[geeks] books for fun?

[Will Mc Donald]

From: "David Cantrell" <david at cantrell.org.uk>
> On Mon, Jun 24, 2002 at 03:51:28PM +0100, Will Mc Donald wrote:
> > If you like Banks try to get a hold of some John Brunner too.
>
> I've had people recommend Ken McLeod recommended to me too.  I couldn't get
> on with his writing, but you might.

Ta, I shall give it a blast.

Funnily enough, I was reading up on Banks today even before I chipped in on
this thread (slow work day.) I think it was McLeod who recommended he release
Use of Weapons, which he'd originally written as a massive tome that was
practically unpublishable. Here we are...

http://www.members.tripod.com/a.b.i-b/html/faq_text.htm

"What's the deal with _Use Of Weapons_, I heard this was Bank's first Culture
book?
IMB wrote an extremely long book, about 250,000 words (a typical novel is
between 60,000 and 85,000 words) called _Use Of Weapons_ before any of his
books were published. Having been published as both an SF and mainstream
fiction author he re-wrote _Use Of Weapons_ after encouragement from his
friend and fellow SF author Ken MacLeod. The book was cut down to a sensible
length and the dual running time line was introduced at Ken's suggestion. "

Personally I could quite happily read 250,000 words of his prose. :)

> > I think my favourite Iain M Banks is Excession, I just love all the banter
and
> > piss-taking between the Minds and the space battles are superb.
>
> Excession isn't one of his best works IMO.  Favourite so far, at least of
> the Culture series, would be The Player of Games.
>
> And Feersum Enjin is just shit.

I've only read Feersum Endjinn once and, TBH, quite enjoyed it. The whole
twisty Bascule the Rascule phonetic speech thing took a little getting used to
but reminded me a bit of James Kelman's style.

Player of Games is sat on the desk in front of me right now, after being dug
out of a box along with Use Of Weapons for re-reading at some stage.

Will.