This was the second of Banks' novels that I read, with the first being "Consider Phleblas" which I thoroughly enjoyed. That said I came to this book with high hopes, and for the most part they were thoroughly fulfilled.

I was hooked from the first six pages by the rather horrifying and gripping prologue and from then on the book never lost my attention. It's the story of Sharrow, a rather whimsical woman who was the leader of an 8-man squad back in the much alluded to but never explained war. After the war ended she made her way with what was left of her squad, until several years later when they all went separate ways. Now she is hunted and tries to reuntie her squad to help her find the last "Lazy Gun", which she can exchange for her life. The Lazy Gun's being 8 intensely powerful weapons that for one reason or another had disappeared over the millenia until only one remained.

The story is told in the present, though there are flashbacks throughout the book which help to show the characters in another light, before the horrors that they faced at the end of the war. Overall I enjoyed this book, though I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, but that was only a slight niggle with what was a solid read. ( )

"Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilisation based around the planet Golter. Now she is hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes that she is the last obstacle before the faith's apotheosis, and her only hope of escape is to find the last of the apocalyptically powerful Lazy Guns before the Huhsz find her. Her journey through the exotic Golterian system is a destructive and savage odyssey into her past, and that of her family and of the system itself. "

This is the first of Iain Bank's sci fi's that I've read, and I've got to come straight out and say it was Bloody Brilliant :) Definitely makes me want to read more of his, and I'm excited to have found a sci fi writer I enjoy.

Having read one of his 'normal' fictions first, and not getting on well with it, I didn't have high hopes for this at all, but I found it completely unputdownable. I'm a huge fan of sci fi when it comes to TV and film, but up until now I've not found an actual author I've really liked in the genre. Thinking about it more carefully, there's one legendary exception to that statement, and that's "Ender's Game", which still rates up in my top 5 Best Books Ever.

As ever, I digress! back to AADB. It's set within a single solar system, completely isolated from the rest of the universe. It's a fascinating world, pretty dark as the title suggests, but there's also humour and love to be found amongst the harshness of the religious persecution faced by the heroine and her friends. The concept of the 'lazy gun' is both fascinating and terrifying, and for all the alienation felt from reading the antics of characters in a world so far removed from our own, there remain enough recognisable elements to keep the tale both relevant and indeed a little frightening to the earth-bound reader.

I'm not sure yet about working out a proper rating system for here, but for now I'll give this a "Damn Good Read". ( )

"Against a Dark Background" is the first of Iain M. Banks' novels I've read that is not set in the "Culture" universe. If nothing else, he easily demonstrates that he doesn't need to fall back on the established conventions from those novels to spin a good yarn. This is a book with invention and narrative detail to burn. Ideas that would have been the central premise of a science fiction novel written in the 1950s are tossed around like confetti.

As the title suggests, this is a darker work than "Player of Games" or "State of the Art" (I'd say it's on par with "Use of Weapons"). Sharrow, the central character is haunted and hunted by her past, and pursues her destiny as everything and everyone she loves is methodically stripped from her. In this sense, it is a punishing novel, establishing a raft of characters at length only to make their absence that much more painful.

The culture in which she and her team travel is space-faring and has progressed to peaks of scientific achievement and then descended into relative savagery. The star system in which the story is set has been shaped by conflict bred of isolation, similar to "The Mote in God's Eye". There is advanced science left over from earlier ages, which includes the "Lazy Gun", the MacGuffin for this particular journey. The "Lazy Gun" is a weapon that is almost cartoonish in its effects, I'm surprised the author stopped short of having it drop anvils on its victims. This makes a nice change from the usual doomsday device, all deus and machina, with very little humor.

I finally found a copy of "Trillion Year Spree", the sweeping history of Science Fiction by Brian Aldiss, and even in the first few pages, it's provided some relevant insights regarding gothic novels as the forerunners of Science Fiction novels:

"Other planets make ideal settings for brooding landscapes, isolated castles, dismal towns, and mysterious alien figures; often, indeed, the villians may be monks, exploiting a local population under the guise of religion."
-- "Trillion Year Spree" by Brian Aldiss (with David Wingrove)

This is indeed a gothic novel, full of moody environs, steeped in protracted mysteries and eventual revelations. On that level, it's straightforward enough, and in fact just a little disappointingly so. Where the novel really shines are in the details, the set pieces established along the way. Parts of the novel, such as the boat heist, the android city, and the train heist are compelling and enjoyable. The overarching plot is just the excuse the author gives himself to progress from set piece to set piece. I would urge anyone who enjoys compelling ideas and descriptive detail to just enjoy the individual squares in the quilt, and not to think too much about the overall design. ( )

http://yet.org/2008/06/la_plage_de_ve... ( )

http://sfreader.com/Home/BookReview/t... ( )