![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
New Iain Banks
Mar. 19th, 2007 11:53 amYesterday, in the train back from Baltimore to New York, I read the new Iain Banks novel, "The Steep Approach To Garbadale". I liked it but it left me a little bit unsatisfied - a little bit too light and not enough happening. It reminded me of "The Business", which also felt superficially amusing but lacking in depth.
It's a pity, as I haven't really liked a non-SF Iain Banks book since "Song Of Stone". I loved both "The Crow Road" and "Whit" and was rather hoping for something as funny as the latter; and "Espedair Street" is one of my all-time favorites.
I browsed the web to look at the reviews of "Garbadale", and apart from the obvious (Alban is too much a Banks alter ego, much of it is like his earlier novels, not enough of it is surprising) reviewers think the book isn't dark enough, that the family secrets aren't horrible enough. And I wonder, is it Iain Banks that has become less dark, or has the world around us become more dark and horrible?
It's a pity, as I haven't really liked a non-SF Iain Banks book since "Song Of Stone". I loved both "The Crow Road" and "Whit" and was rather hoping for something as funny as the latter; and "Espedair Street" is one of my all-time favorites.
I browsed the web to look at the reviews of "Garbadale", and apart from the obvious (Alban is too much a Banks alter ego, much of it is like his earlier novels, not enough of it is surprising) reviewers think the book isn't dark enough, that the family secrets aren't horrible enough. And I wonder, is it Iain Banks that has become less dark, or has the world around us become more dark and horrible?
