Rating: 
Summary: FAR FUTURE THRILLER
Review: BANKS HAS WRITTEN IN MY OPINION THE FIRST FAR FUTURE
HITCHCOCK SF NOVEL. YOU ENTER HIS UNIVERSE OF LETHAL INTRIGUE, TECHOLOGICAL WONDERS. BANKS FILLED HIS NOVEL
WITH BRILLIANT PLOT TWISTS, JAMES BONDIAN ACTION LYRICAL
WRITING. YOU WON'T FIGURE OUT IT'S FINAL SECRET UNTIL THE
FINAL VIOLENT SHOCKING PAGE.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Sci-Fi (Ever!)
Review: Banks is the most well-written, excellently readable experience I have yet come across in Sci-Fi.
Against A Dark Background is an epic, an adventure story involving so many believable characters
in the most believable (somewhere between rosy cheeks and hell-on-earth) universe that has ever been dreamt and described by any Sci-Fi author.
The setting is right up there with Asimov's Foundation, with Bruce Sterlings c-punk, only more real, more touching, more genuine.
The description of the heroine's trouble, pain and pleasure is right up there with Orson Scott Card, and many of this centuries great novelists.
The vision is (I'm convinced) Jules Vernian in its splendor and accuracy.
In short Bank's is a master.
This book must be read, by all who enjoy any of the following:
1. An epic tale
2. A well-written story
3. Science Fiction
4. A picture on the future 3000 years from now
5. A picture of now
Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great ideas, great writing, lots of action
Review: First he blows you away with a different great idea or two every chapter, then he make you laugh your ass off while his characters make jokes in the face of death, then he ends it all, quickly and concisely.It did slow down somewhere around three fifths of the way through. He could have dropped about 50 pages, but overall this is a great book. I'm looking forward to more of his stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, depressing end.
Review: First the positive things: If you like sci-fi with a chaotic dark future setting, you'll like this book. And if you're into RPGing, you'll discover typical situations which Sharrow's 'team' encounters in this sci-fi road movie/novel.
But in the end, the book left me kinda hollow, if not depressed. Almost all the major characters are dead, quite some questions are left open, and if you pay close attention, there are more than a few events/developments which are at best questionable (i.e. if I didnt miss something, Girmeyn cant be older than 15(!) if he really is what Geis claimed him to be).
Of course, Banks had to make his point, how the Lazy Gun and his main character are linked together (I dont wanna tell too much for those ppl who havent read this book yet), but I'm repeating myself - too many deaths dont leave much room to cheer about.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning.
Review: How can this book be out of print? The only other sci-fi book (not written by Mr. Banks...) to ever catch my interest like this was "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. How can grim, tarnished characters be so appealing to read about? Banks' characters are so powerfully written it's almost (just almost...) possible to overlook the incredibly imaginative backdrop he has created for them. If you have the chance to get a hold of this one, take advantage of it.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning.
Review: How can this book be out of print? The only other sci-fi book (not written by Mr. Banks...) to ever catch my interest like this was "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. How can grim, tarnished characters be so appealing to read about? Banks' characters are so powerfully written it's almost (just almost...) possible to overlook the incredibly imaginative backdrop he has created for them. If you have the chance to get a hold of this one, take advantage of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Rue
Review: I can't decide if this book should get 3 or 4 stars. It is a good book, no doubt about that, it's just that I can't stand the kind of despair and doom that permeats the book. You shouldn't read it if you have a tendency to become depressed easily. If you do read it, you will keep hoping for a sequel, at least I do!
Rating:
Summary: I need MORE !!!
Review: I have read 6 Banks novels. I am running OUT!!! I have to now pace myself and put other books between the few of his I have left to read. He is an incredibly imaginative writer - all his stories I have read I will read again. (I've already started!) He is a fractal slideshow with quadrophic sound; he gets in your head man, and just goes nuts.
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