Banks and Iain M. Banks your best of them...
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
much of a muchness. It's very much formulaic Banks space opera unfortuntly, which is still a good read. But there was no zing for me.
Idris2002
Stay Alive in '25
I don't remember a DJ in Espedair Street. . .
And I was never able to finish Feersum Endjin. But I was surprised by how good The Algebraist was, given the decline in quality of his 'proper' novels.
But the best thing he ever wrote, with or without the M, has to be Use of Weapons. Followed by The Bridge, which is halfway to being sci-fi/fantasy anyway.
Yay!
Why does everyone love the Wasp Factory so much? I remember reading it and thinking "This is just trying to be weird for the sake of it" and couldn't get through it. Then about a year later someone recommended Complicity to me. I was put off because of Wasp Factory, but gave it a go, and loved it.
That said, I was only about 17 at the time...
That said, I was only about 17 at the time...
Maybe I should read it again...
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Ha, great idea. I couldn't wade through all that crap.I have an ebook version of feersum enjin that has all of bascule's parts transliterated into correct spelling. Makes it much easier to read
with the 'M' - Player Of Games, Use of Weapons and Feersum Endjinn
without - Espedair Street and Crow Road.
special mention for Walking on Glass. at the time I read it, the story with the biker made me dizzy/sick coz of a particular thread in my own life.
still can't bring myself to re-read it now, seventeen years later...
without - Espedair Street and Crow Road.
special mention for Walking on Glass. at the time I read it, the story with the biker made me dizzy/sick coz of a particular thread in my own life.
still can't bring myself to re-read it now, seventeen years later...
Spandex
A crazy bulbous punchbag of sound
With:
Player of Games - great story, well told
Look to Windward - cos the plot is almost secondary to just hanging out in the Culture for a bit. [whinge=]I wanna live in the Culture[/whinge]
Excession - cos the ships are cool
Consider Phlebas - I liked, but felt it rambled a bit, as if he sat down to write it full of ideas but didn't really know where the plot was going to take him until he got there.
Use of Weapons - good, but I read it after a binge of his books and I was getting Ian M Banks fatigue by then.
Inversions - is that the one with the weird structure? With the alternating chapters telling the two different bits of the story until the came together at the end? That irritated me a bit.
Feersum Endjinn - I know I've read it, but I can't remember anything about it. That's not much of a recommendation is it?
Without:
I've only read the Wasp Factory, and while I liked it, it didn't inspire me to read any of his other books.
Player of Games - great story, well told
Look to Windward - cos the plot is almost secondary to just hanging out in the Culture for a bit. [whinge=]I wanna live in the Culture[/whinge]
Excession - cos the ships are cool
Consider Phlebas - I liked, but felt it rambled a bit, as if he sat down to write it full of ideas but didn't really know where the plot was going to take him until he got there.
Use of Weapons - good, but I read it after a binge of his books and I was getting Ian M Banks fatigue by then.
Inversions - is that the one with the weird structure? With the alternating chapters telling the two different bits of the story until the came together at the end? That irritated me a bit.
Feersum Endjinn - I know I've read it, but I can't remember anything about it. That's not much of a recommendation is it?
Without:
I've only read the Wasp Factory, and while I liked it, it didn't inspire me to read any of his other books.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Wasp Factory, Walking On Glass, Crow Road, Espedair Street, The Bridge of the non-M ones. The others are all irredeemably shit, the last two being the worst.
Haven't read many of his M works, but Use Of Weapons, Consider Phlebas and Player Of Games were all fun.
Haven't read many of his M works, but Use Of Weapons, Consider Phlebas and Player Of Games were all fun.
Grub str. hack
New Member
Theres been several posts about the wasp factory. I cant be bothered to quote them all. Personally I love the book, but you definately have to read it till the end before passing judgement. This of course is true of any book.
But I actually met a girl once who gave up reading it thirty pages before the end cause she thought it was grossly sexist, chavanistic, mysodgynist etc. Those of you who did finish the job will know how absolutley wrong she was.
But I actually met a girl once who gave up reading it thirty pages before the end cause she thought it was grossly sexist, chavanistic, mysodgynist etc. Those of you who did finish the job will know how absolutley wrong she was.
Cloo
Banana for scale
Gotta be Excession for me... it features lots of vessels and I just love Iain M's mentalist spacecraft. 
I'm stupid and don't understand the end, but I don't care.
Haven't read as many non-M, but I liked The Wasp Factory and the one with the woman leading an army unit, was it The Castle?
One thing I really appreciate about the guy, in both genres, is that he writes women really well, in a way not many other male authors can match.
I'm stupid and don't understand the end, but I don't care.Haven't read as many non-M, but I liked The Wasp Factory and the one with the woman leading an army unit, was it The Castle?
One thing I really appreciate about the guy, in both genres, is that he writes women really well, in a way not many other male authors can match.
Mr Retro
Beware hedgehogs
His last non sci-fi was fucking awful. Road to fuckin nowhere or whatever it was called.
I like all his sci-fi stuff. Wish he was better at ending his books though. He develops great threads and ideas in his stories but never develops them to conclusion. It leaves you feeling like somebody at a party who on thinking he's being led to the drinks is instead shuffled out the front door and has it closed quietly behind him with an apologetic shrug.
I like all his sci-fi stuff. Wish he was better at ending his books though. He develops great threads and ideas in his stories but never develops them to conclusion. It leaves you feeling like somebody at a party who on thinking he's being led to the drinks is instead shuffled out the front door and has it closed quietly behind him with an apologetic shrug.
It wasn't that bad, it was just a lazy re-write of The Crow Road. I quite enjoyed it anyway.
I'll agree with most on this thread that The Wasp Factory, Complicity and The Crow Road were the best.
Of the M books I eventually ploughed through Consider Phlebas, if some people think that's the best then I won't bother even starting any of the others.
Has anyone ever written a decent SF novel?
I generally like the idea of scifi, but find a lot of scifi fiction boring, because most scifi people don't know what makes good fiction. It's all so drab.
That said, Banks's scifi does touch what I think scifi ought to be like, at times.
You can read mine, if you like. It's a detective/noir type story set in scifi setting. PM me if you'd like to have a butchers.
First M I read was Excession.
I have to say that I still think that's one of the best, though I have really enjoyed re-reading Player of Games again.
Excession does it for me because of the very amusing exchanges between the ships' Minds, and some really good space opera. Generally, apart from that, what I enjoy about the sci-fi is the small-scale human mind stuff.
Non-M - I've not read much: Espedair Street, Dead Air (didn't finish it) and The Bridge.
Without a doubt, The Bridge was the one for me.
I'm intrigued by Matter, the latest M. It sounds hideously complex, but fascinating.
I have to say that I still think that's one of the best, though I have really enjoyed re-reading Player of Games again.
Excession does it for me because of the very amusing exchanges between the ships' Minds, and some really good space opera. Generally, apart from that, what I enjoy about the sci-fi is the small-scale human mind stuff.
Non-M - I've not read much: Espedair Street, Dead Air (didn't finish it) and The Bridge.
Without a doubt, The Bridge was the one for me.
I'm intrigued by Matter, the latest M. It sounds hideously complex, but fascinating.
Frighteningly, frighteningly dark. Some great scenes, but...bloody hell.
PursuedByBears
Go stick your head in a pig
Consider Phlebas is great space opera hokum! I love that it's an intro to the Culture from the pov of someone who hates the Culture and all it stands for.
Use of Weapons is also v good.
Non "M" - Wasp Factory, Complicity, Crow Road.
I don't know what I think about Song of Stone. I hated it when I read it but it's stayed in my head and I keep thinking I should re-read it.
ETA I really don't get the love for Excession??? Hated hated hated it
Use of Weapons is also v good.
Non "M" - Wasp Factory, Complicity, Crow Road.
I don't know what I think about Song of Stone. I hated it when I read it but it's stayed in my head and I keep thinking I should re-read it.
ETA I really don't get the love for Excession??? Hated hated hated it
I have an ebook version of feersum enjin that has all of bascule's parts transliterated into correct spelling. Makes it much easier to read
Bah, I loved Feersumm Enjin - actually, I have a signed copy, too. Very creative, I really enjoyed the whole mega-architecture thing.
But the idea of transliterating Bascule's stuff into "correct" spelling...
Yeah, I agree. Surely there's no reason why SF is so shit.
That's why I was so disappointed by Iain M as I like his uninitialed stuff.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
if you mean one that snobby intellectual lit snobby snobs actually like?
well Ursula Le Guin and Magaret Atwood please that crowd yes
mentalchik
"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit."
The Use of Weapons is probably his finest I reckon and would've been a good one to start with.
The chairmaker. *shudder*
You don't have to like science fiction. Maybe it's not for you. PK Dick and Kurt Vonnegut are my favourites. The Time Machine and Gullivers Travels are popular classics too.
I think that one of the big things about Banks' sci-fi is that, although it often incorporates space opera, it's not solely about space opera: usually there are much more relevant people-sized issues going on. I know that's true for much sci-fi, but my experience is that Banks manages to get the balance between the "cor, wow" and the pholosophical stuff that many others don't. And a book full mostly of "cor, wow" gets pretty tedious quite fast...
