A review by eccles
A Song of Stone by Iain Banks

adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Horrible book, not sure what the author was trying to do with it.   A first-person account the horrors of war in some dystopian future English(?) anti-idyll, descending from confused terror into manic torture and cruelty.   Our narrator, Abel, seems to be some kind of reluctant lord of a castle, a building that serves as the mute centre of his story, which is captured, shelled and later sacked by one of the roving bands of militia.  The grim tale is periodically deadened by Abel’s ruminations on the strange sexual adventures of his youth, his privileged place in the old world and how ill-prepared he is for the hard exigencies of the new one.  This voice is written, I suppose, to sound archaic, aloof and diffident, as landed gentry might be, but for me it was just stilted, false and in the end tedious.   Tedium and horror:  not a great recommendation.