The Steep Approach to Garbadale

Iain Banks (aka. Iain M. Banks) never fails to impress. I started reading his Sci Fi a few years ago when someone said "you should read these Banks' Culture novels - they'd be your sort of thing", and whoever that kind recommender was, was exactly right. I had kind of gone off reading actual Science Fiction for a few years there, concentrating my efforts on History, Horror, and Fantasy, and Banks (and then Stross) dragged me back into the fold.

Banks writes two kinds of books, different enough that he has the slightly different pen names, with and without the M. His Science Fiction, under Iain M Banks, is mind-blisteringly* broad in scope. As I've said before, I've got a background in Math and Science, and bad Science in Sci Fi irritates me. I'm happy with logical science and different laws of physics based on currently-undiscovered scientific principles; but random laws of physics that aren't consistently applied, or stupid applications of real laws irk me. Banks is one of those authors whose physics is spot on.

But that is an aside. The Steep Approach to Garbadale isn't one of his science fiction books. It's the other kind - the well-written fiction novel. A lot of these books steer of at least a little into the fantastical of horrific, but this is a novel clearly set in our world, with real and flawed characters, and reflects on the politics of our time - or at least, our time two years ago; it sits solidly in the Bush era, and the characters reflect on and rail against US imperialism. I found it quite gripping, and on occasions hard to put down. It's a little more normal for me to not put a book down because a stupendously powerful star cruiser is about to chop up an Orbital with billions of people living on it; not being able to put down a book because Alban was about to go fishing with his cousin Sophie and oh my goodness what will transpire between them! was an unusual and pleasant feeling.

So, it's a definite worth-reading book. My problem now is that I can never quite remember which of my Banks non-sci-fi I've read and which I haven't. I've started reading one before on at least one occasion only to discover that I'd red it before. I'll have to go and work it out.

* Oddly enough, my spell-checker is happy with mind-blisteringly, but has an problem with recommender.

Singularity Sky

Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, is the kind of book that reminds me why I read science fiction. It actually comes before Iron Sunrise, which was the first Stross book I read, and was the one that made me decide to read all his books (not there yet, but well on my way).

The setting is some time after the Singularity, when an artificial super-intelligence has scattered humanity over several thousands of light years, and the various outposts of humanity have settled on various levels of technology, depending on whether they have embraced or rejected technology.

It's a big ol' space opera, a couple of people from Earth are working in/for a backward totalitarian empire, and get involved when that empire ends up fighting a very high-tech invader. The people are well done, though some tend towards caricature. The culture clashes between the various groups are very nicely done; the technology is mind-blowing.

This one is a definite recommended read if you like your science fiction. One of the books I'll recommend down the years, and read again at some point in the future (unless Stross keeps up his current prolific rate of writing, in which case I'll just try keeping up with him).