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Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back.
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This was my first encounter with Iain Banks' work and I was so hooked I simply had to go out and buy up all the back titles I could track down. Since then, I have kept a weather eye out and have managed to accumulate a fair percentage of his works, with a *very* heavy leaning towards any of his 'Culture' series.
A stunning author, this book really brought his 'Culture' universe alive for me in much the same way that Neal Asher did with his 'Polity' universe... and I have to wonder at the stunning synchonicity of both universes. Humanity under the benevolent rule of a higher-order artificial intelligence we created, humanity (in both it's physical and digital forms) spreading across the face of our galaxy, and the slow but stead subversion and subsumption of (nearly) all the alien cultures we encounter.
Overall, a stunning book with some utterly unexpected twists, especially at the end.
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Kiwi lives in the forest amongst the kakapo, kunekune pigs, ruru, weta and kereru. He longs to be fast enough to come to the aid of his friends when they are in need. There is just one problem: Kiwi is pretty fast, but his sturdy legs are just not fast enough - and they can't carry him up trees!
Can Kiwi become the hero of the forest that he longs to be? He learns that we can sometimes achieve more when we work together.
Illustrations are by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
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