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• One of his better ones, this novel is gripping & exciting. Sometimes I feel a bit lost in a Banks novel, especially with his habit of switching between characters & narrative style like a loony, however in this book the switching works with the story in a brilliantly conceived plot line. Violent & sexy in places & with an awesome twist at the end. Love it!

  4.50 out of 5

  plabebob

• I am new to Iain Banks' works. He came recommended by the Sony Reader software based upon what I've read in the past. The recommendation has paid off. I've read "The Wasp Factory" and then now "Transition" and have enjoyed both, although they are very different. Transition was an interesting read. The diverse voices that create the novel came together nicely in the end. I found it fast-paced and thrilling.

  4.00 out of 5

  piankeshaw

• Hmmm. I love the work of Iain (M.) Banks (in both incarnations). But ... this one ... leaves me struggling. I love the writing, but the fantasy setting makes me think that he should have chosen yet another name to write under for works that aren't science fiction and aren't straight novels. You see, anyone starting reading his works here will immediately get switched off if they assumed that Iain Banks was for the straightforward novels. This has multiple narrators, and you're pretty sure that their stories are going to come together at some point, but the worlds they reside in seem quite different. This is explained as you find out that the story is woven around a 'multiverse' setting, with some characters able to jump between different world-lines. There are some graphic descriptions of torture and sex, and most of the characters are pretty unsympathetic. No, actually they are all quite amoral/immoral to a greater or lesser degree. The descriptions of the scenes and settings are up to the usual Banks standard. And if you think this review is jumping around without a coherent thread, then you're probably getting a fair idea of the narrative itself. So, how do I feel about it then? Well, his writing style is still brilliant in my opinion, and I enjoyed the book, but I want more from Iain Banks. It made me think; the location descriptions just took me straight there; I saw through the eyes of the characters. I still came away disappointed, but that's only in a relative sense because he still blows almost everyone else out of the water. Should you read this book? Yeeeess ... but only if you've read a lot of his other works, and are prepared to ignore the story and accept it for the ideas and the writing. If you <i>do</i> want a proper storyline, and you don't care much for fantasy, well I'm afraid to say you should start elsewhere in his canon.

  4.00 out of 5

  Noisy

• This was my first Iain Banks novel for a few years and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's nothing new about the concepts of parallel realities, or being able to jump into other people's heads, but the idea of a shadowy organisation sending operatives between parallel realities for its own ends was a really good one. The reasons why this was being done were a bit opaque and I suppose part of the mystery of the book. The raison d'etre of the plot pretty much boils down to a power struggle between the megalomaniacal Madame d'Ortolan and the rebellious Mrs Mulverhill, with whom Temudjin, the Transitioner, is in love, but the novel is pacy and continually interesting.I like the structure of the book too, flitting between the different characters are like transitions themselves and I 'liked' the psychopathic Philosopher, the Gordon Ghekko-like Adrian and the mysterious Patient 8262. I didn't find it at all confusing as other reviewers have found,Banks doesn't spend much time describing the worlds being visited, rather hinting at the subtle differences between them. At first I felt this was a missed opportunity but then the pace of the novel couldn't have been kept up if he'd got bogged down in that kind of thing I suppose. I thought the ending was really well done and raced through the final pages in a fever of excitement, although a character pivotal to the climax is kind of shoe-horned into the book shortly before. To sum up, I think this novel is a rattling good sci-fi thriller. If you like that kind of thing you can't go wrong.

  4.00 out of 5

  phraxos

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