wants to connect with people and form relationships. Zakalwe makes several relationships during the course of the book and always seems willing to do so, but his duties to the Culture always seem to break up the relationships.

The depth of Zakalwe is the main reason why Use of Weapons is worth reading. The story is very long, but the use of such an interesting main character overcomes the other problems the book has (meandering story, overly descriptive, few good secondary characters). The book is recommended and I’m looking forward to the next Culture novel.