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zivan's review
4.0
What if a European nation collapsed into the kind of chaos we find in failed States.
and did this in Iain Banks wonderful prose.
and did this in Iain Banks wonderful prose.
smcleish's review
3.0
Originally published on my blog here in September 1999.
A Song of Stone is about the relationships between people and places. It starts with the nobleman Abel fleeing with his mistress and some of the servants from the castle which has been his home all his life, fearing its destruction at the hands of one of the bands of soldiers pillaging the country as a result of the anarchy following civil war. Intercepted in their flight by just such a band, they return to the castle, which the lieutenant and her followers want to make their stronghold.
The heart of the novel is the contrast between the attitudes of Abel and the lieutenant's group to the castle and its rich artistic treasures. Though Abel has been indifferent to them all his life, to see their slow but sure misuse and destruction affects him deeply. The lieutenant does little to stop her men broaching the wine cellars and rampaging through the castle, despite apparently wanting to preserve its art. Another part of Abel, though, takes a perverse pleasure in the senseless destruction.
The novel is addressed by Abel, as narrator, to his lover - a strange, passive and silent woman who was brought up with him almost as a sister. The consistent use of the second person in a narrative is unusual and unsettling to read, especially because it seems to cast the reader into the role of someone who is so passive. Clearly a deliberate effect, it is extremely successful, if unnerving.
Something else which is unsettling is the setting. The war is in an anonymous country, yet it could be close to home. (The neo-Gothic castle depicted in the cover illustration enhances this feeling, so it could easily be a Scottish stately home, built for shooting parties by a nineteenth century grandee.) The technology is twentieth century, without a doubt so the reader ends up thinking what they would do if a vicious civil war broke out now?
Initially, A Song of Stone seems to have much less depth than most of Banks' novels, though he does make some telling points. (The way Abel and his like treated people as possessions is indicated, for example, by the way that he does not even know the name of his most faithful old servant when this man dies and the lieutenant suggests putting up a gravestone.) Its main flaw is shared with the other Banks novels I like least, [b:Canal Dreams|290566|Canal Dreams|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328666008s/290566.jpg|1494165] and [b:Complicity|12014|Complicity|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328396807s/12014.jpg|2132]: an uninvolving central character.
A Song of Stone is about the relationships between people and places. It starts with the nobleman Abel fleeing with his mistress and some of the servants from the castle which has been his home all his life, fearing its destruction at the hands of one of the bands of soldiers pillaging the country as a result of the anarchy following civil war. Intercepted in their flight by just such a band, they return to the castle, which the lieutenant and her followers want to make their stronghold.
The heart of the novel is the contrast between the attitudes of Abel and the lieutenant's group to the castle and its rich artistic treasures. Though Abel has been indifferent to them all his life, to see their slow but sure misuse and destruction affects him deeply. The lieutenant does little to stop her men broaching the wine cellars and rampaging through the castle, despite apparently wanting to preserve its art. Another part of Abel, though, takes a perverse pleasure in the senseless destruction.
The novel is addressed by Abel, as narrator, to his lover - a strange, passive and silent woman who was brought up with him almost as a sister. The consistent use of the second person in a narrative is unusual and unsettling to read, especially because it seems to cast the reader into the role of someone who is so passive. Clearly a deliberate effect, it is extremely successful, if unnerving.
Something else which is unsettling is the setting. The war is in an anonymous country, yet it could be close to home. (The neo-Gothic castle depicted in the cover illustration enhances this feeling, so it could easily be a Scottish stately home, built for shooting parties by a nineteenth century grandee.) The technology is twentieth century, without a doubt so the reader ends up thinking what they would do if a vicious civil war broke out now?
Initially, A Song of Stone seems to have much less depth than most of Banks' novels, though he does make some telling points. (The way Abel and his like treated people as possessions is indicated, for example, by the way that he does not even know the name of his most faithful old servant when this man dies and the lieutenant suggests putting up a gravestone.) Its main flaw is shared with the other Banks novels I like least, [b:Canal Dreams|290566|Canal Dreams|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328666008s/290566.jpg|1494165] and [b:Complicity|12014|Complicity|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328396807s/12014.jpg|2132]: an uninvolving central character.
caterinaanna's review
2.0
More reflective and less humorous than the usual Iain (M.) Banks and therefore not for me. It is his dark wit that usually makes the dire circumstances and gory details of his protaganists' lives bearable to read about and I found it lacking in this. Yes it is an impressive narrative and exploration of how refugee becomes reluctant collaborator and ultimately martyr to no cause but his own life, but I was unable to feel any sympathy for Abel or anyone else in the story for that matter. Redeemed slightly by a few odd snippets of prose - although none strong enough to make me want to quote them.
tomlloyd's review
5.0
writing a first person, present tense novel is just making your job harder in my opinion, it's more difficult to come out with something good, so even more impressive a result because I loved it.
scottish_kat's review
3.0
This is a very powerful book. It's not an easy or particularly enjoyable book though.
I really like the way the story is told, the first person POV gives the story a vitality that couldn't have been achieved in any other way.
The lack of time and location means that this story can be lifted and shifted to anywhere and any when (at least in the realms of my lifetime)
The casual brutality is unforgiving and relentless.
I really like the way the story is told, the first person POV gives the story a vitality that couldn't have been achieved in any other way.
The lack of time and location means that this story can be lifted and shifted to anywhere and any when (at least in the realms of my lifetime)
The casual brutality is unforgiving and relentless.
jillde2a1's review
1.0
Bleh. The writing is good, I have to admit, but the storytelling sucks. The characters are awful (and flat), the story is sloooooooowwww, and there's little dialog. Don't read it.
myxomycetes's review
3.0
I liked this 250-page novel better when it was an 8-page short story by JG Ballard.
After some undisclosed catastrophe causes the collapse of civilization an aristocrat and his sister-lover find themselves involved in a psychological game of cat and mouse with a Lieutenant and her rag-tag force of irregulars. Sophistry, nihilism, and an over-arching unreliable and unlikable narrator all make an appearance.
After some undisclosed catastrophe causes the collapse of civilization an aristocrat and his sister-lover find themselves involved in a psychological game of cat and mouse with a Lieutenant and her rag-tag force of irregulars. Sophistry, nihilism, and an over-arching unreliable and unlikable narrator all make an appearance.
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