[books 2008] Iain M Banks, Sarah Waters

[inulro]

13. The Algebraist by Iain M Banks
It took me absolutely ages to get through this - I'm not sure whether it really is as dense as it felt, or whether the difficulty was down to my brain being melted by the extreme pain and lurgy over the last few weeks. I suspect the former, because I started reading this long before I got sick.

It reminds me of Consider Phlebas in that it was a struggle all the way through, but the book overall is a really impressive achievement when you get to the end. It takes a long time to really get started, though once it gets going it's a good adventure. I have trouble with the scale of a lot of Banks' SF - everything is too huge to wrap my brain around. I never could get a decent picture in my mind of what the principal aliens in this one, the Dwellers, looked like. I got lost after "circumference of 9 metres". I did, however, like the concept of gas-giant planets being inhabited by beings that live in Slow Time for billions of years, who pretend to be bumbling fools, but are they really? They are studied by humans and other "Quick" species called Seers who have to slow down their brains and bodies to interact with the Dwellers, and thus don't age in the normal way (though it's the far future, so most people have some way to defy the aging process).

I'm not selling it well here, but it is worth the considerable effort.

I thought that meant I've now read everything Banks has written except Raw Spirit, and discover that there's a new one out already. I thought A Steep Approach to Garbadale had only just come out.

14.The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
I caught half of this when it was the Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 some time ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed Fingersmith, one of Waters' earlier works, so when I came across this in the charity shop I snapped it up. It's the story of a casually intersecting group of characters during and after WWII in London. This is Sarah Waters, so most of them are lesbians. There's also Viv, who is having an affair with a married man, and her brother Duncan, who spends the war in prison for being a conscientious objector - or did he? It's told backwards, ie starts in 1947 and finishes in 1941, so it's more "how did they end up here?" rather than the conventional "what happens next" narrative.

Well written, but only the middle segment (London being bombed in 1944) really grabbed me. The parts with Duncan are depressing and dull (which is probably the point, but still). The best parts are definitely the adventures of the two woman who drive an ambulance on the night shift.

I'm not likely to want to read this one again, so my copy is free to a good home if any of you like.

Comments

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

It took me ages to get through the Algebraist as well!

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

I liked The Algebraist better on the second reading, I felt much the same way as you on the first. I LOVED the Dwellers! :)

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed The Algebraist at the time, but the only lasting memory I have of it is that it was immediately obvious where the gates actually were, which rather spoiled it.

If you like unusual aliens then try Dragons Egg by Robert L Forward.