To The Last Page

As any fan of Iain Banks will probably have already gathered from the synopsis, there’s not a great deal new in The Steep Approach To Garbadale . It’s another family saga in the style of The Crow Road - one with hidden secrets, black sheep, unexplained deaths and illicit affairs that are left unspoken and buried in the past. Mixed in with this - since the family in question are the Wopulds whose family business has expanded from the ‘Risk’-like board game ‘Empire!’ to computer game derivations – you get some mild satire of the corporate affairs of The Business . Alas, although neither The Crow Road nor The Business are the heights of Banks’ output (not even of the non-M variety), if this new novel had even had a fraction of their limited wit and imagination, it wouldn’t be the slog it is. The plot is pedestrian stuff that is centred around the gathering of the Wopuld family at the ancestral home at Garbadale to consider an offer of a buy-out from an American firm, where Alban hopes ...

Fassin Taak is a slow seer, who undertakes delves, explorations of Dweller culture and knowledge. The Dwellers are inhabitants of gas giant planets and are among the most ancient and long-living creatures in the galaxy. While investigating some of their library materials, Taak unwittingly uncovers a clue to a legendary network of wormholes, rumoured to be secretly used by the Dwellers in their incredibly long excursions through the universe. It’s immensely valuable information that is in danger of being misused if it gets into the wrong hands, but word of its existence has leaked out. The whole system is on the brink of war, with attacks already being launched by troublesome Beyonder and E-5 Disconnect factions and a particularly bloodthirsty character, the Archimandrite Luseferous. Taak is charged with finding out the key to the conflict that his clue has uncovered, taking him on a journey to the far reaches of the galaxy. The plot of Iain Banks’ new novel is fairly straightforward an...

Ken McNutt is a radio DJ for Capital Live!, a controversial and outspoken presenter who uses his program as a platform for airing his views on world current affairs, everything from Palestine to football. The book opens with a wedding reception, one of the traditional methods of introducing us to a wide cast of characters (Banks has already used the funeral at the start of The Crow Road ), various friends and ex-lovers of Ken, who are gathered to celebrate the wedding of his friends Kul and Faye at their apartment in Canary Wharf. As the party falls into riotous behaviour, we become aware of the significance of the day. It is September 11th 2001. The title Dead Air  comes from the description of London airspace in the immediate period after Sept 11, when flights were diverted from flying over London, an ominous and portentously unsettling time, during which Ken is not afraid to court controversy with his attacks on George W Bush. It also refers to a pause on the radio when there is...