Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 02:56:51 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dave Rolsky 
Subject: Re: (urth) Recommended authors

On Sun, 2 Mar 2003 jismulkstis@att.net wrote:

> I strongly recommend Iain M. Banks Culture novels:

[snip]

> While stylistically unlike Gene Wolfe, Iain M. Banks writes
> novels about the moral ambiguity that comes with wielding

Ok, this thread is ancient but the general topic is still being discussed
so ...

Actually, I do think Iain Banks and Wolfe have some stylistic
similarities, primarily in that both seem to enjoy setting complicated,
elaborate sets of clues while playing with your head.  Banks seems to do
this more through formal structures, as in Feersum Endjinn (probably my
favorite Banks novel), where he rigidly alternates chapters in cycles of
four, one for each narrating character, each of whom has a distinct voice.
The trick in the book is figuring out the timeline of each character,
because it's not purely sequential.

He also does some fun timeline tricks in Use of Weapons.


-dave

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