Transition

Pay attention to everything in the first 50 pages of the book, it won't make much sense to you at all, but it will by the end and you'll find yourself going back to reread that portion to see how you were first led off, after the knots have all been neatly tied at the end. Iain has a devious mind as can be seen in his earlier books. I think he comes up with a base story but his creative mind then winds backwards from that single thread to a gordian knot that then is transferred to words on paper. Transition is a worthy, and murderously bloody tale. It takes the traditional consipiracy plot (which side is which and who is on which?) and weaves it through fresh sci-fi turf that is fascinating and well detailed. He then adopts a film-like disjointed scenes approach to further "transition" the reader to this strange setting of multiverse. I can't think of another book like it, which I think is IB's goal. I got so caught up, I kept forgetting to sip my Grange.

This book 'transitions' the split between Iain Banks' non-sci-fi output & Iain M. Banks' vast space operas, presenting a sci-fi tale with a contemporary setting. It is based on the premise that a virtually infinite number of parallel dimensions do indeed exist. The inhabitants of one of them have discovered that by ingesting a drug called Septus, they can transport their consciousness into the bodies of unsuspecting people in other dimensions & thus meddle with the socio-political development of other Earths. They have therefore formed The Concern - an organisation designed to strictly control the use of 'transitioning' & ensure it is used to benefit other worlds. But since The Concern's High Council plays its cards suffocatingly close to its chest, can they actually be trusted? Or could some of its members have adgendas of their own? And who decides what constitutes the greater good anyway? These are questions one of The Concern's assassins has to find answers to when he becomes a piece in a deadly game between his employers & an enigmatic renegade. I have found that many of Banks' novels (such as The Business) consist of a story which can be summed up in 100 pages, fleshed out with 300 or so pages of florid descriptions & background details. Transition, however, never meanders far from the main plot. It's an expertly-crafted, entertaining & thought-provoking read, which remains gripping throughout. In my view, it's one of his best. In short, the transition from prologue to epilogue was a thoroughly enjoyable one.

Ordinarily this would be a spoiler, but it is offered in the Prologue by one of the book's narrators as an ending for readers too impatient to hear the whole story. Readers are left holding this ending while they absorb enough of the story to give it meaning. And they may make a wrong assumption or two. This is a well-written book; not easy to figure out but worth the effort. The overall plot is straightforward. A shadowy organization called The Concern monitors activities in a large number of parallel Earths. Their operatives transition between worlds using a drug supplied by The Concern. After each transition, operatives remain "themselves," but take on the physical appearance--and some of the mental characteristics--of the host person they have taken control of. The Concern influences events in these parallel worlds through various means, including selective assassination of key players--or potential players--in world events. All of this is supposedly for the greater good. Some of the book's characters, such as the competent assassin Temudjin Oh, the renegade Mrs. Mulverhill, and the unnamed hospitalized Patient 8262, have their doubts. Each recoils from The Concern in a different way. As the story unfolds, we learn more about who each of them are and what they have learned about The Concern. Fans of "Iain M. Banks" hard science fiction, such as Use of Weapons and The Algebraist, will not encounter the same high-tech, high-Culture environment in Transitions. It is more similar to his previous "Iain Banks" fiction. The Concern is another version of Banks' many-tentacled corporation in The Business and the multinational dysfunctional family business in The Steep Approach to Garbadale. Fans of Kage Baker's "Company" series (which begins with In the Garden of Iden), may enjoy the similar, but more complex machinations of The Concern. New Banks readers may benefit from some comparisons. The book has something of a Tom Clancy style, perspective-shifting between characters whose stories eventually come together. Banks' characters are different from Clancy's, though. They are darker, of course, and they act based on incomplete understandings of their world. Anne Rice fans (The Vampire Lestat) will enjoy Banks' skillful deployment of unreliable narrators and the patterns revealed by their collective errors in perspective. Banks' style contrasts interestingly with Stephen King's. Although both authors take us into the dark, the reader finishes a King book with much of the hidden territory mapped and understood, if at some human cost. Banks leads his readers into the mists, allows them only glimpses, partial revelations, and the hints of patterns. We draw many conclusions for ourselves and find little certainty. Such is his intent. This book is highly recommended as a rewarding and thought-provoking read. The writing is nuanced, finely textured, and superb.

Although I gave this book 5 stars, it's not for everyone: if you like your sci-fi to have a clear and straightforward plot line, conventional narration, and the usual trappings of sci-fi, there's very few of those things on display here. Instead the narration flits disconcertingly between a variety of characters, who, we are informed, may not be reliable (or even identifiable: in some cases we aren't even given a name). If you're prepared to journey with this cast of unreliable narrators and stick with the journey through the (at times quite slow-paced) initial machinations, it builds to a very satisfying and thought-provoking read - one of Mr. Bank's best, in my opinion.