32. Espedair Street by Iain Banks

This month's Bibliogoths book.

I haven't read this since 1991, when one of my bandmates foisted The Wasp Factory on me and I subsequently went to his house and raided the complete set, which at the time only went up to Canal DreamsI remember finding it primarily sad rather than funny (like everybody else did), ( Read more... )

40. The Quarry by Iain Banks
Banks swore blind in his last interview that he was 80,000 words into this book when his own cancer was diagnosed. I was dubious at the time and I'm even more so now that I've read it, but that's possibly not giving his skill as a writer enough credit and it's easy to read too much into it ( Read more... )

I haven't posted anywhere on the subject of Banks' demise, because although I'm gutted, I haven't thought of anything constructive to say ( Read more... )

27. The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M BanksI started to start this several times when I first bought it, but didn't get stuck in properly till we were on holiday, and it's still taken me another month to finish it. I was about 2/3 of the way through when I heard the news about Banks ( Read more... )

Iain Banks has terminal cancer

So much for not doing this.  I can barely remember the first couple.

28. Cold Mirrors by CJ Lines

Yes, naturalbornkaos, I've finally read it!

This is a spiffing collection of short stories, mostly, but not all, in the horror vein.  I've read some of them before - Lambkin was in the Tiny Terrors collection, CJ put The Trending up on line some time before the book ( Read more... )

71. Surface Detail by Iain M Banks

The latest Culture novel. It's huge. I spent two whole weeks reading nothing but this book - it frequently takes me longer than that to read books. Big, non-fiction books where I have two works of fiction on the side. So, in terms of effort almost as much as Consider Phlebas and The Algebraist. Sadly it's ( Read more... )

64. The Gates by John ConnollyThis is a young adult novel in which a combination of the Large Hadron Collider and a group of Satanists in a cellar in the Home Counties open a portal to Hell, with only a young boy and his dog (and a completely inept demon) to stop the inhabitants of Hell taking over the world. It manages to be scary and silly at ( Read more... )

23.The Neil Gaiman Reader, edited by Darrell Schweitzer

Quasi-academic essays on Neil's output to 2006. A mixed bag, as these things always are. I think I preferred The Sandman Companion, but there's a mattress in front of the bookcase where (I think) it is, so I can't flip through and do a quick comparison.

24. Grave Surprise by Charlaine ( Read more... )

21. The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks
One of the reviews quoted on the cover says it's his best book since The Crow Road. I have to agree. Of course, if The Crow Road isn't your favourite Banks novel, YMMV. The Crow Road comparison is pretty obvious; this is also about a bloke from an established Scottish family trying to find out ( Read more... )