Complicity

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Its two main characters are Cameron Colley, a journalist on a Scottish newspaper called The Caledonian (which resembles The Scotsman), and a serial murderer whose identity is a mystery. The passages dealing with the journalist are written in the first person, and those dealing with the murderer in the second person, so the novel presents, in alternate chapters, an unusual example of an unreliable narrator. The events take place mostly in and around Edinburgh. That can create a sense of immediacy, but almost amnesiac dislocation. We have to discover what we think, see, know and do. And if we don’t identify with the ‘you’ – if we feel implicated rather than attached – we can be pulled out of the story rather than brought deeper into it. It's all set in Edinburgh and a range of other Scottish locations, some real, some fictional, but all the real ones are perfectly described, and it's great to read about places I know well. The story was written in the early nineties and is set at that time, describing real events that went on at the time, and this really brings the book to life.

Banks claimed in an interview that Complicity is "[a] bit like The Wasp Factory except without the happy ending and redeeming air of cheerfulness". [1] His latest book was a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012. Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Still, this controlling aspect of second person can have an advantage. Whereas first-person narrators tell you what they thought and did, second-person narrators tell us what we thought and did. I like it because Iain B. makes you think. He challenges your preconceptions, delights in startling you and gives you a mental workout. I like it because he invents strong, believable characters and puts them in hideous situations with storylines that are unpredictable and challenging. I like it because his dark and difficult books are clever, engaging and enjoyable to read. They put footprints all over your brain. It is about hopes and disappointments, unrequited love, bravery and cowardice. Technically, it’s a quintessentially modern English novel. There are two stories travelling at once. Neither of them is told chronologically – heaven forbid we should start at the beginning and end at the end, too passe. We do indeed have exposed sex, unexpurgated violence and a Thatcherite setting. But as well as this:

I was so intrigued by this book that I bought an original DVD of the movie based on the book. But I admit without shame that I did not watch the movie before re-reading the book for the second time! My body shook, my ears rang, my eyes burned, my throat was raw with the acid-bitter stench of the evaporating crude, but it was as though the very ferocity of the experience unmanned me, unmade me and rendered me incapable of telling it.I also loved how Banks introduced and wove into the story the protagonist's memories and real-time drug use. A motion picture called Complicity (or Retribution in some markets) based on the novel was filmed in 2000. [3] Bibliography [ edit ] I also loved how Banks indulges in concepts like morality, greed & the darker side of human beings. He also explores the socio-economic theories of capitalism & socialism, besides dabbling a bit in political ideologies through discussions among his book's characters. An excellent nervy book, both cool and terrifying at its dark centre where the perfect logic of the protagonist is devoid of pity. Banks's muscular style and gruesome imagination make this a fast-moving thriller not to be missed * Daily Telegraph *

This is only the second Banks novel I've read - I'm late to the party here. A friend of mine recently sent me "The Crow Road" as a gift, and I really enjoyed it, so when I spotted this in a charity shop, I thought I'd give it a go.

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Furthermore, he reflects on his awful experience of witnessing the aftermath of the massacre at the ' Highway of Death' in the Gulf War, and covers the deployment of HMS Vanguard, Britain's first Trident nuclear missile submarine.

The descriptions of all the murders that take place is excellent - you feel as if you are right there watching the killer do it. It's all bloody & gory with a sexual element to it (sometimes), but it's one of the strongest points of the book. There's also a generous amount of sex in it as well, but it doesn't dampen your view of the book even one bit. All Banks’s Culture novels feature Minds, hyperintelligent mirror-surfaced ellipsoids that run starships and other large engineering structures. But in Excession, the Minds become the primary protagonists, as they debate what to do about the titular phenomenon – an inscrutable alien artefact that seems to be older than the universe itself – and about a barbarous competing civilisation that glories in the name “the Affront”. As Minds are persons, they are not obliged to be open and honest with one another or anyone else, and some conspire to allow “gigadeathcrimes” on utilitarian principles, rather like crazed effective altruists. Brutal in the nightmarishness of its gruesome murders and sexual explicitness but never less than a no-holds-barred blitz of a thriller * Daily Mail *No such scene exists in the film. This title and cover seem to be one more chapter in the harsh treatment this film has suffered at the hands of distributors. As for another Banks novel, Espedair Street, meanwhile,...could someone, somewhere, please consider this for movie or a mini series?