Customer Reviews

Against a Dark Background

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The back of the book has a quote from a reviewer saying "He warns you up front, this is a dark novel."

Well, compared to Banks' _The Wasp Factory_, this really isn't such a dark novel. I'll quote another reviewer from USENET who said "I can't trust an author who develops characters and kills them." This, however, is also a trait of Banks', and I cant imagine anyone would read this book expecting everyone to escape unscathed from the ominous, looming evil which permeates, quite frankly, every Banks book I've read.

The book tells a story of a woman, who becomes a metaphor for the star system she lives in. Unlike the Culture novels, the "Golter" system is at least a hundred million light years from the nearest star. They are entirely isolated. They have colonized all the planets and moons in their system, but have no hope of ever reaching anyone else. Sharrow is the same way. Alone, even while surrounded by others.

As the system society begins to attack itself, so, too, does Sharrow lose friends. Entire cities are wiped out.

This is not unexpected. You're reading a Banks novel. However, the finish of the book (as other reviewers have hinted, the last 100 pages are worth the rest of the book being somewhat slow and, well, pointless) is quite profound, and ties the rest of the story together in ways I really hadn't anticipated. It actually took me a couple days to reflect on it, and how I felt about the story he had told.

Surprisingly, after a couple days, I realized that what Banks was getting at was the good that actually came out of all the death and destruction in the book. I'll leave the reader to discover that on their own.

I'd highly recommend this to any Banks fan, but perhaps not to a first time Banks reader. Consider _Excession_ instead.

There are plenty of reviews covering the story and storytelling. What I'd like to address is the Kindle edition's formatting.

It has two glaring issues; one slightly annoying, the other quite annoying.

1) Hyphens abound. It's as if words that were hyphened to be split between lines in the paper edition has retained their hyphens in the Kindle edition. This means you get hyphens in the middle of the page, in words that otherwise should not have one. Not a big deal, but it does distract.

2) No blank line between paragraphs. This can be quite confusing, as you sometimes end up reading several seemingly completely out of context sentences, before realizing you're actually reading a flashback now. Without the blank line to alert you to the context shift, it can be hard to catch. You can go from a love-making scene to a war zone, wondering what kind of kink just entered their bedroom when the text switches from sweaty bodies to the smell of blood and burning.

In areas of the book where there's a lot of jumping back and forth, sometimes several times in just a page or two, it becomes a bit of a chore to read.

Vicious stuff; the kind of thing you expect from Banks.

The man is just amazing, an imagination more fecund than anything else I've ever encountered. Like _Use of Weapons_ we have the destructive sibling rivalry, like _Consider Phlebas_ we have a grand tour meeting strange and marvellous things along the way.

But most important, in the background we have the *large* theme. In the end, like the culture novels, this is a book about the point of life. The setting is a planetary system millions of light years from any other star and thus incapable of expanding beyond a very finite space. Given this limitation, civilizations have risen and fallen countless times.

The current system is an extreme version of the 20th century west mixed with medieval times --- wealthy corporations as more powerful than states, excessive bureaucracy and legalism --- but the specific details are not that important. The important issue is the question of should it be changed? And if so, too what? If it should be changed, how much suffering is justified in doing so? And what's the point of change, anyway; the new system will be just one more regime like countless regimes that have gone before.

What makes Banks so interesting (and so unpalatable to many readers) is, of course, that he has no answers to these questions, and that he doesn't have much faith in the stock answers society provides. The bulk of his books, including this one, is essentially, IMHO, arguments by example against the happy pat ways in which society answers these questions when they arise.

What makes this book so upsetting is perhaps that he doesn't even provide up the hedonistic comfort of the culture books, the idea that man is optimized for pleasure and might as well concentrate on that. All we get is a very Buddhist endless cycle of suffering with no escape.

This is a book that gives me goose bumps every time I think about it. Just like Banks' 'Feersum Endjinn', this is what I would call a 'perfect' book- perfect because I could not wish it to be different in the smallest detail. SF is particulalrly difficult to write well, because one has to work just as hard on the setting and background as the story itself. Many SF authors often sacrifice one for the other, but Banks' has mastery over both.The worlds he creates are logically consistant and is also believably mysterious full of the gaps of knowledge that the narrative viewpoint of a single person would suffer from. It's those little touches that only experienced and gifted writers truly master. Banks is one such author.

The dark atmosphere, the wonderful female lead character(one of the best ever in SF)and a truly haunting plot with 4-d chracters force me to turn the pages of this book over every now and again, either in my mind or between my fingers. If you enjoyed this novel, you should look into the works of the Australian Sci Fi author Greg Egan.

The only thing that I regret about this novel is that like many of Banks' works it is far from well known. Why, I cannot imagine.

Surprisingly enough, this latest SF novel by Banks reminded me as much of Zindell's Neverness as of Banks' earlier SF. Maybe it's because I'd read Zindell's novel recently, and because Banks and Zindell are both writing "Space Opera" yet enlivening it with modern sensibility. Banks remains irrestiably readable, even when the novel is nothing more than an adventure novel with a few flourishes. Like Use of Weapons, Against a Dark Background centers around family relationships moving people and events around like a grand chess game. This novel is separate from Banks' other SF, however, which is grouped under the name of the "universe" that it is set in, the Culture. I think I prefer the Culture universe. At least, it seems to make more sense to me. I never quite grabbed the scale to which time and space moved in Against a Dark Background. Many things seemed invented solely to provide a different setting or mood when the story demanded it, rather than actually being true world building. Still, the individual constructions--the Sea House, the Lazy Gun, the World Court, the Huyze brotherhood, the characters, the weird animals, the political/religious/social sectors--are simply wonderful, each unique yet familiar as well.

What this novel really lacks is the twist that I've come to expect from Banks. Or, maybe the twist is there, but because I know Banks, I looked for it and expected it, and wasn't surprised as I should be. Which might mean that Banks has achieved a formula that has become predictable in its unpredictability. All in all, Against a Dark Background is not a worthless experience, but Banks has done much better in other books (I suggest The Player of Games for SF, Espedair Street for non-SF).

I am in the process of rereading all of Banks' scifi books, in the order in which they were published. AADB stands out among them as a story that feels reorganized somehow, as if the author wrote this once and then changed the order of the chapters or added inserts (there are quite a few flashbacks that take some getting used to). This book does not flow as smoothly as his other books do. The focal character has detailed history that needs to be brought into the tale in order for us to understand how things unwind. And, as usual, Banks give you copious detail of surroundings in almost every grand scene and if it is your habit to skip the prose between dialogue and action scenes you will miss many points that reflect upon and contribute to the characters and their attitudes and actions. So yes, as has been said in other reviews, parts of this book are slower reading.
But the book has Banks' signature richness in space-opera story that informs while it entertains. And his characters are very 3-dimensional, we can see them in our minds eye and imagine their clothings and the sound of their voices. And always Banks has a point that he is driving towards, with faster and greater action at the end, so you can't put it down.
This author must consume a goodly amount of Grange and Single-Malt to come up with all the fantastic ideas about future technology and culture that he does. And his sense of humor is very abundant in this his darkest SF outing.

When I first picked up Against A Dark Background, I was hungry for something different -- different from Alan Dean Foster, different from Piers Anthony -- I wanted some hard sci fi entertainment with a twist. I was not disappointed. Banks writes with a distinctly British flair -- he's articulate with crisp dialogue and interesting description, and his action scenes are graphic, stylish and no-holds-barred -- James Bond styled for the jet set of intellectuals.

The novel subtly sets up a bizarre future almost as an afterthought -- the real story here is not about this wondrous world Banks has created, but rather about a handful of people in it and the choices they make. And, boy, do they make some doozies. This is not a warm and fuzzy feel-good novel -- I loved Lady Sharrow and I still couldn't believe some of the things she did. Banks doesn't shy away from making his characters real -- they're smart, brave, loyal, illogical, cruel, unfeeling, selfish -- and the reader sympathizes with them anyway, whether she wants to or not.

I give Banks snaps for this smart sci fi adventure with strong female and male leads, 'cause this puppy's got anything you want -- mystery, intrigue, betrayal, action, love, hate. Marvelously thought-provoking read. A must for sci fi fans in the mood for something different.

Once again, Banks doesn't disappoint! Plots within plots within still more plots. Sharrow and her companions are tough and resourceful, yet human and vulnerable. Some of the scenes and supporting characters like Professor Travapeth, King Tard and his dilapidated kingdom of Pharpech, and Breyguhn, Sharrow's half sister, are almost Dickensian. The story bounces from hilarity one moment to pathos the next, but the action never flags. This is my fifth Banks novel and I read it from cover to cover in a single sitting.

Definitely great vintage Banks SF, which is not set in the Culture universe.

Golter, the planet where the action takes place, is old and extremely isolated and has suffered many rises and collapses of civilizations, some so advanced that their technology now looks like magic. The overall impression is a cross between Vance's Dying Earth and the Mote in God's Eye, liberally sprinled with cyberpunkish dystopia and Banks' tongue-in-cheek anti-capitalism.

The heroine, Sharrow, chases after the Lazy Gun, a long-lost military artifact of tremendous power, while being chased by a religious cult dedicated to killing her. She rounds up her old war buddies for one last hurrah and they are off to the races, punctuated with flashbacks about the war and Geis and Breyguhn, her cousin and half-sister, respectively.

****some spoilers****

Through the flashbacks it gradually becomes clear that guilt largely motivates Sharrow. Guilt about the previous time she found a Lazy Gun, and caused thousands to die, seems to be what separated her from Miz, her former lover. Sharrow is said to be a star cyberhacker, yet never does any hacking. Turns out that she killed her android butler as a teenager, doing a hacking prank. Yet all that guilt is only implied, never in the forefront.

The rest of Sharrow's team is pretty sketchily characterized, but that's OK as Sharrow, her family, and Golter are the only characters who really matter.

The plot rambles around somewhat and takes us on a tour of Golter's bizarre social/political/technological landscape, thus allowing Banks to pull out some truly bizarre societies to serve as a background to the main storyline.

It isn't too hard to guess how it will end, especially if you have read Banks before: it will end _BADLY_. But it is definitely a fun ride getting there.

Banks, once again, has written a beautiful, poetic, dark, thrilling adventure story that trancends the genre. The difference between Banks and most SF authors is that Banks can actually write: I found myself rereading a few paragraphs two or three times, the writing is just that good. He's like Ray Bradbury on steroids and acid. Banks can create a stunningly detailed and exotic breathing universe without burning up page after page doing it like lesser writers. Lots of good action, dialogue, gadgets, cultures, personal motivation and interpersonal conflicts, twists...hard to believe all this came out of just one guy's imagination. The only problem with this book is that now I can't read 90% of the SF out there without realizing how pale and shallow it is. If you like SF and good writing, this is the Rosetta Stone people. Order it from AmazonUK.