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Iain M. Banks uses the ‘M’ to distinguish himself from his alter-ego, Iain Banks. They are the same person, it’s just that ‘M’ writes science fiction books. At any rate, the common typesetting across the covers should have given you something of a clue. With this matter now resolved, these reviews will refer to this talented dualist as Iain Banks.
Look to Windward is, at least according to the cover notes, “The bestselling new Culture novel”. Of course, if this is the first of the Culture novels that you’ve read then the obvious reference to this book’s place in a series can be off-putting. In a lot of instances, despite authors’ best efforts, books that continue an already existing story, complete with character set, tend to offer more to the serial reader than to the one who dips in and out. Look to Windward was my first exposure to the Culture, but it didn’t seem to matter when I was reading, all seemed to make the appropriate degree of sense, and not once did I get the feeling that something might have been more clear had I read the predecessors.
It is interesting that there are a number of differences between the writing styles of Iain M. Banks and Iain Banks, and not just that the former’s subject matter is entirely constructed from imagination, whilst the latter has some basis in real life. Chief amongst the differences is a much more prevalent wittiness, which shows itself throughout, in both dialogue and extraneous description. As an example of the descriptive humour, the Culture builds spaceships with sentient control computers, which are allowed to choose their own names. So far, of course, none of this is central to the narration, but life, as they say, is in the details. So early on, one of our characters travels on the “Torturer class Rapid Offensive Unit Nuisance Value”. They later disembark, and travel on “a Gangster class Rapid Offensive Unit” called “Resistance is Character-Forming”. Things get crazy on pages 241,242, where a couple have an entire conversation using ship-names, starting with All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff and peaking with I Said I’ve Got A Big Stick (which has to be written small or said quietly) and (my favourite) Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again. If all this seems a rather involved piece of quotation for such a small point (that there are significant differences in the writing styles of the same author), it should give you, dear Review reader, a flavour for the sort of frivolous wit that abounds in Look to Windward.
Regular Banks fans will be pleased to hear that this is not a pure comedy novel, however. Banks’ ability to spin a yarn is all there, and perhaps a little more so, since there is no basis in the current world as we know it in Look to Windward. His talent for description and detail are there, and all frame the narrative and flesh it. There is one thread to the story (featuring a creature called a behemothaur) that is interesting, but ultimately does not contribute except as an afterthought at the end, but that aside, the number of simultaneous themes, scenes and times make Look to Windward a pleasurable effort to read, darting back and forth across four dimensions, but all slowly, inexorably pulling together to a final denouement. It’s classic thriller stuff, and this is one of those books that sci-fi sceptics should be made to read, for despite the fictional and fantastic (in the proper sense of the word) settings, it is a cracking story.
Perhaps this would be an appropriate time to mention the last Banks book I read, called The Business. A Banks, not an M. Banks, my review concluded that the description was up to Banks’ usual par, but that the story was not, that it had all seemed a little pointless and unsatisfactory. Look to Windward is a different kettle of fish entirely. Quality from the first page to the last. I shall definitely be reading more Iain M. Banks.
8/10
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