50 Book Challenge #12: Look to Windward

After a disappointing experience this summer in Prague with Consider Phlebas, perhaps I should have given up on Iain M. Banks. However, the Cambridge Public Library lacked A House for Mr. Biswas and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, so I was scrabbling to grab a book or two and came up with Look to Windward. It was utterly predictable (the back cover synopsis more or less gave away the plot), and had a few random threads, such as a character who discovers the villain's plot and struggles to warn his civilization, that didn't go anywhere. Characters such as the Homomdan, Kabe, seemed unecessary. I thought it succeeded as an exploration of grief but failed as an engaging SF thriller.