I usually find Iain Banks's books an enjoyable read and good entertainment, and Whit is no exception. However, what I noticed for the first time in his books, is the unconvincing description of the main character's inner life. While the Elect of God is well captured, the inner life of the real person with respect to the betrayal is ultimately flat and boring. Banks takes an unnecessary amount of time to describe who does what with whom in what order and with what appear to be the musings of an outsider on our society. So I caught myself just reading the first sentence of several paragraphs in the second half of the book without missing any necessary information that is necessary for understanding either the plot or the ideas conveyed therein. Therefore I award only 2 1/2 stars to this otherwise entertaining read. ( )

A real pleasure - the best Banks novel I've read so far, and quite different from the others in a number of respects. Though still with strong female protagonists, the sex is more on the sidelines and the setting is very different. The first part of the book gives an excellent sensation of what life is like on the inside of a cult, looking out, and Whit's unreliable narrator is very well handled. The book is also full of ideas and there are no attempts to portray anyone as being exclusively right or wrong. We feel sympathy for just about every character in the story at different points. Food plays a strong and sometimes amusing role in the telling of the story, acting as way to convey unconvential cross-cultural situations. ( )

Loved it. Kind of funny, warm, silly, serious... unusual story beautifully held together, no problems with suspension of disbelief. Didn't expect it of Banks, who usually seems rather dire and black. This wasn't. ( )

Banks tries hard to give his heroine a convincing voice but doesn't manage it, and the comic-book eccentricity of every single character is grating by the overdue end. But the book speaks eloquently about cults and religion in general, and there's a good quota of laughs tucked away there, too. ( )

That there is financially and sexually avaricious and insecure masculinity behind a religious cult seems an obvious conclusion, but Banks pushes the debate much wider and allows us to see the damage that is done in any kind of society of group that is closed to the outside world. A call to openness and transparency everywhere. ( )