Against A Dark Background: Iain M. Banks

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Certainly, there is far more death and destruction than seems necessary, but hey: more than one person is alive at the end, which seems positively upbeat from Mr. Lots of interesting questions left hanging: did Geis' death really plunge the system into war, or did it happen anyway?

Also like that first Culture novel, Dark Background's plot comprises a series of high-stake heists and covert missions. Change country: -Select- Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Republic Gambia Georgia Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Reunion Romania Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Swaziland Sweden Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. Against a Dark Background is an early science fiction work by Banks first published in 1993, but not part of the Culture series. It had the potential to do so throughout, but the regular-as-clockwork flashbacks to Sharrow's earlier years dealt repeated kicks to the head of the narrative drive that the story was building up. Though I am not fond of flashbacks, in this book they do a nice job describing Sharrow's past, who herself is a competent protagonist with a fair amount of initiative and plenty of problematic character traits.Banks isn't writing a cheesy adventure story; he's not creating a science fiction galaxy for entertainment purposes; he's not playing around at all. I liked this one, but it had the most frustrating ending of all his books, and I’ve never been a big fan of any of his endings.

Smart Gun: The Lazy Gun that drives the plot is self-aware, apparently communicates with Sharrow through her dreams, and has a capricious sense of humour.A kind of glow spread through Feril's consciousness as it contemplated the value of the gift this woman had brought it, just by telling the story of that doomed journey to the fjord, the tower, the Keep and the House. His Culture novels, and indeed, his other SF books, take the same dizzying scales and ideas but the writing is so much better. The woman who had been the lady Sharrow was dressed in old-fashioned but finely-made clothes, and she looked well, if rather older than Feril would have expected, remembering her from her first visit to Vembyr, two years earlier. For me Golter made a lovely counterpoint to the Culture, and could be an example of how Culture manipulation of this kind of 'primitive' system might have gone horribly wrong.

True Companions: Sharrow gets the band back together to track down the Lazy Gun and get the Huhsz off her family's back once and for all. p>Sign up to the Little, Brown newsletter for news of upcoming publications, competitions and updates from our authors. The Man Behind the Man: Sharrow and her friends journey across the face of Golter and beyond, only to find the true puppetmaster behind all their troubles is none other than Sharrow's cousin Geis. Jacket has a 2mm rub to the top fore-edge corner, else very glossy and unmarked, overall a near fine book. He related his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Banks makes up worlds, concepts, laws, forms of life, cultures and societies, he gives them all names and it all seems so natural.

She stood, taking up a shoulder-bag from the seat and smoothing her skirt as the car rumbled into the concrete space of the ancient building. Banks fires off hundreds of great ideas, sometimes needing only sentences to convincingly illustrate concepts that lesser authors would need entire novellas to explore. Inspired by Brad's recent review of Night of the Living Trekkies, I'm going to present this one in checklist form. Sign up to the Little, Brown newsletter for news of upcoming publications, competitions and updates from our authors.

Its been a few years since I read it (the detail is all gone, apart from "Dont point the Lazy Gun at the Sun and pull the trigger") but I do remember it being a great road trip/heist/war movie, brilliant travelogue in this wonderfully twisted and baroque civilisation (and its distressingly high radiation levels) but the ending kinda slumped.