Book review: Iain Banks – A Song of Stone

[julesjones]

I usually love Banks' work, both with and without the M -- but I abandoned this one less than a third of the way through. It tried so terribly hard to be shocking and boundary-pushing, and succeeded only in being so deadly boring and predictable that I couldn't make myself read any further.

I tried to read it ten years ago, after which it went into storage. That box of books has just come out of storage again , and this book is going straight in the Oxfam box without any further attempt to re-read it. That's how badly it impressed me at the time.

Comments

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I've tried & failed to get into A Song of Stone, too. Must admit, I liked some of IB's novels but lately I've found his stuff grates more often than not. I found The Steep Approach to Garbadale very disappointing.

[julesjones]

I bought this as a hardback copy from the Redemption 99 jumble sale -- I think it was originally iainjcoleman's copy. There was a brief discussion of it on the B7 spin list, IIRC, and the common reaction amongst Blake's 7 fic-reading fen seemed to be that we'd seen shocking and boundary-pushing done far more stylishly and entertainingly in the better fanfic zines, and there was nothing new in this book.

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

Count me in as well as one of the people who normally love Banks but really truly couldn't stand this book. I finished it because I used to be almost obsessive-compulsive about finishing books once I'd started them, and this book is the one that cured me of that. It had no redeeming qualities at all, nobody likable, and nothing happening which you as a reader could feel good about.

On those occasions when I feel the need to read a really truly dark, I just reread Barry Longyear's Sea of Glass, which was an infinitely better book.

[julesjones]

Yes, it was also a major factor in me deciding that I didn't have to finish a book just because I'd started it.