“A Song Of Stone“

by Iain Banks

Format: Paperback, pages 280

Publisher; Abacus 1997

Its amazing what you can pick up at your local Tesco’s these days, there I was loading copious quantities of life’s necessities into the trolley (along with some proper food) when I noticed the racks of Iain Banks books with the none too subtle price stickers (£5) emblazoned on the front. No Iain M titles unfortunately but most of the non-M titles (and a few choice cuts by a Mr S. King, 2 for £3, reviews to follow).

Having read about half his non-m titles I couldn’t resist picking up a couple of bargains (The Bridge was the other purchase) and I’m glad I did. This is a book I have often thought of buying but the reviews I have read have been mixed to scathing (9 out of 34 one star reviews on Amazon) so it was with some trepidation that I started to read.

I also hadn’t expected to be reviewing this book here, whilst I have never made any firm rules, this site does try to focus on genre fiction of the fantasy, horror, SF variety, it was with some surpise that I realised this book probably fits as well into any of those categories as most of the others I have reviewed and better than some.

The setting is an unknown/unnamed war between unknown/unnamed armies, a war of untold horrors in a dystopian world of ugliness and corruption. Our narrator, Abel, is an anachronism, a lover of culture a remnant of the ruling class and the owner of a castle, forced to flee into the surrounding horrors until captured and returned to the castle, the decay and abuse of society is reflected in his captors treatment of the castle.

The interaction between the main characters of Abel, his lover Morgan and captor, the Lieutenant (Loot) are fascinating and complex. At times we feel empathy for Abel at others the lieutenant and at others nobody. The sheer horrors committed and the betrayals enacted force us to time and again question the characters mindset. The fact that our main narrator is such a complex and at times unlikeable character makes the book uncomfortable to read and this coupled with the lack of backstory or rationale for the atrocities being committed leaves the reader constantly swaying in their interaction with the characters. This complexity increases as the book moves to its dark and horrific climax.

The writing is some of Banks’ best, dark and complex, layered and structured and yet easily readable and at times a bit of a page turner. In style and tone this seemed to me quite similar to “Inversions” (the follow up Iain M Banks title) and the surreal fantasy of that world is prefaced here, albeit in even darker hues. It may be too extreme to see the book as some sort of religious parable but a horrific crucifixion is included and there are other biblical references which imply that Bank’s was possibly focusing on religious as well as class issues, the chaos they have caused in our own society is multiplied and caricatured here, but never overtly.

So if you like a bit of pessimistic, dystopian, dark fantasy, something along the lines of the recent film adaptation of “Children Of Men” then I think you will like this book. It has none of the lighter moments of the culture books and is not a “nice” book  (hence the one star reviews probably) but it stands out as an example of Banks’ ability to cross and mix genres and come up with something compelling, memorable and original and lets face it who wouldn’t prefer that to merely nice. In short if you like Ian M Banks (expecially Inversions) I think you will like this book, dont be scared off by negative reviews, you heard it here first (albeit 10 years later) this is an excellent Banks novel, feel free to take a pen and add the M to the cover page yourself if it makes you feel better, just make sure you give this a go.

Rating 4 out of 5