I set up a Google Alert (now an obsolete Google tech, but still working) to track any web news about Iain Banks’ new book Surface Detail. Very few uses of the phrase “surface detail” relate to his book though.
I am either getting stuff about astronomy/photography like:
Hitler’s War by Harry Turtledove. I haven’t read any of Mr Turtledove’s stuff before, so I picked this up with some excitement and trepidation – you never quite know if you are going to like a new author or not!
I found it quite an unusual book in some ways.
The story is told from various viewpoints but all by someone on the front-line of the war – whether privates and NCOs fighting with the armies of the warring countries, or pilots and a U-boat captain, or civilians directly affected by the war. The action is largely away from the planning of the war and the grand view of the generals and politicians, and concentrates on the effects of war on the common soldier and civilian.
Although Turtledove does a good job of giving us a good feel of what war would be like for all his different characters, I do find it disconcerting that all his characters have an American tone of voice. The book has more the feel of a comic book strip sometimes because of this.
Also I was puzzled about where the book was going. You don’t actually get any resolution. The war doesn’t end, but just seems to be entering a new phase, one that is different from original history. I suspect that other books will follow, but this is not at all clear from anything printed in the front-matter or on the front and back covers. Wikipedia states that the novel is part of a series.
Overall I found the style engaging and readable, but ultimately I didn’t feel that I was any the wiser. Why did Turtledove see the events of WWII happening differently? The book doesn’t seem to answer that fundamental question. Also I found the structure of stringing together a series of vignettes to describe the experience of a large cast of characters ultimately unsatisfying. A lot of the episodes felt very similar, yet I never really had the feeling for what one character’s overall experience was like because the narrative never stayed with anyone for very long.
I think I would try another of Turtledove’s books, but probably not from this new series.
A good summary of Iain Bank’s career at this site about the Edinburgh Festival.
Unfortunately not many snippets about Surface Detail though. All we get is:
His next book is Surface Detail, a Culture novel(released 7 October 2010). The utopian Culture, he tells us was created to reclaim the moral high ground of space opera where so much of the genre was right wing. It was also a reaction against the raft of Orwellian works. The new book “begins with a murder…and will not end until the culture has gone to war with death itself”. Banks describes it as “internal turf wars”.
But there are some good insights about Iain Banks the writer in the commentary on his interview at the Festival:
Questions from the audience return us to the process of creating his novels. Viewing authors basically as entertainers he is aware of the need to make his novels work for the booklover and also to provide subsequent gratifying readings. He describes his method of planning, including colour coded characters to ensure pacing. He admits to some concern that age would lessen his number of unique ideas, which he sees as vital to his science fiction works in particular – mainstream works just need to be well done but not necessarily original. Happily any diminution has been balanced by being better equipped to utilise concepts. While we are not likely to spot many influences in his work they include the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, the Goons, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Jane Austin, Graham Greene, Alan Warner and specifically the novels Catch 22, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark.
Weird and unlikely things happen when you distribute your work for free over the internet. And it seems that my story The Human Factor has been downloaded from Feedbooks and uploaded to Scribd.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I guess the guy who did just liked the story, which is good and isn’t gaining commercially from it – although Scribd are of course through advertising – whereas there is no advertising on Feedbooks.
Writers – what do you think? Are you happy to see your work distributed for free by others if you have already made it free?
A bit less blogging recently because I have been concentrating on managing the flow of submissions to Alt Hist. We’ve had quite a good number of submissions in and I am received to say that a lot of these are good enough to be published. Some have not quite made the grade, but so far three have – as I blogged about on the Alt Hist site. Of those that have been rejected, some of them were very good, but didn’t quite do it for me. As well as quality I am also looking for stories that I like, which I suppose is what all Editors do in the end – you have to be subjective, if you don’t like a story, it’s unlikely that your readers will either.
If you are writing short pieces of historical fiction or alternate history then please do visit Alt Hist and submit your work. I would also love to see some non-fiction too – reviews and features about historical fiction and alternate history.
Fact is stranger than fiction, and fiction is nothing unless it tells the truth. Powerful and moving stories often tell us something true about life, about the world and about ourselves, even if the details have been manufactured inside the author’s brain. The Kite Runner, one of the most popular more high-brow novels of recent years has been successful because of the moving story it tells of human weakness and redemption, set in a country, Afghanistan, that we have all become more familiar with for all the wrong reasons.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini tells the story of Amir, son of a privileged oligarch living in Kabul during the 1970s in Afghanistan. Amir grows up alongside Hassan, the hare-lipped son of the family’s principal servant Ali. Although of a very different background, Hassan is Amir’s childhood companion, yet at the same time is also resented by Amir, who is jealous of any affection shown the boy by his own father. The story covers Amir’s struggles to come to terms with his relationship with Hassan and his father, and historically covers the period from the end of the monarchy in the 1970s to the US invasion in 2001.
The book is a quick read although also a harrowing one, with death, rape, guilt and destruction common presences throughout its pages. I can’t say much more about the plot without giving away too much, but I would recommend that you read it yourself.
Although the Kite Runner is a heart-wrenching and powerful story, I get the feeling, especially during the last act of the book that rather present a “real” story of this war-ravaged country, the author is carving out a book with a powerful narrative arc, one that hits all the emotional and thematic buttons – for instance the kites and the redemption of being able to make up to Hassan by adopting his son etc etc. It’s all a bit too convenient and well-fitting. So despite the truly harrowing and sad story, the book left me feeling that I had ready something contrived rather than something true.
Iain M Banks, Gwyneth Jones, Michael Moorcock and China Miéville: British Science Fiction
Sunday 17 October 2010 at 4:00 pm (60mins) Event 317 at The Inkpot Price: £6 (reserved seating) (member price: £4.80) more
From H G Wells to John Wyndham, Britain has been home to some of the most groundbreaking and successful classic science fiction writers. Explore past classics and the best of the current crop as authors Iain M Banks, Gwyneth Jones, Michael Moorcock and Guest Director China Miéville discuss this very British tradition.
Programmed by China Miéville.
Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path.
These are the opening lines to Dante’s great poem, and probably the most famous poem of the Middle Ages. What better way to start off a new series of posts about great poetic verses from Medieval poetry.
There is so much going on in these three lines, a lot of symbolism and allegory already, but also a suggestion of the clear descriptive style that Dante uses to such great effect in his poetry. Let us take the verse line by line:
Midway along the journey of our life
With the word “our” Dante makes this poem not only about him but about us as well, an allegory that we should be taking note of as well. In the Middle Ages mortal life was seen as a journey or pilgrimage, with the ultimate goal being Heaven, thus the journey that the poet travels is through the three possibilities for a person after death: Hell, Purgatory or Heaven. The poet is notionally midway through his life in the setting of the poem as he was born in 1265 and the poem takes place in 1300.
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
Oh dear, things can’t be good for Dante, he’s in dark wood, which I imagine can’t be bad thing. The simple phrase “dark wood” is a great example of the simple descriptive style, it conjures up so many allusions to being lost, to being afraid, to being isolated and outcast and to being in a dangerous place, that Dante need to say very little more than this (although he does expand on the bitterness and savagery of the place in subsequent verses).
for I had wandered off from the straight path.
And now we know why Dante is in a “dark wood”. He has gone off the straight path to God for some reason. He has sinned perhaps or has let his attention drift from the proper goal of a Christian’s life – i.e. the pilgrimage or journey towards God mentioned in the first line of the poem.
It’s not the religious content that attracts me to this verse, but the sheer simplicity and depth of meaning which is conveyed by these three lines. They effectively set-up the whole premise for the Divine Comedy.
Here’s an alternative translation and the original Italian from the Princeton Dante Project:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Midway in the journey of our life
I came to myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
Expect to see a few more choice verses from Dante’s work coming up in future posts.
Interesting talk on Science Fiction being promoted at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday, 16th October. Some people you might have heard of are involved, see below for the organizer’s blurb:
Are you open-minded about science fiction but don’t know where or how to start? For an introduction to some recommended reads and an expert guide to this alien world join Toby Litt, author of Journey Into Space, Nalo Hopkinson, and Arthur C Clarke Award-winning author of Nova Swing, M John Harrison, as they explore some beguiling writing.
Funny Video courtesy of brothersgrimandgrimy. All you need to know about Cthulhu! I like how New Zealand is now labelled Middle Earth! Originally spotted at SF Signal.
September 3, 2010 | Posted by Mark 
Categories: Iain Banks, Iain M. Banks | 
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