Use of Weapons declared best sci-fi film never made

Btw...

If you have read all the novels and are still looking for a Culture-esque fix of reading, you could do worse then try "Alastair Reynolds" stuff - with the added advantage that he has a strong science background and it shows in the novels.

Better rethink this...

Americans making a movie about a Communist state that actually works?

Nows, if Cuba had a proper movie industry. Or North Korea...

uhm..... really....

Use of Weapons is certainly one if not my favourite of Bank's culture books and probably one of my favourite SF books but like other posters mentioned I cannot see how it could be made into a film.

I do think the amount of votes is a bit odd too. Given this is an IT site I have to wonder if there wasnt a bit of uhm... cheating going on. Obviously the guy with the Use of Weapons script was better than the guy with the Mote script lol.... Maybe Anonymous were invoved in this!

Unconvinced

Having seen UoW in first place early on, I borrowed it from a friend and started reading. I'm about half way through.

Is it enjoyable? Yes.

Would it work as a film? Less convinced. Too many threads, too much internal monologue.

I stand by Ender's Game as a better choice, partly because it's short, but you'd have to find a way to get a young cast to kill people convincingly (and possibly grow with it). It wouldn't work with everyone aged up, like the TV version of Game of Thrones.

I like Foundation, but I can't see that being anything other than tedious as a film. I'll look up TMIGE once I've finished UoW. The poll has, at least, been a good recommendation (even if the majority of the top two suggests some organised voting).

Apologies for duplicates - I can't read the other comments without risking spoilers...

Laughable

As interesting as I found UoW, Jack L. Chalker's "Soulrider" saga was far better and will never get made into a movie because of a variety of reasons.

But as with ant colonies, organization is everything and UoW's fans are to be commended.

Oh well

Time to hand in my SciFi geek card I guess - never even heard of this.

Wasp factory

Not really SF, no "M", and eeeewwwww!

But it'd be filmable.

Use of Weapons or...

...any Iain M. Banks Culture novel. Excession, to name one.

Surface Detail

1/3 of way through.... well written, propper Culture to chew on.... but just can't decide as yet whether I'm convinced about the "Virtual Hells" as a viable story line? I guess you have to have some kind of story..... and it's pretty interesting.... I just can't help but think that advanced civs would have dumped their religious baggage a very long time before reaching the tech capability to even contemplate a VR hell. I'm surprised that Iain didn't think like wise?

There is also mention of "sending a text message", is Iain getting sloppy? In the past it would have been a glyph or some such.......

Thank you very much!

Looking for something new to read, never read anything by Mr Banks so this should be interesting. £3 second-hand from Amazon, a bargain.

Nobody has mentioned that...

...IIRC, IMB has a stated lack of desire to see his work adapted for the big screen.

While we're dreaming though, I would LOVE to see Excession done well and it's the one I voted for but - as others have said - it would be almost impossible to do it justice. Use of Weapons would turn out the better movie for that reason alone.

PS: Dear Reg - I fucking LOVE that you do stuff like this from time to time!

And while we're on it...

I'm surprised to see Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy scored higher than Pandora's Star. The latter would make a MUCH better movie for the simple reason that the baddies and their shenanigans are every bit as thought-provoking as the Borg, as well as being nastier in many ways.

Drat and Bother, I Missed the Poll

Since I lost interest in BOFH, I seem visit El Reg so rarely as to miss a poll like this. Bother and piffle!

But after reading Peter F Hamilton's books Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, I think *they* would make a good epic or two to film. Is Mr Hamilton on the list at all?

Ah, well, I will just have my thoughts linger here, near the end of the comments.

Not Use of Weapons

I've read most Culture books and find that "Use of Weapons" is one of the worse, or more accurately the least best.

It seems unfocused, the wars Zakalwai fights in seem vague and are never explained and once you realise the twist......It was a big disappointment after reading "consider phelbos" and "The player of games", which are much better books. Consider Phelbos would make a much better film.

IMHO the film industry should leave this well alone, they will ruin it

Do you not know what an OCP is?

Then you better read Excession!

Problem with making a movie of this book is that it would only be a few minutes long.

50% of the dialogue is between ship minds which all took place is a few microseconds ;-)

(Even the battle scenes are measured in seconds)

Have to agree that "Consider Phlebas" or even "Player of Games" would be better movie options as both would appeal to a wider audience + would hopefully generate enough interrest/revenue to make UoW / Excession which would make me *very* happy!

If you are not the SciFi type - try reading "The Bridge", this is one of Iain Banks (note the missing "M.") non-culture books - you will be reading it more than once....

What poll? Useless Weapons more like...

I have a friend who I trusted to give me interesting books that he'd read. After going through about 6 Bank's novels, I read 'Use of Weapons' and told my friend that I didn't like it? Apparently he thought I liked Banks, no he didn't like it either.

My vote would be for the Algebraist, loved it. Actually almost ANY culture novel, apart from Inversions (which isn't quite a culture novel), would be better than Use of Weapons.

Yes I am a stereotypical IT chap , I love Dune.

BUT... what about William Gibson's Neuromancer?! Just 2%?!

Slight Spoiler alert for Use of Weapons, don't the ultra advanced Culture do reference checks?

too suspicious

thats a huge jump between 2nd and 3rd place, too huge, was the vote rigged from the start as part of a publicity stunt, or was it a genuine vote where organised voting was arranged? (di you check the ip's and vote times?)

either way it renders the whole thing pointless, clearly there has been tampering in some way

if it had been by a few hundred even, at least it would have been believable, but a jump of over 1000% !! LOL - right, in your dreams, you'd have to be immensly gullable to believe this is an honest poll.

Shame on you El Reg, you've turned into a science fiction site.

Zakalwe Enfranchised

That twist would be a real 'Fight Club' moment.

abnormal distribution

Applying Fitt's Law (not a novel), would the close proximity of the choice 'Use of Weapons – Iain M Banks and the button 'Yes, please bring that soon to a cinema near me' have any relation to the skewed distibribution?

Not only is Use of Weapons hard to film, but I think Iain M said that he's been asked about the Player of Games rules by computer games coders and screenwriters but the rules are unfortunately and perhaps deliberately incomplete.

Me, I'm planning to listen to China Miéville talk about Embassytown. His last novel Kraken would make a very watchable movie.

'

bulls**t

Sorry but this poll is so obviously skewed its not worth the silicon its saved on.