From: dmf@aber.ac.uk (Darren Michael Forbes)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Iain Banks
Summary: "I luv the ded."
Date: 30 Jul 92 17:32:21 GMT
Organization: University of Wales, Aberystwyth

In article <1b67c4cd.ARN2209@prolix.pub.uu.oz.au> munnari!labtam!eyrie!prolix!dac writes:
>After reading Banks' three excellent books _Consider Phlebas_,
>_Use of Weapons_, _Player of Games_, I was overcome with the urge
>to buy anything with 'Iain Banks' on the cover.
>
>So I purchased _The Wasp Factory_, which was his first published
>novel.
>
>This is one sick book.  I think I secretly desire to like it,
>although I am quite nauseated by the level of detail that Banks'
>main character goes into, when killing, maiming, whatevering his
>``opponents.''
>
>Not SF, not at all, but if you liked the twisted humour of his
>Culture books, I think you'll like _The Wasp Factory_.
>
>
>Your mileage may vary.
>
>Dac
>--

_The Wasp Factory_ caused quite a split between book reviewers here in
the UK with roughy half calling it a sick and twisted work of depravity
and the other half thinking it was good to excellent.  In the UK edition
several review extracts were given at the front of the book; good and
bad.
   His second book _Walking On Glass_ was received much better and
many of the reviewers who thought that Bank's had no writing ability
outside of horror reversed their oppinions.
   _The Wasp Factory_ is fairly horrific, it is also very funny if
you like black (as tar) humour.  I thought it was an excellent book but
you should avoid it if you love rabbits (or just about any animal I
suppose).

   Some quick notes on the other books:

   _Walking On Glass_ : Three inter-woven stories; one of a day in the
life of a paranoid, one about a man in love going to see his lover and
the third about two people trapped in a strange castle playing
impossible games.  Shades of SF in the third story.

   _The Bridge_ : "Kafkaesque" (What a horrible word).  A man trapped in
his own dream of an endless bridge.  What is reality and what isn't?  The
sections with the Scotish Barbarian are very funny.  Possibly his best.

   _Espidaire Street_ : Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll.  The story of
a bass gutarist and his group.  Regret, loss, humour and possible
redemption.  I can't remember how to spell the title correctly.
This is the simplest of the books.

   _Canal Dreams_ : It's near the turn of the century and there's
trouble in Panama.  Revolution and counter-revolution are waged in
the distance while ships are trapped in the Panama Canal.  We are
told the life story of a Japanese Cello player and how she came to
be here.  Quiet and slow with a fairly horrific last third.

   _The Crow Road_ : Another Scottish tale, this time spanning a couple
of generations.  Mysteries, love, God and a mention of NewsNet, perhaps
Bank's has access?  Did you know that, in the Dewey Decimal catalogue
system, glass manufacture comes under 666?


   I think that all of the books listed above are excellent but
some of them are not for the easily disturbed, when Bank's turns nasty
he turns _really_ nasty.

   Please excuse the spelling, I'm in a hurry to get home from work.

-- 
Darren Forbes  | "Wooden mice know what's nice;    |
dmf@uk.ac.aber |  sawdust cheese and maple spice." | 
dmf@aber.ac.uk |           - The Bones Of The Moon |