A Glastonbury Romance

This is a book I really loved. Imagine a newsman, a chain smoking Scottish newspaper reporter, who prays to Hunter Thompson as he zips along on speed. A guy addicted to computer games and the story. He has to get the story. In fact, his motto is, "Cover the Story" and he does it the way St. Hunter would have. I have just described Cameron Colley, a guy you're going to want to read about. When this story opens Cameron is getting... Read Full 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... Read Full Review

This is a modern masterpiece and not just because Banks talks about the "highly controversial" topic of masturbation and graphic sex, but because it's so blinkin' good; approaches issues and points in a manner so as they're not in there for the sake of it. He actually wants them in there. His pen leaks them, rather than scrawls them dispassionately. Or his keyboard, as the case may well be.Which brings to another point:... Read Full Review

The fact that Iain Banks isn't more widely read in this country is almost criminal and this book just emphasizes how wrong that is. Easily one of the best books of its' year, of any year, for that matter, at first glance it seems to be a standard thriller/mystery, with the unlikable (somewhat) journalist at its core, and some weird murders. But Banks spins a plot that's so knotty you miss the obvious, like the best mysteries... Read Full Review

The first non SF Banks book I read, it contains all the ingredients of a classic thriller; Corruption, several brutal murders, and a flawed central character with a sense of alienation. In common with his other work, of both genres, it illuminates the dark side of peoples's consciousness whilst exploring their emmotional frailties. Unique humour, blended with tragic and macabre circumstances, has become a hallmark of... Read Full Review