Walking on Glass by Iain Banks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the first Iain Banks book that I have read and I admit I know nothing of his work, other than that he wrote the wasp factory. I have to wonder if having that comment written as a footnote on everything that he has done since annoys the hell out of him.
Anyway, on with the review. This book uses the notion of separate threads coming together - peoples lives becoming intertwined. Each of the threads are interesting and well written in themselves. How he combines these into the overall plot is rather odd. Maybe that is what he does? I'll need to read more of his work to work out if this is a one off, or something common to his general style. The twists were quite blunt in places, sickening perhaps, though I felt they worked well.
I didn't really buy into the mechanics of the way the separate threads were combined. One of the characters seemed almost irrelevant at the end of the book (Stephen). He could probably have been taken out entirely and left only one very small hole that could have been filled with a passing bumble bee. It seemed odd to invest heavily in a major character that was pretty much irrelevant when all is said and done. The other characters did require each other - kind of.
So in summary, this was an enjoyable book with good characters, and a few disturbing surprises. It had an ending that - for me at any rate - missed its target. If anyone can tell me of the significance of Stephen I'd be interested to know; perhaps he is important, and I just completely missed the point?
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[Posted by Peter James West, author of the science fiction series 'Tales of Cinnamon City'
[Post relates to: Tales of Cinnamon City, Information Cloud, Cinnamon City, Ascension, Lord Hades, 2015, Science Fiction]
For news and updates, visit Science Fiction author Peter James West's blog http://www.sciencefictionextra.com
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