Instruct: Classify an Amazon review as either positive or negative.
Query: A Disappointing Read from an Otherwise Talented Author

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed "Look to Winward" and "Consider Phlebas," I was looking for yet another brilliant "Culture" submission from Banks. Several hundred pages into it I realized that this was not a "Culture" novel per se (granted, I have only myself to blame for that)... Only when I finished the book did I have to admit that this simply pales in comparison to his other works. The premise and characters were so much more simplistic than what I had come to expect from Banks. The characters plod along between adventures, occasionally dying, without contributing much to a theme or overall mood...