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Feb. 18th, 2003 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
addersljFor those who care...
...I completed the Demon assignment last night. It took me until 1.15am, mind, but it's done. I think some of the latter sections I wrote are really quite good.
Book Watch
In an idea utterly and shamelessly stolen from the wise![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bruceb and lovely ladyjestyr (or should that be the other way round?), I hereby commence my 2003 reading log.
Dead Air, by Iain Banks
It's been a little while since I read anything written by Mr Banks (and no, I have never read any of his sci-fi novels), a dry spell broken by an impulse buy in the WHSmiths at Exeter St Davids station. The key metaphor in this book seems to be survival through disintegration, as Banks takes his protagonist, a London radio Shock Jock (the Jock is a pun), and throws his life in disarray through a series of change meetings in the aftermath of September 11th. It's a sharp, witty and surprisingly moving read in places. The plot twists are less dramatic than in his earlier books and are more deeply and subtly integrated into the characters, which is a sign of his growing power and maturity as a writer. The ideas expressed are interesting and challenge many of your preconceptions.
That's not why I like it.
I like this book because it's achingly funny in place and because it's set largely around where I work in Soho. I've never read a novel that is so closely matched to the landscape of my own life. I've started around eight books this year, and this is the first one I've finished. That should tell you much about my appreciation of this fine work. Well worth the extra few quid to buy it in hardback.
...I completed the Demon assignment last night. It took me until 1.15am, mind, but it's done. I think some of the latter sections I wrote are really quite good.
Book Watch
In an idea utterly and shamelessly stolen from the wise
bruceb and lovely ladyjestyr (or should that be the other way round?), I hereby commence my 2003 reading log.Dead Air, by Iain Banks
It's been a little while since I read anything written by Mr Banks (and no, I have never read any of his sci-fi novels), a dry spell broken by an impulse buy in the WHSmiths at Exeter St Davids station. The key metaphor in this book seems to be survival through disintegration, as Banks takes his protagonist, a London radio Shock Jock (the Jock is a pun), and throws his life in disarray through a series of change meetings in the aftermath of September 11th. It's a sharp, witty and surprisingly moving read in places. The plot twists are less dramatic than in his earlier books and are more deeply and subtly integrated into the characters, which is a sign of his growing power and maturity as a writer. The ideas expressed are interesting and challenge many of your preconceptions.
That's not why I like it.
I like this book because it's achingly funny in place and because it's set largely around where I work in Soho. I've never read a novel that is so closely matched to the landscape of my own life. I've started around eight books this year, and this is the first one I've finished. That should tell you much about my appreciation of this fine work. Well worth the extra few quid to buy it in hardback.
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Date: 2003-02-18 01:21 pm (UTC)I must admit that I was very underwhelmed by Dead Air, which seemed to me to be a continuation of the light, frothy, no-real-substance style Banks began in The Business. I miss the serious, less glib Banks of The Wasp Factory, Complicity or The Crow Road. In fact, I found Dead Air to be rather like Complicity with all the guts and danger and moral complexity pulled out, and with more jokes.
I will say, though, that you should check out some of his sci-fi, specifically Against a Dark Background, Consider Phlebas,
I must admit that I was very underwhelmed by <i>Dead Air</i>, which seemed to me to be a continuation of the light, frothy, no-real-substance style Banks began in <i>The Business</i>. I miss the serious, less glib Banks of <i>The Wasp Factory</i>, <i>Complicity</i> or <i>The Crow Road</i>. In fact, I found <i>Dead Air</i> to be rather like <i>Complicity</i> with all the guts and danger and moral complexity pulled out, and with more jokes.
I will say, though, that you should check out some of his sci-fi, specifically <i>Against a Dark Background</i>, <i>Consider Phlebas</i>, <Feersum Enjinn</i> or (most importantly) <i>Use of Weapons</i>. Fine books one and all.