Use of Weapons (2)   by Iain M. Banks

My second reading of this, and it's not the book I remember. It's a book basically about the life of a Culture whipping-boy, who gets sent into ridiculous war situations to sway the odds on one side or another, but usually he is double-crossed by the Culture itself and ends up losing anyway (the Culture always swoop in and save his life in the end); the chain of descriptions of a man near death, like after having his head chopped off or being surrounded by vultures with the tendons cut in his legs, does eventually become tedious.