Song of Stone was one, but I can't recall the name of the other one offhand.
Shh! I kinda wanna hear me talking right now!
Glory ,'The Killer In Me'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 6:51:10 pm PST #9975 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 6:53:33 pm PST #9976 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
I'm completely wrong. A quick glance at his novels tells me that it was The Business, and I remember enjoying that one quite a bit.
dcp - Feb 23, 2006 6:53:34 pm PST #9977 of 10002
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
The other one is probably The Algebraist.
I picked it up at the library based on the jacket blurbs. I got ten pages into it and gave up in disgust.
billytea - Feb 23, 2006 7:05:18 pm PST #9978 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
I'm completely wrong. A quick glance at his novels tells me that it was The Business, and I remember enjoying that one quite a bit.
I quite enjoyed The Business myself, though I think Whit is my favourite (after The Wasp Factory). A Song of Stone hit me pretty hard, but I couldn't say I enjoyed it. I'm still not sure what I think of it. The other Banks I've read was The Crow Road, which never really grabbed me. It felt rather bland compared to his other work.
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 7:09:59 pm PST #9979 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
A Song of Stone just pissed me off with all the relentless nihilism. Since The Big Lebowski, relentless nihilism is just so played, y'know?
According to the site I looked at a minute ago, Banks actually uses his middle initial when writing science fiction, and The Algebraist is one of those. Why he feels compelled to ghettoize his own writing is beyond me.
DavidS - Feb 23, 2006 7:12:20 pm PST #9980 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Since The Big Lebowski, relentless nihilism is just so played, y'know?
They have no ethos!
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 7:13:09 pm PST #9981 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Say what you will about Nazis...
Strega - Feb 23, 2006 7:24:19 pm PST #9982 of 10002
Using his middle initial is ghettoizing? Pseudonyms are useful as a kind of branding, and adding an "M." is about as transparent as you can get. It's as much for the people who want to read SF as the ones who don't.
JohnSweden - Feb 23, 2006 8:11:37 pm PST #9983 of 10002
I can't even.
I quite enjoyed The Business myself, though I think Whit is my favourite (after The Wasp Factory). A Song of Stone hit me pretty hard, but I couldn't say I enjoyed it. I'm still not sure what I think of it. The other Banks I've read was The Crow Road, which never really grabbed me. It felt rather bland compared to his other work.
Love Banks, particularly The Crow Road, which could only have hit me harder if I had actually grown up in Scotland, instead of being part of the diaspora. Another of his non-M books that I really like (in a creepy, obsessively horrible -- him, not me, kind of way) is Complicity. I've quite enjoyed his Culture books (most of the M ones), but for the last couple, I've been feeling like he needs to turn on the style again, as he did in the early books. I'm still enjoying them, but feeling a little jaded. The Culture (M) book which kicked my ass the most was The Use of Weapons, but The Player of Games is the favourite of folks I know who read M.
Hayden - Feb 23, 2006 8:19:57 pm PST #9984 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Using his middle initial is ghettoizing? Pseudonyms are useful as a kind of branding, and adding an "M." is about as transparent as you can get. It's as much for the people who want to read SF as the ones who don't.
I dunno. There's worlds of difference between Steve Martin and Steve M. Martin, director of Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey. There's a few writers like that, too, but I can't think of their names right now.
Maybe he's not ghettoizing his work, but his website splits his books between "fiction" and "science fiction". How many other writers add a middle initial to distinguish genre writing?