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While his mainstream and standard SF novels have been increasingly disappointing in recent years, the author's marvellous Culture universe has never failed to provide Banks with the ideal material for setting his imagination loose, and it has always resulted in the creation of the writer's best work. Matter is no exception. Disconcertingly however, Fantasy elements are to the fore at the start of this new Culture novel. Set on the Eighth level of the Shellworld of Sursamen, the story is initially based around the court intrigues following the death of King Hausk of the Sarl warrior race during a battle with the Dedalyn of the Ninth level. The King's murder, by his best friend, is witnessed by Prince Ferbin, who flees for his life, while his brother Oramen is prepared for the throne.  His search for justice takes Ferbin outside of Sursamen in a quest for his sister Djan Seriy Anaplian, who is now a member of the Culture, working in Special Circumstances, an agency that moni...

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...