Transition (Iain Banks)
26 August 2015
A world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse, such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organisation with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
On the Concern's books are Temudjin Oh, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice; and a nameless, faceless torturer known only as the Philosopher. And then there's the renegade Mrs Mulverhill, who recruits rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, hiding out from a dirty past in a forgotten hospital ward. As these vivid, strange and sensuous worlds circle and collide, the implications of turning traitor to the Concern become horribly apparent, and an unstable universe is set on a dizzying course.
Average Rating:
Sinclair Manson (28 August 2015 12:32)
Enjoyable as a fantastical, dimension hopping romp, this book also continues to provoke quite a lot of thought. Adrian is a financial Master of the Universe, who transitions from role to role, but he has nothing on the agents of the Concern, so solipsistic that they can revolve the world around themselves, as given full expression by Temujin Oh, who seems to flit between universes without even noticing, somewhere out near the implausible end of a curve. As Oh and his kind change the world to suit their selfish purposes, is our world being bent into a shape that suits the likes of Adrian? If the possible universes are endless, does the Concern's attempts to shape them mean any more than Adrian's collection of tacky treasure and are its motives any less selfish? And so on and so forth...