The Wasp Factory

Von

Bloody mad.

It's a "feminist novel" according to Mr Banks.

[This message has been edited by Von (edited 22-03-2000).]

Canaboid

But nonetheless excellent. The book that made him.

TwoShedsJackson

Verily a cracking book - I preferred The Crow Road though.

Wyverne

ACCORDING TO THE reviews here i am missing out on a great read???

erm.... can i get the name of the author and is the book widely available??

also is it fantasy/adventure/fiction???

thanx a mill

TwoShedsJackson

Iain Banks is the author, I suppose it's fiction - it's pretty fu<ked -up though

WhiteWashMan

hey conor. half way through that book you got me. its really good. a bit wierd since it set in multiple converging dimensions(?) but a damn good read.
i'll lend you it after

TwoShedsJackson

Yeh it sounded good alright, I was gonna get it for meself but then I thought 'balls, it's that fu<ker Eamo's birthday in two days. Sure I'll get it for him and then just read it after him'

I just finished the history of Israel, cracking read. plenty of action needless to remark. Just started Ice Station, thriller about a big scrap at Antarctica after the Yanks find a spaceship in the ice, just needed something light and easy after all that heavy historical stuff

Excelsior

Superb book from one of my favourite authors. What was the one about the cult girl who went a wandering? Cool. Song of stone was cruddy though. And the Business wasn't so hot. Still, the rest were great. Maybe some day I'll read books by his crazy Sci-fi alter ego. Maybe.

---

We are superfriends
Super friends are we

regi

I definately prefer his Culture scifi books... those Minds are deadly. Excelsior, the one with the cult chick is Duplicity afaik

DeVore

Indeed the Culture scifi stuff is excellent.

Every and any gamer should read Player Of Games, its the most insightful view into a gamers head I've seen without being simplistic or infantile about games players.

Player of Games or Excession are probably his best scifi book.

DeV.

Cheez

ian banks "the bridge" is good
but i also read irvine welsh's
"marabou stork nightmares"
which has a similar storyline and both are scottish authors
both good reads but ian's is less fooked up
and smack ye in the face sick/black humourous
never read the wasp factory must give it a go

what happens when an unstopable force meets an immoveable object??? 8)

Trojan

Defo the Player of Games is the best sf you can get, all the big boys like Asimov/Clarke/Heinlein/etc included. Excession was excellent too, but I preferred Consider Phlebas.

His non-sf is excellent, the one exception I'd have being Espedaire St, it was only alright.


Al.

DeVore

Player Of Games is a great great book, Excession is a laff as well as a real nail biter sci fi battle novel.
Aint read Consider Phlebas yet but everyone says its good.
Use of Weapons was good but left me a little disappointed, also large tracts of it were self indulgent writing, Banks needs an editor who isnt over awed with him and is afraid to cut stuff out wholesale.

Just mho.

DeV.

BossArky

Having heard much about Ian Banks over the past decade or so I found some of his books on ebay recently which I have just finished:

The Wasp Factory: 7/10

I heard that this book was pretty gruesome. Interesting but nothing out of this world. Plot moves along at a steady clip but there were parts which were rather flat... such as the phone conversations with the brother Eric... this in my opinion did not build up enough.

Player of Games: 4/10

Having read the various comments below before reading this book I was geared up for a cracking read... only to be dissapointed. How can Banks expect a man such as Gurget, the Player of Games, to travel for two years in a spaceship at the speed of light or so, and still come into contact with a civilization that looks more or less human... ok.. they do have 3 sexes... big deal. The story dragged in places and I felt let down at the end.