Not one of the great man's best, sadly.

Surprisingly underwhelming for a Banks novel. Not much action, predictable ending and no entertaining characters. Quite a drag really.

Stuck at it till the end, mainly due to brilliant narration by Peter Kenney.

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A tour de force

one of bank's best ending. Peter Kenny was magnificent. why did Banks have to die

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Amazing, but not his best

this review is relative to the rest of banks works, it's still a wonderful and immersive book, a bit disjointed in parts and hard to like the protagonist, but still very enjoyable.

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Characters vocalisation worked well.

A classic Banks story. Great concepts and characters. More like consider phlebas than other books .

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An Iain M. Banks' classic.

If you could sum up Against a Dark Background in three words, what would they be?

Very darkly humorous..

What other book might you compare Against a Dark Background to, and why?

Always hard to compare a Banks' book to anything other than his other works. I suppose it feels closest to something like Consider Phlebas and Use of Weapons (his early Culture works) in tone.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

I just love how he draws scene after scene - perhaps the Logjam heist was my favourite bit - twist after twist after twist...

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's over 18 hours of excellent narration from Peter Kenny - so,no, it's too long. Also it's quite episodic in structure as Sharrow and her crew follow the trail of the last Lazy Gun (and Sharrow has her back story filled in by flashbacks) - so there are lots of natural breaks.

Any additional comments?

The 'Dark Background' in question is that the solar system in this novel is stuck at the arse end of nowhere and there is no FTL technology. So the humans are just stuck - for millennia - technology has peaked and fallen back from its peak. Every possible religious, political and philosophical system has been tried and tried again (and Banks has great fun with many of them as the scene shifts chapter after chapter - the Solipsists might be my personal favourite). But still the world goes nowhere and the golden age has passed. Through all this passes Sharrow - hunted by religious extremists and looking for the legendary last Lazy Gun. It's of course a good sci-fi action adventure story, and because it's Banks the prose is top-notch and a pleasure just to listen to (no Dan Brown 'the man was sad and had a red hat' etc. here) but it's far more than that - it's a chance for Banks to play with notions of political and philosophical systems and futility - all sketched against that (very) Dark background. So it's darkly humorous and actually one of my favourite works of his. I once chatted to him about it and I think he enjoyed being able to play around so much in it. I've gone back to it more often than any of his other books apart from Excession and Inversions,,,and Peter Kenny does it justice (and more) as usual..

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Good story but cluttered

Would you try another book written by Iain M. Banks or narrated by Peter Kenny?

Love Peter Kenny, Great reader. I have many Iain M Banks books in my library. Can't get enough of the Culture Series.

If you’ve listened to books by Iain M. Banks before, how does this one compare?

This doesn't stack up against his other novels. A lot of back tracking that adds little to the story.

What does Peter Kenny bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Peter Kenny is very expressive and engaging, I could listen to him for hours...Oh hang on. I have listened to him for hours and enjoyed every one of them.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Probably not to be quite honest.

Any additional comments?

Loved the characters and the reading but found the diversions into character history distracting from the story itself.

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Loved it

Brilliant story exposing so many of Iain Banks' future ideas. A long listen but worth every moment. Thanks to Mr Kenny.

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A dark story with interesting characters

The book lives up to its name. It is a dark story. The majority of the Characters are as eccentric as Banks usual efforts. The story is engrossing but not as good as some of the culture series.



The book is enjoyable and disturbing in equal measure!



The Narrator Peter Kenny is good as ever. He has an interesting voice which brings the story alive.



Not one Banks best but worth a read.

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Not my favourite IMB book by a long shot.

Peter Kenny did a wonderful job of narating as ever. And the story had more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing, but it just seemingly went on and on and on. The plot was almost too easy to follow for an IMB book and a bit predictable, albeit exquisitely detailed and giving the reader the same level of respect to work things out themselves and keep up.

I'd not say "don't listen to this book" because even a not so good IMB book is better than many, but I'd not suggest getting it over one of his others such as any in the Culture series or the likes of Fearsome Endjin.

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You want a strong, female protagonist? Here 'tis.

This is my first Iain Banks novel since he passed away and I was concerned I'd be too upset to enjoy it fully... but figured it was time. I needn't have worried; this book is so much fun all thoughts of the author's sad passing were soon pushed to the back of my mind. I guess this is how writing can bestow a kind of immortality on an author.

While this is one of Banks' science fiction novels, it isn't part of his Culture series. This is a great little space opera/heist adventure/action extravaganza with some deep thinkin' mixed in for good measure. This being Banks, said thoughts are often woven into the plot with a liberal dose of humour. In fact, I'm pretty sure some of these aspects would make Douglas Adams smile.

If you're not already a fan of Banks, I'd recommend this to fans of Firefly, Killjoys, Saga and (dare I say it?) Star Wars. This certainly isn't Banks' best work but it's a Hell of a lot of fun and I enjoyed it so much I went back and re-read it from the beginning as soon as I finished it!

P.S. - Banks wrote an epilogue to this novel which he posted online but never added to any published copy of the book. It's rather nice and brings things full circle (sort of). A quick search online should find it.

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13 people found this helpful