Cheradenine Zakalwe is one of Special Circumstances’ most formidable agents, a man who reshapes the destinies of planets through diplomacy, deception, and calculated violence. Recruited from obscurity by Diziet Sma, he has become a master of the Culture’s shadowy interventions—though she still does not truly know the man she commands.
The drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw knows them both. It once saved Sma’s life in a bloody display of machine efficiency, yet it sees Zakalwe as a doomed soul beyond redemption. What neither Sma nor the drone fully understand are the horrors buried deep in his past.
In Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks crafts a brilliant, unsettling tale of power, morality, and memory, where every act of heroism carries a shadow, and every weapon leaves its mark.
