Feersum Endjinn

I found this little Iain M Banks SF novel in an Oxfam months ago, and started reading it pretty much straight away. 

It’s set in a far-flung future in which the higher echelons of society live in humongous castles, public policy is dictated by some moving stones, and a local count (like a mayor) oversees the land, known as ‘The Fastness.’ Only problem is, someone keeps assassinating him. He manages to revive himself by backing up his entity to some kind of national electronic platform, as do most people, but that platform – as I understand it – is under threat from The Encroachment, a giant interstellar cloud that’s about to wipe them all out. Bascule the Teller – a clerical dude with an apparent learning difficulty and what I interpreted to be a heavy Yorkshire accent – is tasked with contacting dead people on their families’ behalf. He has a pet ant called Egretes, that is abducted by a giant metallic eagle, and is determined to find said pet, a creature that seems to understand him. But first, he must climb the tower in the hope of reaching a control room, to direct the whole planet away from The Encroachment. 

There’s so, so much more to it than this. Bascule’s dialect really slows down the pace at which I could read it. Every sentence has to be absorbed carefully to interpret it and the perspective of the book keeps jumping around between characters and first and third perspectives. 

It’s certainly not where I’d advise people to start out with Iain M Banks. Endlessly inventive but hard, hard work.