Rating: 
Summary: Compelling reading
Review: A mystery and suspense novel that is remarkable in its narrative. Loved it. Banks' humour is superb and the politics right on!
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre at best.
Review: After reading the Wasp Factory, I was hooked on Iain Banks, I read Complicity next and I can't help but feel dissappointed with this book. The writing isn't up to his normal standards, the plot is weak and the ending is totally lacking in the flair that he displays in so many of his other books. If you want to read quality Banks, read the Wasp Factory, I would give this one a miss.
Rating:
Summary: Well, I liked it better than Wasp Factory.
Review: After reading _Complicity_ I can't help but think that I'm a big old softie-- I want some redemption in my novels, some hope of joy. Banks denies that desire, almost denies the possibility of hope._Wasp Factory_ was so grotty that I just plain old could hardly read it, and I didn't have that problem with _Complicity_. Banks is a wonderfully talented writer, and his portrait of the twitchy burnt-out Colley deserves all the praise that it's received. I am less enamored of the switches in time and voice, particularly in the last third of the novel I found it to become increasingly intrusive and distracting. I suspect that I wouldn't have given this book five stars even with a more uplifting tone, but it most certainly deserves four on the quality of the writing. I gave it three stars because I'm just unable to stomach such bleak and fatal compromise. Probably says more about me than it does about Banks.
Rating:
Summary: So good it makes me laugh
Review: As a resident of Edinburgh and a former student of Stirling university I have the pleasure of experiancing the settings in an intimate fashion. What I cannot fail to notice is the amazing clarity with which he describes these places. The ending does fall away and this is a general problem with his work, almost as if he was eager to finish and move onto the next idea.However in this incarnation of Iain Banks (the M being reserved to distinguish his sci fi self) it does not get much better. Read this last, please or you may not read the rest
Rating: 
Summary: It's smokin'
Review: Banks occasionally gets his twists in a twist, but managed to pull off a near masterpiece with this one. The pill popping journalist is a totally lovable character, especially when you hate him, and the flashback to his youth has an almost autobiographical ring. The book goes slightly into the doldrums when the murderer is discovered (sorry Iain, but it was either too transparent or too staged), but the ending is so fitting that I really, really wish I'd written it.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and familiar
Review: Banks's best "mainstream" work, this novel plunges you into the nightmare life of it's unlikeable journalist hero. Enjoyment was enhanced by all the familar Scottish locations used.
Rating:
Summary: exciting, stylish and funny
Review: Brutal in places, but an excellent, fast-moving thriller. Iain Banks has an incredible imagination and is not afraid to explore the darker areas of human nature. Imo the best Scottish author writing just now. I've read 4 of his books and this is my second favourite , after "The Crow Road"
Rating:
Summary: A strong novel for strong stomachs
Review: Cameron Colley is an Edinburgh-based journalist with a habit for speed (both drug and motion), an obsession for computer games, and a highly developed sense of moral outrage. As a journalist, he worships the patron of all gonzos, St. Hunter S. Thompson, and his righteous indignation is expressed in print as exposes on cheap liquor, defense boondoggles, and inept judges. Of course Cameron is not without sin--no self respecting protagonist could be--and his is an adulterous affair and an abuse of substances. But he is a likable enough rogue that it would be hard to suspect him of a string of grisly revenge murders against a host of wealthy capitalists and political powermongers. We, however, get to see the story from his point-of-view, and the police don't. Iain Banks is one of my favorite authors, someone I truly admire for his ability to switch between genres like a chameleon changes colors. Under Iain M. Banks, he writes adventure-based science fiction that not only entertains, but usually has a moral underpinning. Without the middle initial, his books are variously mystery, thriller, or mainstream, always good, always interesting. If Banks was not so popular with other readers, I would likely have created a biopage for him similar to the one I did for Jonathan Carroll. But Carroll is a cult writer while Banks has been recognized in England as one of their best and brightest by almost every body politic. The result is that he has quite a presence of fans available to keep his name on the net and his books out of the mid-list... To return to Complicity, it is a novel that is not without faults, although what one person might see as problematic another might have no difficulty with. For example, the beginning of each early chapter has a crime described in second person. Some people might be a little squeamish about phrases like "you hit him on the head with the tyre iron, and it sounds like egsshells cracking" (my words--this phrase doesn't actually appear). The sexual references are not for prudes, and, while not truly glorified, drug use is not condemned, and that does not sit well with some people either. For those with strong stomachs ant open minds, Complicity is a fine novel that is well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense, spliffs and S&M
Review: Complicity truly is a dazzling read from its initial paragraphs down to it's moralistic and poignant denouement. Like many of Banks' books the main protagonist, Cameron Colley, is an amoral but personable; the antithesis of a conventional hero. Page after glorious page he'll have you whooping and hollering. Either in reaction to his snide comments to his 'friends' or his obsessive manner when confronted with matters narcotic or carnal. The action is just as powerful as the interior monologue with each crime described in gruelling detail. Banks from Scotland is easily the most vibrant and inventive novellist the UK has to offer
Rating:
Summary: Complicity
Review: Fantastic book, almost as good as The Crow Road. Where's the screenplay, Iain?
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