Iain M. Banks (1954–2013)

This is book seven of Iain M. Banks Culture Series published in 2000. It’s a simple plot told in the ever-expanding Culture Universe. I’m really torn on this novel, it started slow and seemed to lack a strong story, but it’s also one of his stronger themed tales and the story picked up pace and my interest in the final third.
Mahrai Ziller, a Chelgrian composer has left his home world for the safety and comfort of Culture. He is adored, almost worshiped by the Culture and has been tasked with writing a commemorative work to honor the memory of a horrific battle from the Culture/Idiran war.
Quilan, a Chelgrian fighter, nearly lost his life in a one-sided battle. He survived but found he lost the love of his life in that same battle. Chelgrian High Command decide he’s the perfect candidate to convince composer Ziller to return to Chelgian’s home world – Chel.
Early on, we learn (over and over again) that Ziller stubbornly refuses to meet with any of his Chelgrian comrades and especially not Quilan – who he fears might have been secretly sent to assassinate him. For my tastes, the plot really drags in the first half of the book, except for a fascinating side-quest following ancient, dirigible behemoths (that I imagined as some type of Kaiju) on a bizarre alien planet. There’s also a fun digression on ship names (a running Culture series gag) that displays Bank’s cleverness.
So, I enjoyed the final third of the book, it was exciting and intriguing. I appreciated the exploration of the theme. War is messy, uncertain, and leaves behind a trail of both physical and psychological trauma. The Culture, with all its brilliance and morals, is not immune from this. I also enjoyed the Culture world building, getting more insight on things like Orbitals and Hub minds.
However, the first two thirds of the book were slow, it’s a long build-up to an average plot. Ziller is a great character, but the rest are flat. And I despised the final ending. It seemed to make all the build-up and stakes nearly meaningless. Unfortunately, I can’t say more without major spoilers.
Four stars for this tale of echoes of long past galactic war. A slow starting space opera with a worthy theme of the damage of war to society and to survivors.… (more)

The Wasp Factory is Iain Banks' first published novel, and is a doozy. I read it half a dozen years ago for the first time, and was stunned and enthralled. Knowing what was going to happen this time dulled the sparkle a little, but I remain convinced that it's an important book, and has had much influence upon psychological fiction/horror.

Frank is a 17-year old, rabidly insane, a young man who killed three children before he was ten years old. He dismisses this crimes as a stage he was going through. Frank and his none-too-normal father live on a tidal island in Scotland that looks out on the North Sea. I think one of the more interesting things about the novel is that Frank's birth was never registered. He doesn't exist. His father has taken great pains to keep the authorities from discovering his non-personhood. I think the whole idea of Frank not existing in the law's eyes is a way of drawing attention to the little heed that is paid Frank's crimes, his drunken escapades, and most of all, his big brother, who has just escaped from a mental institution.

I have no way of describing how troubled this book has made me, or how much I worry about authors who can write about madness with this sort of conviction. It's a novel I recommend, but which I do with warnings that there is gory violence, madness, shamanistic ritual which may offend some readers, and some devastating truths ferreted out by the end of the novel. It is certainly a book that no reader will ever forget, for good or ill.… (more)

Disturbing, genial novel narrated by the most unpleasant narrator character ever created, after Humbert Humbert and the guy in American Psycho. I was looking, in my deep ignorance, for some brain chewingum. I was given brain food, hard and chewy, but definitely nutritious, and divinely tasty.
Years after reading it, I still don't know what to do of this story. The plot, if I were to summarise it, would sound so improbable to become ridiculous. Yet, the psychology behind it is so punctual and realistic that, by the end of the novel, all seems perfectly fitting. Fitting by the point of view of a psychotic, murderous teenager whose last problem is the habit of torturing wasps. In the end of the day, he just does it in search of spiritual answers to the nonsensical world around him. You could not say better of the habits of most religious leaders.
A novel of devious survival to a horrible childhood. Coming of age, yes. Into what?… (more)