Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: I read this a few years ago, but it still impresses me. The story is very dark with interesting twists and development. Like many you may find the story pointless at times but Banks is a very clever writer and manages to bring meaning and conclusion in a intelligent way. I found the character of Sharrow facinating and well the story left me feeling kind of disturbed, but nethertheless the book is very deep and powerful, and will take some thought to appreciate and digest. A fantastic read with a story that leaps out at you with real pathos.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece of future intrigue and adventure
Review: I read this book a a few years back and remember the hunger I had to keep reading. "Against a Dark Background" is a network of characters and ideas the likes of which I have not seen before. It ranks with "Ender's Game". "Snow Crash", and "Neuromancer" in concept and delivery. This tale, and others by Banks, are well worth every second spent finding and reading them.
Rating:
Summary: well, you have to pay attention, that's all...
Review: I think that the real main character of this novel is the solar system Banks has created and populated. I like the way Banks only gradually gives the reader information about his creation, a tremendously wealthy, powerful, and lonely society that has been decadent for millenia. But you have to pay attention to get it all. That might bother some people, but it doesn't bother me. His characters are well developed, especially the Lady Sharrow, an intelligent, tough, deeply flawed woman: a picaresque hero. Everybody Sharrow cares about dies, and her revenge is terrible: society will surely come near collapse because of her actions, and there will be tremendous suffering. Not a happy ending, but if that doesn't bother you, then read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Banks blows the doors off 'space opera'
Review: I've been reading SF for 30 years, and these days, Iain Banks is one of the few SF authors I buy unhesitatingly - Greg Bear is another. I read "Consider Phlebas" first - it's wonderful - similar to "Against a Dark Background", but I don't know if it is still in print.
Banks has a kind of wild, fervid, dark imagination that takes his work beyond the formula and cliche that permeates so much SF, yet his books are not really distopian or tragic. I think of Larry Niven and Arthur C. Clarke, but he is more complex and wittier, and his worlds and characters are vastly more engaging. Hmm - Remember the feeling of awe you got from "Rendezvous with Rama" and "Ringworld"? Mix in some "Die Hard" and "Alice In Wonderland"... That's as close as I can get
Rating:
Summary: Great read, some `Banks cliches'
Review: I've only just finished the book, which by the way is available everywhere here in Australia (another great reason to visit...). I enjoyed the book tremendously until the last 20%, where things turn really really dark. Almost everybody dies and that's just the start of it. Of course this comes as no surprise given the title.For most of the book the plot is great, the character development is fabulous (some Amazon reviewers complain about that but I can't understand their qualms), the action is fast paced and things become more and more mysterious as this tome progresses into a page turner. Banks remembers to be funny at times and he is very good at making the very same thing hilarious one moment and absolutely chilling the next (the
Sollipsists for example). The world backdrop is well done with lots of interesting and strange features (lots of fascinating weapons if you are into that sort of things), a believable tragic history and a commendable variety of worlds. A couple of things didn't gel with me, for example the ending is good but not great (besides its dark character), not utterly believable, and probably I've read too many Banks before: there is an element of repetition with Banks fascination with gore, weapons, religious fanatism and anti-heroes. His style is still great though so I'd recommend this book. If you haven't read a Banks book before I'd still recommend `Consider Phlebas' as a much more satisfying book. In that one the ending, the last 100 pages, is a masterpiece. If you like to be challenged `Player of games' is also fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Is there any such thing as a 1-book epic?
Review: More American SF fans need to be aware of Iain M. Banks.
This guy is amazing. I first read "Feersum Endjinn" last
year, and when I finished it immediately ran out in search
of more. "Against a Dark Background" is the best update of
the epic quest I've come across to date. Detailing the
heroine's interplanetary quest in search of the legendary
Lazy Gun, which has an ancient connection to her family,
this book pulls no punches and permits no romantic twists
of fate. Reminiscent of Gibson in terms of atmosphere, but
not remotely c-punk - Banks defies the subgenres of science
fiction. An excellent, excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Is there any such thing as a 1-book epic?
Review: More American SF fans need to be aware of Iain M. Banks.This guy is amazing. I first read "Feersum Endjinn" lastyear, and when I finished it immediately ran out in search of more. "Against a Dark Background" is the best update of the epic quest I've come across to date. Detailing the heroine's interplanetary quest in search of the legendary Lazy Gun, which has an ancient connection to her family, this book pulls no punches and permits no romantic twists of fate. Reminiscent of Gibson in terms of atmosphere, but not remotely c-punk - Banks defies the subgenres of science fiction. An excellent, excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Gimme more of the Culture... I'm like a heroine addict!
Review: Of course, the first Banks novel I read was Consider Phlebas. This man is amazing. He writes a story that creates awesomely developed characters and has no remorse about destroying them. Banks can give depth to a thin wafer. Banks for president. If you love and live Banks, also look into reading Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle... 5 books of pure pleasure... But once again, Banks is a god, and the Culture lives.
Rating: 
Summary: I've come to expect more from Banks
Review: Surprisingly enough, this latest SF novel by Banks reminded me as much of Zindell's Neverness as of Banks' earlier SF. Maybe it's because I'd read Zindell's novel recently, and because Banks and Zindell are both writing "Space Opera" yet enlivening it with modern sensibility. Banks remains irrestiably readable, even when the novel is nothing more than an adventure novel with a few flourishes. Like Use of Weapons, Against a Dark Background centers around family relationships moving people and events around like a grand chess game. This novel is separate from Banks' other SF, however, which is grouped under the name of the "universe" that it is set in, the Culture. I think I prefer the Culture universe. At least, it seems to make more sense to me. I never quite grabbed the scale to which time and space moved in Against a Dark Background. Many things seemed invented solely to provide a different setting or mood when the story demanded it, rather than actually being true world building. Still, the individual constructions--the Sea House, the Lazy Gun, the World Court, the Huyze brotherhood, the characters, the weird animals, the political/religious/social sectors--are simply wonderful, each unique yet familiar as well. What this novel really lacks is the twist that I've come to expect from Banks. Or, maybe the twist is there, but because I know Banks, I looked for it and expected it, and wasn't surprised as I should be. Which might mean that Banks has achieved a formula that has become predictable in its unpredictability. All in all, Against a Dark Background is not a worthless experience, but Banks has done much better in other books (I suggest The Player of Games for SF, Espedair Street for non-SF).
Rating:
Summary: A very "deep" book, requiring some thought to fully take in.
Review: The back of the book has a quote from a reviewer saying "He warns you up front, this is a dark novel." Well, compared to Banks' _The Wasp Factory_, this really isn't such a dark novel. I'll quote another reviewer from USENET who said "I can't trust an author who develops characters and kills them." This, however, is also a trait of Banks', and I cant imagine anyone would read this book expecting everyone to escape unscathed from the ominous, looming evil which permeates, quite frankly, every Banks book I've read. The book tells a story of a woman, who becomes a metaphor for the star system she lives in. Unlike the Culture novels, the "Golter" system is at least a hundred million light years from the nearest star. They are entirely isolated. They have colonized all the planets and moons in their system, but have no hope of ever reaching anyone else. Sharrow is the same way. Alone, even while surrounded by others. As the system society begins to attack itself, so, too, does Sharrow lose friends. Entire cities are wiped out. This is not unexpected. You're reading a Banks novel. However, the finish of the book (as other reviewers have hinted, the last 100 pages are worth the rest of the book being somewhat slow and, well, pointless) is quite profound, and ties the rest of the story together in ways I really hadn't anticipated. It actually took me a couple days to reflect on it, and how I felt about the story he had told. Surprisingly, after a couple days, I realized that what Banks was getting at was the good that actually came out of all the death and destruction in the book. I'll leave the reader to discover that on their own. I'd highly recommend this to any Banks fan, but perhaps not to a first time Banks reader. Consider _Excession_ instead.
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