Worth consuming – but only just!

Good idea set around a company that wants to ‘buy’ a whole country to enable it to hold a seat at the UN.

Que the questionable ethics, under-the-table deals and individual self-reflection. Gets going nicely but tails off towards the end and loses its way slightly.

Read this only if you are a hard-core Banks fan, if not turn to The Wasp Factory or The Crow Road.

Just not up to Iain Banks usual high standard of story-telling.

The quality of writing is (as usual) superb however the story jumps from one thing to another and the book never quite knows what it wants to be (shades of war, thriller, horror and even erotic novels creep in at various points).

As a read you hope for the turning point where everything switches in favour of the heroes (if indeed they are that) but it never really comes which served only to disappoint me culmonating in a rather depressing read.

I’m a fan of Banks’ literary fiction but if you’re looking for Banks at his best, look toward The Wasp Factory or The Crow Road.

You have been warned.

Definately worth a read. Good for both men and women and I think its Sci-Fi beginner friendly (I’m not usually a big Sci-Fi fan but this is an easy read).

Surrounds John Perry, a retired & widowed 75 year old who joins the Colonial Defence Forces to fight in the Colonial Wars. Sounds odd but the CDF only take recruits once they reach 75.

If I was to nit-pick it would be that the John Perry (main character) at the end seemed to far from the John Perry at the start.