It’s absolutely ages since I last read an SF novel. Indeed I can’t actually remember what it might have been. We’re talking years, which is odd, because I used to read quite a lot of it, and I have no problem whatsoever with genre fiction (OK – I might avoid the likes of Mills & Boon or Black Lace). Probably William Gibson or Neal Stephenson, both of who have books awaiting to be read by me in my pile.
It’s one of those strange things in life that I’ve read everything by Iain Banks, but nothing by Iain M Banks (note for uninitiated – they’re the same person – the M signfies an SF novel).
Iain M Banks actually supplies a glowing cover quote for this book by M John Harrison – “Light is Brilliant”.
Well I don’t know if I’d quite go along with that. Maybe, having been out of the SF literary scene for sometime I’m behind the times, but this isn’t an easy going book. You’re truly dropped in the deep end with three strands of the novel running alongside one another with little seeming to keep them together. I wouldn’t dream of explaining the plot, and how it involves a present day homicidal mathematician, a space pilot from some indeterminate future and a “twink”. It’s certainly mind-expanding and for that reason, I don’t suppose it’ll be that long before I return to SF.