The Free Company that Horza joins attempts to steal weapons from one of the kilometers-long ships while visiting the Vavatch orbital, and much of the action depends on the size of the ship and how it leads to disaster for the mission. When the Megaship job goes south, Lamm and several other crewmembers are left behind, and in a fit of rage he proves that he wasn't kidding. Better to Die than Be Killed: Lamm claims that his space suit contains a small nuke that he intends to detonate rather than be killed or captured, with the added implication that he'd also do it if someone pissed him off enough.This allows Xoxarle to ambush the Changer, inflicting the injuries which ultimately kill him. Batman Gambit: Xoxarle breaks one of Balveda's arms, and leaves her hanging on for dear life to a gantry with the aim of forcing the incredibly pissed-off Horza to choose between avenging his pregnant girlfriend and saving her.Ban on A.I.: the Idirans are against AI for religious reasons and use limiting devices to ensure their computers don't become sentient.Given that the Culture are determined to 'enlighten' the less developed civilisations in the galaxy and bring them round to their way of thinking, while the Idirans are more concerned about converting everybody to their religion, war between the two was pretty much inevitable. The former are a pleasure-seeking post-Singularity Utopia who love sleek shiny technology and are ruled by their machines, while the latter are a Proud Warrior Race of Scary Dogmatic Aliens who utilise Boring, but Practical technology and are convinced A.I. Athens and Sparta: A galactic-scale version with the Culture versus the Idirans.Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain: Horza is the former in respect to the novel, but could be seen as the latter to the extent that the Culture itself is the protagonist of the series.Neither the Culture or the Idirans want to risk pissing them off. Always a Bigger Fish: The Dra'Azon are a race of almost unfathomably powerful Energy Beings that care little for the physical galaxy besides preserving Ghost Planets as monuments to futility and destruction, including Schar's World.Yet, he still won't quit while he's behind. All for Nothing: Every damn escapade that Horza gets his team involved in ends in disaster.

Interestingly, the novel is mostly told from the perspective of Bora Horza Gobuchul, a 'Changer', who sides with the Idirans and sees pretty much all of the Culture's signature aspects in a highly negative light.Ĭonsider Phlebas provides examples of the following tropes: It concerns the war between the Culture and the Idiran civilisation, an event whose repercussions affect all of the future novels in the series.

Consider phlebas