Getting Into: Iain M. Banks

As promised, part two of my Getting Into Iain Banks has arrived with a big shiny new M. in the title (cue gasps of oooh and aaaahhh). The man himself admits that the additional initial was little more than a marketing tactic devised by his publishers to create a distinction between his science fiction and his "mainstream" work because who wants to buy a nice mainstream book and find its full of yucky spaceships and robots and stuff right? In all seriousness though it turned out to be a very useful way of separating the two different styles (with the exception of "Transition" which is considered Sci-fi in America but mainstream over here in the UK). 

And they are different. Not interested in the near future, speculative fiction of novels like "1984" and "Oryx and Crake" Banks goes way out there with super advanced AI, faster than light travel, alien races and body enhancement technology since the majority of his science fiction is set in a universe dominated by The Culture, a techno-utopia. What's interesting about this setting is that it practically prevents any of the universe threatening scenarios that are more common in this kind of science fiction (see Star Wars) because The Culture is pretty much untouchable and instead focuses on smaller, more personal conflicts, where the stakes aren't so high but ultimately reflect on the moral and philosophical ideologies of the cultures involved.

If science fiction isn't usually your kind of thing I can tell you now that this probably won't change your mind. Banks loves his technology and takes great delight in describing it in detail which is probably going to be a turn off for some people but as I said in my review of "Foucault's Pendulum" a writer who loves their subject is often a writer at their best. That in mind, let's get started.

Dipping Your Toe: The Player of Games

I recently asked the users of bookclubforum.co.uk what they thought a good start point would be (thanks to Athena, Raven and Karsa Orlong for suggestions) and it was unanimous that "The Player of Games" offers the best start point for people new to Banks's work. It's set in The Culture universe but unlike Consider Phlebas it is from the perspective of one of its citizens and as such provides a great deal of insight into the way the society works. Good news for the beginner. It also tells the story of a giant super complicated game tournament with a lot of racial pride on the line and some potentially very serious consequences for those involved. Not only one of Banks's most accessible but one of his best.

Plunging in at the Deep End: Feersum Endjinn

Those looking for a challenge but who would rather not miss out on some of the information on The Culture from previous books should look towards this stand alone novel set in an entirely different and rather dystopian vision of the future. Both conceptually and stylistically it is one of Banks's more ambitious novels as it includes four different first person narratives with varying voices including the use of bizarre spelling which resembles a proto-textspeak for one of the characters. It also features one of my favourite of Banks's ideas, The Crypt: a simulated reality where the memories of the dead are collected and their experiences absorbed and where people can explore in search of answers but at the risk of their sanity.

Drifting a Little Deeper: Use of Weapons

This is my favourite Iain M. Banks novel. A tale of a man trying to run from his past is nothing new to the literary world but the way this novel flits back and forth between time-frames to its inevitable reveal and the way the central character (Zakalwe) is constructed is intensely realised. It also features some clever, if gruesome, set-pieces which show of Banks's impressive imagination but which I'd rather not spoil for you here. All I'll say is go read it. Now!

Into the Depths: Surface Detail (Pun not intended)

Another ambitious novel which manages to create a secular battle between Heaven and Hell through the use of virtual reality. A war is raging in the virtual world over whether deliberately made Hells should exist as a potential punishment for sinners when they die. Couple that with several diverging plot threads and some very interesting visual representations of the nature of inherited debt and you've got the recipe for a classic of the genre. That said there are a several references to previous works, including one right at the end which would be a shame to miss because you haven't read the rest. Best wait till you have a good grasp of The Culture and its previous adventures before tackling this one.

Ones to Avoid:

Against a Dark Background is the only real dud in the science fiction category of Banks's work for me. This is possibly due to the really obvious twist which tries a fake out towards the end but ultimately fails leaving a faintly unpleasant taste on the tongue. Some of the visual imagery is pretty cool though so it's not a total loss. Excession and Consider Phlebas both tend to split readers so I won't try and persuade either way on those two but Excession certainly is a bad introduction to the world of The Culture because it assumes a lot of knowledge about the AI Minds.

Getting into: Iain Banks

So folks it has reached that time where I must discuss a burning obsession of mine. He is a writer who for some reason I find endlessly entertaining, who creates characters I care about and genuinely makes me laugh out loud in places despite some of his work being amongst the darkest in terms of subject matter I've ever read. The problem with this is that attempting to do an objective review of any of his works would probably be a pointless exercise for me. I wouldn't want to rate anything he's ever done low because there is something about the themes he chooses and the style he employs which just click with me and I couldn't promise anybody that they would necessarily feel the same way. So instead I'm writing a "Getting into" article, designed to give people looking to check out his work a route to take in order to get straight to the best stuff. 

Note: I am only covering his works as Iain Banks this time. I will almost certainly be doing his Sci-fi under Iain M. Banks in another post.

Dipping Your Toe: The Crow Road

This is probably one of the most accessible of Banks's novels in that it follows a more "normal" and realistic story about Prentice McHoan, a man returning to his ancestral home for a funeral. It includes a colourful array of characters, some hilarious scenes and a good amount of mystery as Prentice digs around into the family's past and uncovers a few uncomfortable truths. The style, the plot and the way it is all told are all fairly typical of Banks without exposing you to anything too weird or violent. Also it features this as an opening line: "It was the day my grandmother exploded." If that doesn't convince you to try it then nothing will.

Plunging in at the Deep End: The Wasp Factory

This one is fairly notorious for producing extreme reactions in people but if you want to really see Banks at his best then this is probably the place to start. Telling the tale of a young boy with some serious psychological issues this book is rammed with violence, sadism, dark comedy and a couple of very uncomfortable scenes but it is never done without a purpose. This is not the literary equivalent of a splatter movie where the gore is the central focus. Instead it is a precision strike aimed directly at certain contemporary values and has something very serious to say. The premise is genius, the first person narration convincing and the ending incredibly satisfying. Not for the squeamish!

Drifting a Little Deeper: Complicity

This is novel is a little tougher than most of Banks's work. The critical reaction wasn't quite as extreme as it was to The Wasp Factory but by then violence was expected of Banks. In many ways this is an even more uncomfortable read as it explores the complicity of its characters, and of society in general, by using second person narrative to describe a serious of particularly brutal murders. It's a clever trick which works very well but would still mean nothing if the rest of the novel wasn't so well constructed. A murder mystery with something more to it than simply working out who the bad guy is.

Into the Depths: The Bridge

This is probably Banks's most complex novel. It is about a man in a coma existing in a kind of strange mechanised fantasy world known only as The Bridge but this is not all. There are further levels to this fantasy world, dreams within a dream where he experiences life as a barbarian swordsman as well as experiencing vague memories of his pre-coma life. The book is multi-layered and saturated in symbolism, stylistic experimentation, oblique references and generic blending making for a potentially confusing read if you aren't paying attention but if you're willing to put in the time the depth involved makes it a very rewarding experience. I've read it twice already and will be returning to it again and again in the future I'm sure.

Ones to avoid:

I'm hesitant to class any of Banks's novels as bad but there are a few which don't serve as a very good introduction to his work. Walking on Glass is an experimental novel which Banks himself feels he didn't quite pull off so it's really more for established fans. Canal Dreams and The Business are also weaker efforts which don't quite live up to the rest of Banks's bibliography.