From Publishers Weekly
Set in Banks's far-future interstellar civilization known as the Culture, this highly literate novel from this celebrated British SF author (Inversions) centers on an act of revenge. The Culture is enormously rich and values personal freedom above all else, but it also has a tradition of meddling in the affairs of other, lesser civilizations. This is invariably done with the best of intentions, but occasionally things do go wrong. Parallels to U.S. foreign policy are probably intended, witness the book's dedication to "the Gulf War veterans." In a recent attempt to covertly overthrow the repressive caste system at the center of Chelgrian society, agents of the Culture's secret Special Circumstances unit accidentally triggered a civil war that left five billion Chelgrians both dead and dishonored. Now Chel has sent an ambassador named Quilan to the artificial, bracelet world of Masaq' Orbital. Ostensibly he's there to try to convince Ziller, a famous Chelgrian expatriate composer, to return home, but his real mission is to eliminate the AI that controls the Culture orbital. This action will also bring about the destruction of approximately five billion human souls held in suspended animation, thereby, the Chelgrians believe, balancing the books. Although things start a bit slowly, Banks's fine prose, complex plotting and well-rounded characters will eventually win over even the most discerning readers, and all will find themselves fully rewarded when the novel reaches its powerful conclusion. (Aug. 14)Wasp Factory, etc.).Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When the 800-year-old light of a distant space battle reaches the Masaq'Orbital, an emissary from Chel arrives on a mission hidden even to himself. Only Ziller, a Chelgrian composer, can unlock a secret that could save or destroy an entire world. Banks (Consider Phlebas; Inversions) uses the far future as a playground for the interplay of ideas and images. First published in Great Britain, this literate and challenging tale by one of the genre's master storytellers belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The Masaq Orbital is about to witness the light from an eight-centuries-old act of war, and the Hub Mind is concerned about the reaction of the Culture's elite. Meanwhile, Ziller, a Chelgrian composer, is preparing a major performance, and Chelgrian Major Quilan has come to the orbital to persuade Ziller to return home. Quilan is also involved in a plan to avenge the 800-year-old act of war. He is all the more willing to participate because he lost his wife in the Chelgrian Caste War, which is blamed on the intervention of the Culture, which is human. Banks makes the passions and follies of his characters real enough to remain distinct against a setting that includes continent-sized living entities and a culture embracing 31 trillion inhabitants. Even if this is no more than a thinking reader's space opera, it will definitely please such readers, in and out of Banks' established audience. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
SFX A page-turner of reader's cramp-inducing intensity....A book that could only be harder to put down if it was superglued to your fingers...Look to Windward is a work of genius.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Twin Novae battle had been one of the last of the Idiran war, and one of the most horrific: desperate to avert their inevitable defeat, the Idirans had induced not one but two suns to explode, snuffing out worlds and biospheres teeming with sentient life. They were attacks of incredible proportion—gigadeathcrimes. But the war ended, and life went on.

Now, eight hundred years later, light from the first explosion is about to reach the Masaq'Orbital, home to the Culture's most adventurous and decadent souls. There it will fall upon Masaq's 50 billion inhabitants, gathered to commemorate the deaths of the innocent and to reflect, if only for a moment, on what some call the Culture's own complicity in the terrible event.

Also journeying to Masaq' is Major Quinlan, an emissary from the war-ravaged world of Chel. In the aftermath of the conflict that split his world apart, most believe he has come to Masaq' to bring home Chel's most brilliant star and self-exiled dissident, the honored Composer Ziller.

Ziller claims he will do anything to avoid a meeting with Major Quinlan, whom he suspects has come to murder him. But the Major's true assignment wil have far greater consequences than the death of a mere political dissident, as part of a conspiracy more ambitious than even he can know—a mission his superiors have buried so deeply in his mind that even he cannot remember it.

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

The setting is in the far future on an artificial satellite world called Masaq' Orbital, home to about 50 billion members of the Culture. This story takes place some 800 years after the particularly nasty Idiran war, which took out several planets, killing all inhabitants. Composer Ziller, who lives on Masaq', is informed that an emissary, Major Quilan, from Chel will arrive soon. Everyone thinks Quilan is coming to bring the extremely talented composer home to Chel, while Ziller thinks Quilan is coming to kill him; in fact, Quilan is a plant with deep-seeded instructions to blow up the entire orbital as retribution for the souls lost during the war. It seems the Chel believe that these lost souls will only reach heaven by taking an equal number of Culture casualties. With sentences like, "The sky above you brightened first, then the rising star seemed to coalesce out of the infrared, a shimmering vermilion specter emerging out of the haze line and then sliding along the horizon, shining dimly through the Plate walls and the distant abundances of air and only gradually gaining height, though, once it had properly begun, the daylight lasted longer than on a globe," on the same page with, "She nodded vigorously, 'Abso-fu#!ing-lutely!,'" this is quite a piece of fiction. I will be the first to admit that the characters are highly unusual and "alien." But I spent most of the book waiting to get the gist. When I got to the last sentence, "Life never ceases to surprise," I knew I wouldn't. Although toted as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, YA readership will be limited to those who like their SF way out there. KLIATT Codes: A￯﾿ﾽRecommended for advanced students and adults. 2000, PocketBooks, 483p., Hoy

Library Journal

When the 800-year-old light of a distant space battle reaches the Masaq'Orbital, an emissary from Chel arrives on a mission hidden even to himself. Only Ziller, a Chelgrian composer, can unlock a secret that could save or destroy an entire world. Banks (Consider Phlebas; Inversions) uses the far future as a playground for the interplay of ideas and images. First published in Great Britain, this literate and challenging tale by one of the genre's master storytellers belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews