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	The Algebraist - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Algebraist, a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first appeared in print in 2004.
		The Algebraist reads like a Culture novel in reverse, expressing the point of view of a civilisation lower down the path of technological and social progress.
		The Algebraist introduces a fictional religion called "The Truth", similar to Nick Bostrom's Simulation argument.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/The_Algebraist (632 words)

	Baa wars \| By genre \| Guardian Unlimited Books
		Imagine that he is hugely enthusiastic and charming, and that his thoughtful analyses of contemporary human politics range from the individual to the mass, from theory to action, from ideology to consequence.
		For those not acquainted with large-scale SF, The Algebraist is a perfect place to have your mind blown to smithereens with all that its vast canvas delivers.
		The Algebraist marks a return to the happy hunting grounds of Banks's early SF, replete with all the whizzy boys' toys, wildly improbable extreme sports, damning character assassinations and good-humoured condemnation of all that's wearying about humanity.
	books.guardian.co.uk /reviews/sciencefiction/0,6121,1333356,00.html (788 words)

	Iain M. Banks: The Algebraist (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		Iain M. Banks's novel The Algebraist is a clear indicator of the growth of science fiction.
		Both The Algebraist and Smith's "Lensmen" series were concerned with vast gulfs of space and the fate of the universe, however that is essentially where the similarity ends.
		The Algebraist has a tendency to ramble and often feels as if Banks could have written a tighter, and shorter, book without losing the ideas or the feel of the book he actually did write.
	www.sfsite.com /~silverag/banks.html (459 words)

	Compare Prices and Read Reviews on The Algebraist at Epinions.com
		From my perspective, The Algebraist is a typical space opera, suffering from the big-ideas/small-plot/no-character-development syndrome.
		What we have in The Algebraist is a troika of galactic superpowers warring amongst themselves.
		The Mercatoria, comprising the largest number of systems in the galaxy, is going great guns for complete hegemony, but is constrained by two smaller though not insignificant antagonistic powers.
	www.epinions.com /content_167916179076 (970 words)

	Review of Iain Banks Algebraist
		WellThe Algebraist has one and you are given all you need to know to work it out in the first third of the book.
		Meanwhile Banks has dedicated The Algebraist to a family of MacLennans who may themselves be a Sept, and even which may or may not be related to Banks' (they could be fellow Septs to a common Clan), but I suspect they are just friends.
		The Algebraist is hugely (in a Jovian sense) entertaining, and it is intelligently crafted even if a couple of aspects are not well researched.
	www.concatenation.org /frev/algebraist.html (1923 words)

	The Algebraist - Iain M. Banks - Review - 'UNCULTURED' SPACE OPERA AT ITS BEST
		‘The Algebraist’ is the welcomed return of Iain M Banks (aka Iain Banks) to science fiction and I’m glad to say he has continues where he left off producing another intriguing and cerebral piece of fiction.
		Iain M Banks is best known for his novels set in the ‘Culture’ universe (The Player Of Games, Consider Phlebas) dealing with the development of human civilisation thousands of years in the future where machines have been completely integrated to the point where they have become sentient beings achieving equal footing with humans.
		‘The Algebraist’ is a long book at over 540 pages and will require a little effort to get into since the story only slowly becomes clear as the narrative eventually begins to unravel the layer upon layer of complexity.
	www.dooyoo.co.uk /printed-books/the-algebraist-iain-m-banks/1040522 (1389 words)

	The SF Site Featured Review: The Algebraist
		Some elements of The Algebraist are absurdly over the top -- for instance the villainous Archimandrite Luseferous, leader of the invasion fleet, who makes an appearance every fifty pages or so to torture another poor victim, thus reminding us that he's really truly extremely evil.
		Among the plot threads is the story of Taak's uneasy relationship with a group of friends who were bonded in youth by a tragic accident.
		The very effective epilogue of The Algebraist, arcing back to an early story element that was subsumed in subsequent verbiage, merely served to remind that this could have been, and should have been, a far better novel.
	www.sfsite.com /03a/al195.htm (744 words)

	The Algebraist (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		In The Algebraist, Iain Banks returns to spectacular space opera but not to his familiar Culture universe.
		Not being a Culture novel where the rules are taken for granted, leaving the author room to focus on characters, ideas and themes, 'The Algebraist' spends about 100 pages just setting us up with a new universe before we even know what the story is about.
		A few twists and revelations bring 'The Algebraist' to a reasonably satisfactory conclusion, but all in all, and particularly after the brilliance of 'Look to Windward', this is the customary disappointing non-Culture SF book from Iain M Banks.
	www.conceptcar.co.uk /shop/online/products/The+AlgebraistBooks.php (1085 words)

	The Algebraist by Iain M Banks - an infinity plus review
		Parts of The Algebraist are very very good: there's some excellent comic characterisation, some brilliant writing, some smart and sophisticated manoeuvrings, some great set-pieces.
		Indeed, one of the truly impressive aspects of The Algebraist is how it works as a literary demonstration of the butterfly effect, as seemingly insignificant events on the personal scale can have sweeping, large-scale repercussions.
		As a comedy of manners, The Algebraist has some excellent high points, but the lurch between pantomime aliens and adventure-quest with scenes of extreme destruction just doesn't seem to fit.
	www.infinityplus.co.uk /nonfiction/algebraist.htm (509 words)

	Iain M. Banks The Algebraist Reviewed by Rick Kleffel
		Though I bought the first couple of entries, both as trade paperbacks and even, more recently, in a first edition hardcover, I never got round to actually reading the work of the writer who cast such a large shadow on my new favorites.
		'The Algebraist' begins -- after some framing shots -- with Archimandrite Luseferous, Executive High General of -- well, what turns out to be a bunch of well-armed starships traveling nearly the speed of light to conquer Ulubis, an unarmed and relatively obscure portion of the civilized galaxy.
		One of the true pleasures of reading space opera is the reader's slowly unfolding understanding of the universe created by the author.
	trashotron.com /agony/reviews/2004/banks-the_algebraist.htm (1034 words)

	Amazon.com: The Algebraist: Books: Iain M. Banks (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		The various human worlds are connected via gates that permit a limited form of FTL travel, the gates must originate from the same place and be transported at sub-light speeds to their destinations.
		"The Algebraist" is yet another magnificient work of science fiction from Iain M. Banks, who is probably better known for his mainstream fiction novels, for which he opts to exclude his middle initial in identifying himself as their author.
		Regardless, Iain Banks, in either his role as a superb science fiction author, or as an author of splendid mainstream literary fiction, must be regarded as one of the finest writers working today in the English language.
	www.amazon.com /Algebraist-Iain-M-Banks/dp/1597800449 (2547 words)

	AL-KHAYYAMAI From the Algebra
		It is a practice among algebraists in connection with their art to call the unknown which is to be determined a ''thing,"
		If the algebraist were to use the square of the square in measuring areas, his result would be figurative and not real, because it is impossible to consider the square of the square as a magnitude of a measurable nature.
		What we get in measurable quantities is first one dimension, which is the "root" or the "side" in relation to its square; then two dimensions, which represent the surface and the (algebraic) square representing the square surface, and finally three dimensions, which represent the solid.
	www.humboldt.edu /~mef2/AL-KAYY1.htm (1418 words)

	nthposition online magazine: The Algebraist
		There are flaws; the good news is that once the leviathan of a plot finally gets up to speed, you forget about the problematic opener and realise that only a beach full of tank stoppers is ever going to bring it to a halt.
		Although this isn't one of Banks' Culture novels - he tends to deviate from his utopia in alternate pieces of SF - The Algebraist sports a much more expansive feel than the closed worlds of, say, Feersum Engine or Inversions.
		Yes, thanks to Bank's weight as a literary force these days, much like the gas giant Nasqueron itself; but not as a result of The Algebraist triumphing as a work of speculative fiction.
	www.nthposition.com /thealgebraist.php (1076 words)

	Asking the Wrong Questions: The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
		Taince and Luseferous' plots are vestiges of the first Algebraist, the book about trying to create and maintain a just society in an unjust universe, but by the time Banks got around to ending those stories, he was writing a different book--a mystery and a quest focusing on Fassin's adventures among Nasquaron's inhabitants, the Dwellers.
		The Algebraist may not be the triumph Banks intended it to be, but it remains a highly enjoyable read, and I will certainly be seeking out more of Banks' fiction.
		However, from what I gather, most of Banks space operas (actually all of them but The Algebraist) are set in a universe whose dominant civilisation, "The Culture" is mostly a study of a utopian anarchy which Banks probably regards as the ultimate triumph of democracy and not as its failure.
	wrongquestions.blogspot.com /2005/12/algebraist-by-iain-m-banks.html (3083 words)

	Local Library Competition on Best Sci Fi Novel - sffworld.com
		Algebraist seems out of place, its too new, and while it got good reviews, the most common opinions i heard were "not as interesting as a culture novel", and "good, but not Banks' best".
		With its omnipotent corporations, decaying burghal slums, Machiavellian AIs, retro fashions, lurid, digital vistas and a pervasive sense of paranoia and human impotency in the face of technology increasing beyond the boundaries of control all woven together with thick and evocative prose, it has to be Neuromancer.
		This whole event I think is due to a push in trying to get people to read more, so that may be why Banks' The Algebraist is on there, plus he is a contemporary British writer and the only other British writer on there is Douglas Adams who sadly died recently.
	www.sffworld.com /forums/showthread.php?t=13898 (1314 words)

	the algebraist - Science-Fiction & Fantasy forums
		I am a huge fan of Banks' sci fi writing, and the Algebraist is sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.
		Algebraist was recently Hugo Nominee this year for best novel (even without being in the U.S.) and although I enjoyed it, it wasn't the best Bank's novel I read.
		The Algebraist: This is his latest, just out in paperback in the UK.
	www.chronicles-network.com /forum/7077-the-algebraist.html (2433 words)

	The Algebraist - Iain M. Banks - Review - PURE FUN: THAT'S WHAT SPACE OPERA IS FOR
		It spans thousands of light-years of space and billions (yes!) years of time, it involves complications of several human and alien societies whose cultures Iain M. Banks invents from scratch (no, not really, of course as all are based on some features of societies that exist or existed on Earth).
		The skill shows less on the level of words and sentences - these are transparent, without visible technical fireworks - and more in the construction, suspense building, managing characters who are both topical and believable and effortless juggling with the convention of space-opera.
		"The Algebraist " is a piece of dazzling entertainment, a grand sweep of a novel, exciting, tantalising and engaging for a reader who makes an effort to try and work out what's going on.
	www.dooyoo.co.uk /printed-books/the-algebraist-iain-m-banks/1038665 (858 words)

	2. The problem
		If what we observe as an answer satisfies us as adequate behaviour or as adequate action in the domain specified by the question, we accept it as an expression of cognition in that domain, and claim that he or she who answers our query knows.
		Thus, if some one claims to know algebra, that is, to be an algebraist, we demand of him or her to perform in the domain of what we consider algebra to be, and if according to us she or he performs adquately in that domain, we accept the claim.
		In these circumstances, since adequate behaviour (or adequate action) is the only criterion that we have and can to assess cognition, I shall take adequate behaviour or adequate action in any domain specified by a question, as the phenomenon to be explained when explaining cognition.
	www.inteco.cl /articulos/004/doc_ing1.htm (191 words)

	BBC - collective - Iain M Banks - The Algebraist
		Browsing the shelves at Waterstones is an excercise in fustration for soemone like me. I read Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but Fantasy definitely seems in vogue and I constantly feel in need of a really good space opera.
		Then I heard somewhere on the grapevine that Iain M Banks was working on a new Sci-Fi novel, The Algebraist.
		The Algebraist goes off on wild tangents just to show you a bit more of the characters.
	www.bbc.co.uk /dna/collective/A3367802 (680 words)

	Edmund Landau (1877-1938)
		With Hilbert and Klein, and later on, as successor to Klein, Caratheodory, Hecke (both left after short periods) and Courant, Göttingen became the unrivaled center for mathematics in Germany.
		It later attracted the applied mathematician Runge, the statistician Felix Berstein, and the algebraist Emmy Noether.
		Landau stayed in Göttingen until 1933, when he was dismissed by the Nazis.
	www.ma.huji.ac.il /~landau/landau.html (640 words)

	The Algebraist
		The Algebraist is not set in the Culture universe of many Banks "M" novels.
		The chief protagonist is a "seer", a xeno-ethnologist specializing in contact with Dwellers, an alien species almost as old as the Universe.
		My guess is any culture where individual lifespans exceed a million years would primarily be concerned with staving off boredom.
	www.majid.info /mylos/weblog/2004/12/21-1.html (555 words)

	MathFiction: The Algebraist (Iain M. Banks)
		The footnote in The Algebraist leads people to further speculate that some sort of mathematical step is necessary...perhaps a "transform".
		Like the title ("algebraist" is the correct term for a mathematician specializing in algebra) it is a technical mathematical term that seems to be used correctly.
		Perhaps Banks was thinking of something complicated like a Fourier transform which is used in signal processing to break waves down into their harmonic components, but just about any formula that could turn the list of numbers into another useful list of numbers could be called a "transform".
	math.cofc.edu /kasman/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf510 (698 words)

	The Algebraist by Iain Banks \| LibraryThing
		I have always found Iain Banks novels to be, at a minimum, entertaining whereas some (such as Excession) are stunning.
		Although The Algebraist does not reach the heady heights of some of his other work, it is entertaining, well-written and gripping.
		With the usual imaginative fare of bizarre races, galactic empires and meaninglessly advanced weaponary The Albegraist's plot can sometimes seem an irrelavance but despite this it carries you through to the end.
	www.librarything.com /work.php?book=100521 (181 words)

	Operator algebra page of N. C. Phillips
		The Operator Algebraist's Information Stack at Leipzig, maintained by Michael Frank.
		The Operator Algebraist's Information Stack (at Leipzig) contains links to the home pages of a number of research groups in operator algebras and related fields, especially in Germany.
		Otherwise, for information on the next planned events, try looking at the recent announcements associated with the operator algebraist email directory, or try contacting an operator algebraist in the appropriate region.
	darkwing.uoregon.edu /~ncp/OpAlgResources/OpAlgPages/opalg.html (1256 words)

	Metroactive Books \| Book Box
		The Algebraist manages just the right combination of "What the hell?" and "Oh, my God!" revelations as to how things work.
		Banks knows when to zoom in and when to pan out; he goes from microscopic to telescopic as the situation demands.
		If you've not read Banks, or any space opera, then The Algebraist is a fine place to begin.
	www.metroactive.com /papers/metro/09.28.05/bookbox-0539.html (608 words)

	The Hindu : Momentous contributions
		It is possible that Ramanujan might not have known about Burnside, as the latter was not a university professor, but was an instructor in the Naval Academy of Great Britain.
		But at least two of his problems engaged the attention of algebraists for nearly half-a-century.
		One of them is to get at a purely group-theoretic proof of the theorem that a group of order paqb, where p and q are primes and a and b are natural numbers, is solvable.
	www.hinduonnet.com /2001/03/06/stories/13060376.htm (600 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		The Algebraist is set a few thousand years in our future, thousands of light years away from Earth.
		Most of The Algebraist concerns Taak's search for this missing information, much of it spent in the wonderland of Nasqueron, the gas giant world in Ulubris, traveling from contact to contact and, more engagingly for readers, allowing Banks to create amazing landscapes and characters.
		Remember, this isn't in a simply-larger Earth-like planet but one where Earth would be swallowed without notice into the swirling, stormy gaseous atmosphere; the humans must remain encased in special single seat spaceships buffered by gel to deal with the immense pressure.
	www.billsaysthis.com /blog/2006_09_24_blog_archive.phtml (1655 words)

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