Dead Air by Iain Banks

[phantasmagoria]

i like the protagonist.

[seremtan]

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

omg the Idirans have three legs

[phantasmagoria]

I can't stand his sci fi, i've tried a couple of different books and they're far far too nerdy. I find it too cumbersome with its description and he often goes into too much alien politics for me to be able to pay attention. It's odd really, because he's one of my favourite contemporary writers as Iain Banks and on the whole I don't mind the sci fi genre so it would be logical that i'd like him as a sci fi writer

[seremtan]

his early sci-fi is better than the later stuff, where he's more self-indulgent. i know what you mean about the descriptive stuff, but sometimes it's fascinating, like the airsphere sections of 'look to windward'. it's amazing no one has made movies out them. gotta happen one day

[vesp]

Great writer, lives near my gran

The Player of Games and Use of Weapons are probably two of his best sci-fi novels (although considering you mention alien politics I guess you might have read the former). Excession is up near the top too, imo.

You do get the feeling that his serious writing side is the N-F and the sci-fi is his bit of fun on the side though.

[seremtan]

actually he started out as a sci-fi author, and it's the non-genre stuff that's the sideline

[Nightshade]

The Algebraist by Iain M Banks

Matter by Iain M Banks

Both are win.

For some for realz sci-fi nerdery, try Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Great stuff.

[phantasmagoria]

I think Look to Windward was one of the ones I tried. I was a teenager when I gave M. Banks a go but I don't think my opinion will have changed.

In other news Dead Air is rather raunchy :o

[vesp]

actually he started out as a sci-fi author, and it's the non-genre stuff that's the sideline

doesn't really matter what he started with, that wasn't my point - his nonfiction is just a bit deeper and more multi-faceted.

[seremtan]

Matter by Iain M Banks

this was the book i had in mind re his later self-indulgence. 500 pages to tell a 300 page story

then again, this tendency can be detected as early as 'consider phlebas' - i.e. the section where he's the prisoner of that massive fat guy on the orbital just before it gets sliced up. could have been cut and nothing of value would have been lost

[Nightshade]

Those are the only two books of his that I've read, but I'm definitely going to read more. I can agree with your opinion that it was a bit long-winded in parts, but it never lost me. I think that Banks, much like Gibson, has a great ability to paint the broader strokes of the background while letting the reader's imagination fill in the minutiae. Gibson's better at it by far, but I did enjoy the backdrop of both of the Banks books.