A review by iamedterry
Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks
4.0
Not my favourite Iain M Banks. The writing was choppy and I often found it confusing as to where things were. It was like a story mixed up into a bowl of spaghetti. I researched the book and it was one of Bank's earlier works (1975) which he rewrote in the 90s and I think his earlier style was still carried through in this book.
As I listened to the Audible version read by Peter Kenny, Peter's reading of the book was excellent and helps smooth off the rough edges. I nearly gave up a couple of times but persevered to the end where all the pieces were dutifully tied up and the story brought to a conclusion and all the pieces duly made sense and Chekhov's Gun (or even the Lazy Gun) was satisfied.
In my opinion, this looks like Bank's own commentary on the sorry state of humanity with all its empires, factions, sects, cults, tyrants, and whatnot, and its inability to get its shit together and grow as a society. Instead, Golter (the planet where the story is set) acts as a proxy for Earth and it's a bit depressing at times. Bank's humour does happen along and raises a smile from time to time and the cyclical and repetitive nature of the civilisations of Golter are reflected in the individual stories of the central characters of this piece. I even have a sneaky feeling that Molgarin may have been the inspiration for The Mandarin in Iron Man III.
And my reading of Bank's sci-fi canon is now complete.
As I listened to the Audible version read by Peter Kenny, Peter's reading of the book was excellent and helps smooth off the rough edges. I nearly gave up a couple of times but persevered to the end where all the pieces were dutifully tied up and the story brought to a conclusion and all the pieces duly made sense and Chekhov's Gun (or even the Lazy Gun) was satisfied.
In my opinion, this looks like Bank's own commentary on the sorry state of humanity with all its empires, factions, sects, cults, tyrants, and whatnot, and its inability to get its shit together and grow as a society. Instead, Golter (the planet where the story is set) acts as a proxy for Earth and it's a bit depressing at times. Bank's humour does happen along and raises a smile from time to time and the cyclical and repetitive nature of the civilisations of Golter are reflected in the individual stories of the central characters of this piece. I even have a sneaky feeling that Molgarin may have been the inspiration for The Mandarin in Iron Man III.
And my reading of Bank's sci-fi canon is now complete.