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It goes without saying that this book is well-written. 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.
A lot of ambitious sci-fi is very dark, and there is a bit of that here: Byzantine politics, cynical characters, war and genocide; but less of the darkness of human insanity that can be found in Iain Banks's mainstream novels or writings of authors like Harlan Elisson or JG Ballard, or even some of the Banks's own Culture novels ( [[''Consider Phlebas]]'')
''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. The vision is huge, the politics complicated, the science totally implausible, the human characters presented in depth and believable and engaging, and the social set-ups suitably varied; while the Dwellers are something else altogether. Is there any deeper meaning or sense to it? Probably not, apart of course from it being great, escapist fun. True to the cover blurb, Iain M. Banks sets the standard by which the rest of sci-fi should be judged.