4 ms·

It's also worth trying his contemporary fiction which is just as good. Most people are aware of "The Wasp Factory" which can probably also be classed as scienc

by Toenex 12y ago

It's also worth trying his contemporary fiction which is just as good. Most people are aware of "The Wasp Factory" which can probably also be classed as science fiction (although not SciFi). He also wrote the excellent "Crow Road" which has probably one of the greatest opening lines in any book I've ever read.

mercurial 12y ago
"The Bridge" is a masterpiece. They're not all equally good, but his style is such that even the less good ones are still worth reading.
ChillyWater 12y ago
"Song of Stone" was written in an interesting style to me. It is some sort of post-apocalyptic The Stand kind of situation. He alternates between normal modern prose and some very dense poetry-prose. I would have to read and re-read those passages to get the meaning, but it was enjoyable.
arethuza 12y ago
IMHO Banks manages to do his best opening in Espedair Street: Two days ago I decided to kill myself. I would walk and hitch and sail away from this dark city to the bright spaces of the wet west coast, and there throw myself into the tall, glittering seas beyond Iona (with its cargo of mouldering kings) to let the gulls and seals and tides have their way with my remains, and in my dying moments look forward to an encounter with Staffa’s six-sided columns and Fingal’s cave; or I might head south to Corryvrecken, to be spun inside the whirlpool and listen with my waterlogged deaf ears to its mile-wide voice ringing over the wave-race; or be borne north, to where the white sands sing and coral hides, pink-fingered and hard-soft, beneath the ocean swell, and the rampart cliffs climb thousand-foot above the seething acres of milky foam, rainbow-buttressed. Last night I changed my mind and decided to stay alive. Everything that follows is . . . just to try and explain.

4 ms·

It's also worth trying his contemporary fiction which is just as good. Most people are aware of "The Wasp Factory" which can probably also be classed as scienc

by Toenex 12y ago

mercurial 12y ago
"The Bridge" is a masterpiece. They're not all equally good, but his style is such that even the less good ones are still worth reading.
ChillyWater 12y ago
"Song of Stone" was written in an interesting style to me. It is some sort of post-apocalyptic The Stand kind of situation. He alternates between normal modern prose and some very dense poetry-prose. I would have to read and re-read those passages to get the meaning, but it was enjoyable.
arethuza 12y ago
IMHO Banks manages to do his best opening in Espedair Street: Two days ago I decided to kill myself. I would walk and hitch and sail away from this dark city to the bright spaces of the wet west coast, and there throw myself into the tall, glittering seas beyond Iona (with its cargo of mouldering kings) to let the gulls and seals and tides have their way with my remains, and in my dying moments look forward to an encounter with Staffa’s six-sided columns and Fingal’s cave; or I might head south to Corryvrecken, to be spun inside the whirlpool and listen with my waterlogged deaf ears to its mile-wide voice ringing over the wave-race; or be borne north, to where the white sands sing and coral hides, pink-fingered and hard-soft, beneath the ocean swell, and the rampart cliffs climb thousand-foot above the seething acres of milky foam, rainbow-buttressed. Last night I changed my mind and decided to stay alive. Everything that follows is . . . just to try and explain.