Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

Book review: Use of weapons – by Iain M Banks

I’m not entirely convinced I understand this book. Partly because I was a bit intermittent reading it so tended to lose the plot a bit, and partly because of its structure – there are basically two related storylines running forward and backward through the book, so everything keeps flipping around and my poor little head cant keep up. Its nicely written and will probably make a lot more sense after a second read, but right now, I don’t have time for that. As with much of Banks material, nicely written but trying to be a little too clever for my taste.


Categories: Book review, Livejournal, Memories, Source.

/ 4 Comments

4 comments

  1. fluffydave

    You’re right, you need to read it a bit more solidly. Its a bit twisty turney towards the end.

    Player of Games, or Excession are still my faviourites of all his culture novels though.

    Reply
  2. neilhudson

    Actually this was always one of my favourite “Culture” novels, although as often happens with Banks one half is largely irrelevant to the other – the “backwards” story is the real meat of the book, with the “forwards” strand just twiddling its thumbs until the “backwards” one turns up. Which is a shame.

    I have an idea that this was actually a rewritten unpublished novel from before the time of “The Wasp Factory”, which probably doesn’t help.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      Ever read “Cosmic Banditos”? The whole book is a tachyon event, starting at the end and beginning and working its way in towards the key event. It had to be written by an astrophysicist!

      Chip

      Reply
      • neilhudson

        Well hello …

        … which astrophysicist?

        That brings to mind Brian Aldiss’s “Cryptozoic”, where it’s discovered that time actually flows from the future to the past, and the only reason we perceive it otherwise is because we’re all mad.

        Reply

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