Использование оружия: История Чераденина Закалве

1990 novel by Iain M. Banks

Use of Weapons is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1990. It is the third novel in the Culture series. The narrative takes the form of a biography of a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe, who was born outside of the Culture but was recruited into it by Special Circumstances agent Diziet Sma to work as an operative intervening in less advanced civilizations. The novel recounts several of these interventions and Zakalwe's attempts to come to terms with his own past. Further complicating this structure is a prologue and epilogue set shortly after the events of the main narrative, and many flashbacks within the chapters. The forward moving narrative stream deals with the attempts of Diziet Sma and a drone named Skaffen Amtiskaw (of Special Circumstances, a division of Contact Section) to re enlist Zakalwe for another job. He must make contact with Beychae, an old colleague, who lives in a politically unstable star cluster, to further the aims of the Culture in the region. The payment that Zakalwe demands is the location of a woman, named Livueta. The backward moving narrative stream describes earlier jobs that Zakalwe has performed for the Culture, ultimately returning to his pre Culture childhood with his two sisters (Livueta and Darckense) and a boy his age named Elethiomel whose father has been imprisoned for treason. As the two streams of the narrative conclude, it emerges that Elethiomel and Zakalwe commanded two opposing armies in a bloody civil war. Elethiomel took Darckense hostage before finally having her killed and her bones and skin made into a chair, to be sent to Zakalwe, who attempted suicide upon receiving it. After the successful extraction of Beychae, a severely wounded Zakalwe is taken back to his homeworld to see Livueta. She rejects him and reveals that the person called "Cheradenine Zakalwe" is in fact Elethiomel, who had stolen the real Zakalwe's identity after the latter had successfully killed himself during the civil war. Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm and Skaffen Amtiskaw performs surgery in an attempt to save his life with initially unclear results. The epilogue is a continuation of the prologue; whether the story told by these "bookends" takes place prior to, or after, Zakalwe/Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm, is not immediately obvious until the epilogue, in which the clue that it takes place not long after is "Zakalwe pushing his hand through long hair that isn't there any more "

According to Banks, he wrote a much longer version of the book in 1974, long before any of his books (science fiction or otherwise) were published. The book had an even more complicated structure ("It was impossible to comprehend without thinking in six dimensions") but already introduced the Culture as background for the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe. The book's cryptic acknowledgement credits friend and fellow science fiction author Ken MacLeod with the suggestion "to argue the old warrior out of retirement" (to rewrite the old book) and further credits him with suggesting "the fitness programme" (the new structure). and in 1993 it won the Kurd Laßwitz Preis for Foreign Novel. Tor. com reviewed the book favorably in 2017, describing it as "beautiful and inevitable, and the tension is unbearable There’s so much I love about this I hardly know where to start." The Pequod rated the book a 9.5 (out of 10.0), saying, "This is first rate science fiction, with unexpected depth as it explores the nature of morality, the effectiveness (and unintended consequences) of political intervention, and even the process of decision making in the face of uncertainty." In 2012 it was selected for Damien Broderick's book Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985 2010.

Use of Weapons was voted the Best sci fi film never made by the readers of The Register in 2011.