Customer Reviews

Against a Dark Background

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy Mr. Banks vision of a future world. His protagonist, Sharrow never really grabbed me as a living, breathing character involved in this quest she sets out on, and it all truly seemed contrived. More cardboard than carnal. I am a big Sci/Fi fan, but this severely unexplained mismash of ideas in the novel's beginning failed to draw me into the universe he envisions and because I fail to believe in his hero, I also fail to care about what happens to her.
With castles and dungeons, and towers aplenty Mr. Banks seems directed more to a Fantasy world than what I would characterize as Sci/Fi.
Although I did like the way Mr. Banks writes; his talent is certainly on display that way, I didn't care much for his quest for a mysterious unexplained weapon. With a much more defined storyline I'm sure I would try Ian Banks again, but not unless I was sure of the novel's direction. Overall I was diappointed having heard so many good reviews of his work.

There are quite a few arguments that Iain Banks is among the top three greatest living authors of the latter part of the last century (and going into the next). He has absolutely no problem writing either straight (but weird) fiction or pure science-fiction but he treats both genres with respect and every work glistens with quality. Those who think that he just slums in the SF genre just to pay the bills in between books are highly mistaken and some of his best work can be found there. This one is I think the only non-Culture SF work (you can make a case for The Bridge but that one's more a Kafka nightmare than anything else) and definitely worth the time. The hallmarks that regular readers already know and love are here, involving plot, finely detailed characters, breakneck action, an offbeat and downbeat attitude and an interesting world that everyone lives in. The deal here is that a cult is looking for the last Lazy Gun (a weapon of mass destruction that has a power that has to be seen to be believed), and Sharrow has to find it before they do. Her family has the last one, but nobody knows where it is and so between dodging people trying to kill her, she has to piece together clues thousands of years old. Not that she's alone in the quest, she gathers a team of close friends to help her and off they go. I do absolutely no justice to the plot in this fashion, this is barely even a basic structure and when you read it you'll see how rich and detailed this book is. The twists are many and almost always surprising, the dialogue is witty and to the point and the situations are nothing short of fascinating. The only small problems is that the book is just a tad too long, some parts of it toward the middle drag just a tad but generally always pick up and the last couple hundred pages fly by all too quickly. Sometimes Banks highlights Sharrow's past as a way of showing us how those events made her into the person she is today but he does to do them without much transition so they can be confusing if you're not used to that. Other than that keep in mind that like most SF authors on the other side of the Atlantic, Banks can be brutal and realistic while dazzling us with his worlds and if Consider Pheblas taught anyone anything, it's that all bets are off as to who makes it to the end intact or at all. Another standout book by an author who doesn't seem to be able to write anything bad if he tried, Banks deserves more credit over here and perhaps one day he will.

This is a fascinating book. Rich in imagination and with a plot that keeps you turning the pages, I have to say it is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books. I'd rank it up there with Hyperion (Simmons), Dune (Herbert) and Ender's Game (Card) --- certainly no slouches there. This is definitely a book that I will re-read periodically throughout my life.

I read this book a a few years back and remember the hunger I had to keep reading. "Against a Dark Background" is a network of characters and ideas the likes of which I have not seen before. It ranks with "Ender's Game". "Snow Crash", and "Neuromancer" in concept and delivery. This tale, and others by Banks, are well worth every second spent finding and reading them.

The back of the book has a quote from a reviewer saying "He warns you up front, this is a dark novel."

Well, compared to Banks' _The Wasp Factory_, this really isn't such a dark novel. I'll quote another reviewer from USENET who said "I can't trust an author who develops characters and kills them." This, however, is also a trait of Banks', and I cant imagine anyone would read this book expecting everyone to escape unscathed from the ominous, looming evil which permeates, quite frankly, every Banks book I've read.

The book tells a story of a woman, who becomes a metaphor for the star system she lives in. Unlike the Culture novels, the "Golter" system is at least a hundred million light years from the nearest star. They are entirely isolated. They have colonized all the planets and moons in their system, but have no hope of ever reaching anyone else. Sharrow is the same way. Alone, even while surrounded by others.

As the system society begins to attack itself, so, too, does Sharrow lose friends. Entire cities are wiped out.

This is not unexpected. You're reading a Banks novel. However, the finish of the book (as other reviewers have hinted, the last 100 pages are worth the rest of the book being somewhat slow and, well, pointless) is quite profound, and ties the rest of the story together in ways I really hadn't anticipated. It actually took me a couple days to reflect on it, and how I felt about the story he had told.

Surprisingly, after a couple days, I realized that what Banks was getting at was the good that actually came out of all the death and destruction in the book. I'll leave the reader to discover that on their own.

I'd highly recommend this to any Banks fan, but perhaps not to a first time Banks reader. Consider _Excession_ instead.

First the positive things: If you like sci-fi with a chaotic dark future setting, you'll like this book. And if you're into RPGing, you'll discover typical situations which Sharrow's 'team' encounters in this sci-fi road movie/novel.
But in the end, the book left me kinda hollow, if not depressed. Almost all the major characters are dead, quite some questions are left open, and if you pay close attention, there are more than a few events/developments which are at best questionable (i.e. if I didnt miss something, Girmeyn cant be older than 15(!) if he really is what Geis claimed him to be).
Of course, Banks had to make his point, how the Lazy Gun and his main character are linked together (I dont wanna tell too much for those ppl who havent read this book yet), but I'm repeating myself - too many deaths dont leave much room to cheer about.

I can't decide if this book should get 3 or 4 stars. It is a good book, no doubt about that, it's just that I can't stand the kind of despair and doom that permeats the book. You shouldn't read it if you have a tendency to become depressed easily. If you do read it, you will keep hoping for a sequel, at least I do!

First he blows you away with a different great idea or two every chapter, then he make you laugh your ass off while his characters make jokes in the face of death, then he ends it all, quickly and concisely.

It did slow down somewhere around three fifths of the way through. He could have dropped about 50 pages, but overall this is a great book. I'm looking forward to more of his stuff.

This is a book that gives me goose bumps every time I think about it. Just like Banks' 'Feersum Endjinn', this is what I would call a 'perfect' book- perfect because I could not wish it to be different in the smallest detail. SF is particulalrly difficult to write well, because one has to work just as hard on the setting and background as the story itself. Many SF authors often sacrifice one for the other, but Banks' has mastery over both.The worlds he creates are logically consistant and is also believably mysterious full of the gaps of knowledge that the narrative viewpoint of a single person would suffer from. It's those little touches that only experienced and gifted writers truly master. Banks is one such author.

The dark atmosphere, the wonderful female lead character(one of the best ever in SF)and a truly haunting plot with 4-d chracters force me to turn the pages of this book over every now and again, either in my mind or between my fingers. If you enjoyed this novel, you should look into the works of the Australian Sci Fi author Greg Egan.

The only thing that I regret about this novel is that like many of Banks' works it is far from well known. Why, I cannot imagine.

When you pick this book up and start poking at it, you don't pay much attention to the title - unless you're already familiar with Mr Banks style.

It's one of those books that becomes hard to put down, because you feel you don't want to miss out on anything. And the undertones are incredibly dark. It's only as you come to the end that you realise it's not just the background...

Excellent book, but the usual Banks verbosity drags in a few spots.