The Algebraist
Chapters - Iain M. Banks
Prologue
The unnamed Head Gardener of the Autumn House on the planet-moon 'glantine, standing in the brook trimming moil-bush around a scalpygrass lawn, is interrupted by Fassin Taak, who is returning from his morning constitutional around the higher rockeries. They exchange easy talk about water levels and the lake-scouring as the gas-giant Nasqueron sits above the rooflines of the house. The young Zab - granddaughter to Fassin's uncle Slovius - arrives in search of "Uncle Fassin", and the two of them walk off together while the Head Gardener returns to his work.
On page: Fassin Taak, Zab·Mentioned: Slovius
Chapter 1: The Autumn House
A fugitive entity hiding inside an icy debris field is hunted across deep space by pursuing ships. On his fortress world, Archimandrite Luseferous of the Starvelings tortures a captured assassin, finalises his preparations to leave for the distant Ulubis system and takes the maimed prisoner with him as a trophy. On 'glantine, Fassin Taak meets his uncle Slovius in his swimming pool and learns that an emissarial projection from the Mercatoria's Administrata is being sent to speak with him personally, after which Fassin is summoned to Sepekte. A long flashback returns him to his student days: Fassin, Saluus Kehar, Taince Yarabokin and Ilen Deste explore the ancient wrecked alien ship out in the desert, and during an attacklet Ilen falls through a triangular hole inside the hulk. Saluus, useless with fear, is found crouching at the hole when Taince and Fassin reach the spot; Taince climbs down to try to reach Ilen, but Ilen regains consciousness, rolls off the tusk-like projections she has caught on and falls onto the cooling-fin edges below.
POV: Archimandrite Luseferous, Fassin Taak·On page: Slovius, Saluus Kehar, Taince Yarabokin, Ilen Deste, Jaal Tonderon, Verpych
Chapter 2: Destructive Recall
A Voehn warship catches and destroys a fleeing rogue AI whose memory has been deliberately overwritten, the technique known as destructive recall. Fassin travels by needle ship to Sepekte for a briefing at the Hierchon's palace, where an AI projection of Admiral Quile reveals that a thousand-ship fleet from the Cluster Epiphany Five Disconnect, led by Luseferous, is bearing down on Ulubis. The system has been targeted because of information Fassin once stumbled across during a delve with the Dweller scholar Valseir: a possible route to the legendary Dweller List and its Transform, said to unlock a hidden wormhole network granting effective faster-than-light travel. Fassin is ordered back into Nasqueron to find Valseir and recover the Transform. He visits Saluus Kehar at his estate and slips into Boogeytown to meet his Beyonder contact Aun Liss, passing intelligence through their coded touch-language during a night together.
POV: Fassin Taak, Archimandrite Luseferous, Taince Yarabokin·On page: Saluus Kehar, Aun Liss, Colonel Hatherence, Admiral Quile, Fleet Admiral Brimiaice·Mentioned: Valseir, Slovius, Paggs Yurnvic, Y'sul, Braam Ganscerel
Chapter 3: Nowhere Left to Fall
A childhood flashback shows young Fassin attending the public execution of a captured rogue AI alongside Slovius. In the main narrative, Fassin arrives at Third Fury moon and clashes with Chief Seer Braam Ganscerel over delving methods, then meets his assigned partner, the oerileithe Colonel Hatherence. Third Fury comes under attack and the pair escape in a drop ship down into Nasqueron's atmosphere, eventually meeting the Dweller guide Y'sul, who reports that Valseir is reportedly dead in a yachting accident. Working through his Dweller contact Setstyin, Fassin warns him that the Mercatoria may stage a raid on Nasqueron seeking the Transform data, urging Setstyin to alert Dweller authorities so that any incursion is not mistaken for a full invasion. A relayed recording from Taince Yarabokin reveals she has worked out that Saluus was responsible for Ilen's death and has shaped her military career around eventual vengeance.
POV: Fassin Taak, Taince Yarabokin·On page: Slovius, Paggs Yurnvic, Y'sul, Braam Ganscerel, Colonel Hatherence, Hervil Apsile, Setstyin, Sholish, Mome·Mentioned: Ilen Deste, Valseir
Chapter 4: Events During Wartime
Fassin, Hatherence and Y'sul hitch a ride on a Dweller Dreadnought into the Formal War zone, where Fassin slips away to search the depths and finds Valseir's old study ransacked. A backed-up flood of messages finally reaches Fassin, confirming that the Winter House has been destroyed by a warhead strike and almost all of Sept Bantrabal, including Slovius and Zab, are dead. Meanwhile Luseferous closes on Ulubis, and Saluus Kehar weathers war cabinet meetings while being blamed for the botched Nasqueron raid. Fassin tracks down Valseir alive in hiding, who claims to have passed the Transform data to a friend named Chimilinith in Deilte. A Mercatoria raiding force then descends on Nasqueron and provokes a devastating Dweller counterattack that annihilates the intruders. Hatherence is caught and killed by an attacking machine; later Fassin, Y'sul, Valseir and Setstyin consign her body to the Depths in a Dweller funeral.
POV: Fassin Taak, Archimandrite Luseferous, Saluus Kehar·On page: Y'sul, Valseir, Colonel Hatherence, Setstyin, Sholish, Mome·Mentioned: Slovius, Jaal Tonderon, Leisicrofe, Zab
Chapter 5: Conditions of Passage
Fassin and Y'sul seek out the truetwin Dweller travelcaptains Quercer and Janath, who agree, after much coy talk of Conditions of Passage, to carry them through the secret Dweller wormhole network in their ship the Velpin. They follow the trail of the wandering Dweller scholar Leisicrofe through a string of systems, including a Sceuri waterworld, while elsewhere Taince Yarabokin rides at the head of the Summed Fleet thundering towards Ulubis at relativistic speed. The trail leads to the Cineropoline Sepulcraft Rovruetz, a giant Ythyn death-carrier crewed by morbid scavengers, where they find Leisicrofe already dead and ice-welded to a wall. A recording left aboard his SoloShip explains that he opened Valseir's safekeep box, panicked at what he read, and destroyed the data, throwing the box into a sun. Before Fassin can react, Quercer and Janath shout that a Voehn warship has ambushed them.
POV: Fassin Taak, Taince Yarabokin·On page: Y'sul, Quercer & Janath, Setstyin, Sholish, Leisicrofe·Mentioned: Valseir
Chapter 6: The Last Transform
Aboard the Voehn ship, the Prime Commander interrogates Fassin, Y'sul and the truetwin, but Quercer and Janath suddenly slaughter the crew and reveal themselves to be two outlawed AIs hiding inside a Dweller-shaped suit. They commandeer the vessel and press on. In Ulubis, Luseferous's fleet overruns Sepekte, Fleet Admiral Brimiaice dies fighting, Aun Liss visits the imprisoned Saluus, and Jaal Tonderon watches the battles from 'glantine. Luseferous, in orbit around Nasqueron aboard the Luseferous VII, demands Fassin be handed over, but Dweller weapons humiliate his flagship and the Starvelings retreat. Returned to Nasqueron, Fassin works out that the Transform's answer of zero is literal: the wormhole portals lie at the centres of the gas-giants themselves. He tests this by confiding in Setstyin, who tries to kill him; the gascraft is a remote shell, and Fassin, safe with the Beyonders, has exposed Setstyin's betrayal. Taince arrives with the Summed Fleet, flies Saluus home in a small cutter and deliberately crashes it into the ruined alien ship, killing them both in revenge for Ilen.
POV: Fassin Taak, Archimandrite Luseferous, Taince Yarabokin·On page: Saluus Kehar, Y'sul, Quercer & Janath, Jaal Tonderon, Aun Liss, Setstyin, Fleet Admiral Brimiaice
Epilogue
The Head Gardener, alone now in the abandoned Autumn House, watches a changed Fassin Taak return for "one last look around" and to look him up. Fassin is thinner, older and quieter, marked by everything that has happened. The Head Gardener raises the rumour of a wormhole mouth in Nasqueron; Fassin will say only that "it turns out we were all connected, all the time", and that he has gone off with the Beyonders. He gently lets the Head Gardener know that he has long since worked out what the Head Gardener really is, and the two part with the quiet promise that one day they will all be free.
On page: Fassin Taak