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Book Details / Review - supplied by Amazon UK
In a future where the ancients have long since departed Earth for the stars, those left behind live complacent lives filled with technological marvels they no longer understand. Then a cosmic threat known as the Encroachment begins a devastating ice age on Earth, and it sets in motion a series of events that will bring together a cast of original characters who must struggle through war, political intrigues and age-old mysteries to save the world. (B 4worned, 1 oph Banx' carrokters theenx en funetic inglish, which makes for some tough reading but also some innovative prose.)
Books Related to Feersum Endjinn Iain Banks - ISBN: 0553573586
Hard work to begin with - Rated
What a read! This is a book which really makes you think. You have to. It's not just an 'entertain me while I read you' book, you will be puzzling away at the story and concepts long after you put it down! Brilliant.
Fearsome Engine - Rated
This book takes a little while to get into. AS some other reviewers have noted the 'phonetic' way of speaking of "1 off the main karakters can be, frangly, difikult 2 reed @ 1st".
However, it is well worth persevering. Once you get over the irritation (by realising that you are "reading" this dyslexic character's 'journal' - sort of!) the style almost becomes endearing.
More in=mportantly, however, it is an excellent read with breathtaking concepts and ideas and a brilliant narrative.
In other words a typical (if such a word can be used) Iain M. Banks novel.
Better & Better - Rated
Well now, I've just finished reading this for the third time (in about 10 years) and I just love it more each time! The much maligned phonetic sections are no problem in our 'textspeak' times, you soon get used to it anyway. I also found it made the character of Bascule more endearing.
Warmer and rather less torture ridden than some of Banks other works which is definitely a good thing.
What makes this such a good read is the array of wonderful ideas and concepts on display. The far distant, but still recognisable future. The perfectly realised virtual reality of the 'crypt'. And the truly mind blowing scale of the mega-architecture. wholeheartedly recommended.
A Strange Read - Rated
Many people have thoroughly enjoyed this book as you can see from the other reviews. I however found it to be less engaging than the other Iain M Banks books.
The characters seemed to bit rather more shallow than those in other books - also the frequent jumps to cryptspace can be quite hard to follow.
To those about to read this book I would recommend reading it quickly in a few short bursts, you'll probably get more out of it! Personally I found this alot less engaging than Iain's other books - most of which I cannot put down! However, maybe this is a bit like marmite, so many other people have thoroughly enjoyed it!
Hard to read. - Rated
It was really hard to read this book, author too often switches story from one character to other. At the beginning of each paragraph I wondered "About who this paragraph is written? Is this character now in Real Life, or in crypt?".
So it doesn't seems that I want to reread the book like "The Bridge". In Endjinn there was no shocking ending like in "The Wasp Factory", so strictly speaking this is the worst book of Ian Banks that I've encountered.
