Use of Weapons
Chapters - Iain M. Banks
Section: 'Slight Mechanical Destruction'
Prologue
Part: The Good Soldier
Chapter 1: One
The forward timeline, chapter one. Zakalwe on a new mission, his methods and his competence both visible from the first pages. The forward strand is about who he is now; the backward strand will reveal how he became it.
Chapter ?: XIII
The backward timeline begins: XIII, the earliest chronological chapter. A young man in a war that formed him, before the Culture, before Special Circumstances, before he had a name that was entirely his own.
Chapter 2: Two
Forward: Zakalwe manipulates a political situation with the particular ruthlessness of someone who has learned to think of people as pieces. The Culture watches and uses him and finds the relationship uncomplicated.
Chapter ?: XII
Backward: XII. The war continues and Zakalwe's capabilities and his capacity for violence are both shown in their original context, before they were refined into a tool.
Chapter 3: Three
Forward: a mission goes sideways in ways that cost Zakalwe something he did not expect to lose. The forward chapters are about a man who has already paid all his prices; this one reminds him there are still more.
Chapter ?: XI
Backward: XI. The young Zakalwe and his family, before everything. The backward chapters are building toward something specific, and these early ones plant the details that will matter at the end.
Chapter 4: Four
Forward: Zakalwe in between missions, adrift in the Culture's luxury and finding it as uncongenial as he always does. His relationship with Sma is shown in its full ambivalence: gratitude, resentment, dependency.
Chapter ?: X
Backward: X. The war's middle period, and the beginning of Zakalwe's particular legend. The things he does here are the things the Culture recruited him for; the cost of doing them is not something the Culture tallies.
Chapter 5: Five
Forward: a mission in which Zakalwe must protect someone he would rather not protect. His professionalism holds, as it always does, and the chapter uses that to make a point about what professionalism costs.
Part: An Outing
An interlude chapter showing Sma at home in the Culture, her own relationship to the work she does with Zakalwe examined in the space between his missions.
Chapter ?: IX
Backward: IX. The war's end approaches and Zakalwe's position within it becomes increasingly complicated. The backward strand is converging on a specific event.
Chapter 6: Six
Forward: the current mission reaches its crisis point. Zakalwe improvises in the way that makes him valuable and the way that makes him dangerous, and the two are not always distinguishable.
Chapter ?: VIII
Backward: VIII. The chair. The novel's most disturbing image is introduced here, years before the reader understands what it means. It will not be explained until the final pages.
Chapter 7: Seven
Forward: Zakalwe succeeds at the mission's objective and the cost of success is rendered with the novel's characteristic refusal to make violence narratively satisfying.
Chapter ?: VII
Backward: VII. More of the war, more of the young man who will become Zakalwe. The pieces are in place; the backward timeline is almost at its destination.
Chapter 8: Eight
Chapter ?: VI
Backward: VI. The last chapter before the event. The backward timeline has been building to a specific moment of violence and betrayal and it is almost here.