Transition: New Iain Banks novel

[camouflage]

A world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse, such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organisation with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers? On the Concern's books are Temudjin Oh, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice; and a nameless, faceless torturer known only as the Philosopher. And then there's the renegade Mrs Mulverhill, who recruits rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, hiding out from a dirty past in a forgotten hospital ward. As these vivid, strange and sensuous worlds circle and collide, the implications of turning traitor to the Concern become horribly apparent, and an unstable universe is set on a dizzying course

 

[camouflage]

Mad-eyed stare of rictus-grinned True Beleiver, intent on new converts to feed The Sect.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

What was his last really decent non-M book?

 

[Santino]

A sinister world-controlling organisation. There's an original conceit for a Banks novel.

 

[camouflage]

What was his last really decent non-M book?

Yes but... this one looks interesting!

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

It does sound good I have to say!

 

[Santino]

It sounds shit. Maybe it won't be, but I am unconvinced by the blurb.

 

[fogbat]

This sounds interesting.

Like Iain Banks and Iain M Banks had sex and created a horrible, bearded baby. Born with a pen in its claw.

 

[camouflage]

This sounds interesting.

Like Iain Banks and Iain M Banks had sex and created a horrible, bearded baby. Born with a pen in its claw.

Indeed, precisely that.

 

[Crispy]

there hasn't been a good non-M banks book since The Crow Road or maybe Whit

 

[zora]

Gergl loved it.

[/show off about access to advance copy ]

 

[DotCommunist]

sounds interesting. Like the Business with teeth

 

[SpookyFrank]

sounds interesting. Like the Business with teeth

The Business is gash. The worst book of his I've read.

 

[gsv]

Sounds like a comic. A bit like Planetary meets Global Frequency maybe.

GS(v)

 

[Fruitloop]

I liked The Bridge, Complicity and A Song of Stone. Haven't read The Business.

 

[Idris2002]

there hasn't been a good non-M banks book since The Crow Road or maybe Whit

The Crow Road was the last good non-M book; with the Algebraist it looked like M might be returning to form, but that was disproven with matter.

He only writes for three months of the year and then parties for the remaining nine months, IIRC. That's where the lapses in quality control come in, I suspect.

 

[DotCommunist]

The Business is gash. The worst book of his I've read.

I enjoyed it, but I thought it lacked drive and on a re-read a decided the ending was a bit shit.

 

[Orang Utan]

What was his last really decent non-M book?

walking on glass

 

[Orang Utan]

The Business is gash. The worst book of his I've read.

no, the worst is dead air

 

[tar1984]

no, the worst is dead air

I liked that. But I read Complicity recently and that was much better. I've just started on The Bridge but im not too sure about all this fantasy world stuff.

I think the new one sounds good.

 

[Orang Utan]

why does everyone rate complicity? it's cack!

 

[camouflage]

why does everyone rate complicity? it's cack!

I read somehwere that Banks hated Complicity as well, wrote it in a whiskey-soaked rage at Thatcher... or was it Canal Dreams he hated, not sure now.

I liked Canal Dreams, and Song of Stone (dark), The Bridge, and Walking on Glass. The others I read as a kind of duty (except Wasp Factory, that was the discovery read), but I've so far refused to read that one about the board-game. It's the samey characters, you see them coming from a mile-off in the synopsis, and afterawhile you just want to punch them in the face alot.

Also there should be no sarcy robots in Transition either.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

He only writes for three months of the year and then parties for the remaining nine months, IIRC. That's where the lapses in quality control come in, I suspect.

I believe he said once that he writes because "it beats getting a day job."