Inversions is a novel by Iain M. Banks set in the universe of The Culture. Banks has said that "Inversions was an attempt to write a Culture novel that wasn't." While citizens of The Culture do appear and have influence in the story, they are never explicily recognized as such.The story occurs in an unnamed planet that resembles Earth's middle ages and is presented as a compilation by an old doctor. The chapters alternate between the account from when he was the young apprentice (and spy) to the royal physician who is the focus of that side of the story, and chapters from an unknown narrator that tell of the bodyguard to Protector UrLeyn, who rebelled against the Evil Empire and now is preparing to fight a rebellion of his own.
The novel provides examples of the following tropes:
- After the End: Very downplayed. Years before the story begins there was a falling of meteorites that killed millions and devastated crops, destroying the empire. However, the land recovered fairly quickly and the conflict is driven more by the political turmoil following the fall of the empire.
- Alien Sky: The planet in the novel has two suns and three moons.
- All Love Is Unrequited: In the doctor's story Vossil falls for the king, who much prefers a Brainless Beauty or a politically advantageous marriage. Oelph falls for her and is also rejected.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted. Perrund is not as young as many of the other concubines and as a result of protecting UrLeyn from an assassination attempt, her left arm is completely atrophied, but she's described as being still very beautiful.
- Best Served Cold: Perrund waited many years to take revenge on those who wronged her, but utterly succeeds.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Turns out to be the case twice in the bodyguard story, it turns out that the assassin is Perrund, but only because UrLeyn was one of the men who raped her and killed her family.
- Bittersweet Ending: To both main characters. Dr Vossil triumphs in the sense that she is able to be a reforming influence on King Quience, even though his plot to assassinate UrLeyn succeeds. But DeWar is the one that has his feelings returned and lives happily ever after.
- Bodyguard Crush: People in court joke that DeWar's loyalty extends to being in love with UrLeyn, and wished he was a woman so he could attend him in the harem too.
- Bowdlerization: Oelph prefers his ending of the bodyguard's story where DeWar slays the treacherous Perrund instead of running away with her.
- Brainless Beauty: King Quience's choice of women. Vossil drops a hint of her affections for him, but he either doesn't notice or pretends not to.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: A veritable institution in Quience's court, Vossil is adamantly against it and in the end succeeds in convincing the king to stop it for good.
- Colony Drop: Given what we know of Special Circumstances, it's implied that the meteorite shower might not have been an accident, as the disaster forced massive changes to society.
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Continuity Lockout: The Culture, its customs, political uses and advantages both biological and technological that its citizens have are never mentioned, so a lot of what Vossil and [DeWar] do and say doesn't make sense unless you've read at least some of the other books in the series. - Deathbed Confession: The killer of Oelph's parents confesses to it while he's suffering from a lingering disease and begging Oelph for a quick death. Given that he's a Parental Substitute, Oelph pretends not to believe him, but gives the Mercy Kill anyway.
- Don't Create a Martyr: This is why Perrund saved UrLeyn's life from an earlier assassination attempt. Under the orders of King Quience, she waits until the post-feudal system he represents is at its lowest ebb.
- First-Person Peripheral Narrator: The doctor side is told in first person by Oelph, the doctor's apprentice.
- Going Native: One of the people from the Culture stays on the planet, marries and has children.
- Good Old Ways: Unlike Vossil, DeWar doesn't relay on Culture technology, using only swords and crossbows.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Vossil's knife missile is disguised as an actual knife that she uses for cutting cheese. It's so old and blunt that no-one would consider it a weapon.
- In Love with the Mark:
- Both the doctor and the bodyguard, implied to be Culture agents, fall in love with one of the locals though only the bodyguard has his feelings returned.
- Oelph falls for Vossil, whom he is spying on.
- A downplayed example when Perrund can't look UrLeyn in the eye when she kills him, despite having spent years planning her revenge.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted, an assassin triumphs and successfully escapes and leads a happy life, but it's a very sympathetic character with understandable motives.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The doctor leaves with several of the conspirators who tried to have her tortured to death remaining unpunished. However, they all die from mysterious diseases soon after.
- Mercy Kill:
- Vossil is called to keep alive a victim of the chief torturer, she administers a potion and the victim quickly dies. She is accused of having killed him, but she denies it and ingests the potion herself to show it's harmless. However, it's implied that it was actually poison, but she used The Culture's people capacity to bypass anything they ingest. When Oelph goes to try some, she quickly stops him.
- Averted when Vossil is called to a patient who is suffering a lingering fatal disease. Vossil notes that her wife is suffering injuries from systematic abuse and tells her that there's nothing she can do for her husband. Oelph's mentor Adlain catches the same disease and so Oelph mercy kills him, despite Adlain confessing that he murdered Oelph's parents and adopted him out of guilt.
- Mugging the Monster:
- Two thugs try to rape Vossil while she's bathing, and end up unconscious with their knife blades mysteriously bent backwards.
- Vossil is framed for murder and handed over to the Torture Technician who has made no secret of his desire to rape her. Her knife missile takes him out so fast she has to convince Oelph that his almost blink was actually a long blackout.
- The Napoleon: Protector UrLeyn is short, but described to have such a presence as to make other feel smaller still. He also gets more aggressive than necessary in his war tactics when disraught about, not to mention he raped Perrund and killed her family.
- Rape and Revenge: During the war of succession, UrLeyn raped Lady Perrund and killed her family when they tried to intervene. Apparently his spies had specifically identified her as a well known local beauty, so this wasn't just some random act of violence. Perrund turns to prostitution to survive, kills a client whereupon she's recruited as a spy and assassin by UrLeyn's enemies.
- Right Hand Versus Left Hand: Although neither side are aware of the others involvement. DeWar is bodyguarding UrLeyn, a Cromwellian figure who is ushering in a nascent democracy. Vossil is the personal doctor of King Quience, who represents the old feudal order. DeWar seeks to keep UrLeyn alive while he forces changes to their society, while Vossil hopes to influence Quience and change society via more peaceful means. Unknown to her, Quience is aiming to have UrLeyn assassinated while also bringing about a return to the feudal system. It works in that UrLeyn dies and his son becomes a king, but Vossil also has an influence on Quience, so he may end up introducing reforms himself.
- Spot the Imposter: The nobles are suspicious of Vossil and try various means to expose her as a spy, such as bringing a native of the country she claims to come from to speak to her in her 'native' language, or having her do a complicated dance from that region. Thanks to Culture Neural Implanting she's able to access all this knowledge anyway.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Oelph faints when Vossil is strapped to a torture chamber table and is about to be raped. He then opens his eyes to find her torturers dead and Vossil is free, claiming that her torturers killed each other fighting over who would be first to rape her. Oelph is not inclined to debate the subject.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Oelph gets sick and gets treated by Vossil, but assures his handler that he did not give away his role as a spy to Vossil during his delirium. It's implied that she drugged and interrogated him during that time.
- Technicolor Eyes: Perrund's eyes are gold with blue flecks, which is not a natural human eye color. Justified, since the story takes place in an alien planet.
- We Used to Be Friends: The kids in the stories told by DeWar, their different views on the way to approach moral conundrums drive them apart, it's implied that the kids are Vossil and DeWar.
- Would Hurt a Child: DeWar suspects that Lattens' worsening condition is due to poison from a spy he turns out to be right, as Latten is being poisoned by Lady Perrund to keep his father away from the front where his tactical genius could turn the battle in his favour.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Guard commander Adlain killed Oelph's parents, but was unable to kill the child.
