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Hachette Digital is making an abridged version of Iain (M.)* Banks's new novel, Transition available as a podcast, to promote their unabridged audiobook version as well as the print editions. It's being released in ~15 minute chunks, 2 chunks a week, for the next 12 weeks. (Searching the iTunes store for "Iain Banks" should bring up both the podcast and the unabridged audiobook for purchase.)
I've listened to the first two episodes, and thoroughly enjoyed myself right from the first sentence: "Apparently, I am what is known as an unreliable narrator." However, I think I'm going to buy the US print edition when it comes out on the 23rd rather than continue with the audio, because the book switches between at least four narrators, at least two of whom spend some of their time occupying an alternate timeline, and I find it hard to keep that sort of stuff straight on audio.
The book seems very topical, with most of the action taking place between the September 11, 2001 attacks and the September 15, 2008 Wall Street meltdown. It also features a character who is a cocaine pusher turned financial trader, and an alternate timeline in which an Islamo-Judaic Europe struggles with the threat of Christian terrorists. I find myself with mixed feelings about a Banksian take on current events: Banks can be a sharp satirist, but he can also be very unsubtle. I guess I'll see when I read the book.
* The book is being published as by Iain Banks in the U.K., but by Iain M. Banks in the U.S. suggesting that there is some doubt about whether it is science fiction. Or that it's only science fiction on one side of the Atlantic. (Actually, I'm sure that it's purely a marketing decision.)
I've listened to the first two episodes, and thoroughly enjoyed myself right from the first sentence: "Apparently, I am what is known as an unreliable narrator." However, I think I'm going to buy the US print edition when it comes out on the 23rd rather than continue with the audio, because the book switches between at least four narrators, at least two of whom spend some of their time occupying an alternate timeline, and I find it hard to keep that sort of stuff straight on audio.
The book seems very topical, with most of the action taking place between the September 11, 2001 attacks and the September 15, 2008 Wall Street meltdown. It also features a character who is a cocaine pusher turned financial trader, and an alternate timeline in which an Islamo-Judaic Europe struggles with the threat of Christian terrorists. I find myself with mixed feelings about a Banksian take on current events: Banks can be a sharp satirist, but he can also be very unsubtle. I guess I'll see when I read the book.
* The book is being published as by Iain Banks in the U.K., but by Iain M. Banks in the U.S. suggesting that there is some doubt about whether it is science fiction. Or that it's only science fiction on one side of the Atlantic. (Actually, I'm sure that it's purely a marketing decision.)
