Shop Ireland

Walking on Glass by: Iain Banks

Click to tell a friend about this item...

More Product Details...

Review Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 Next »

Click here to add a review!

Average rating -

Rating: - What is the Point of it

I've read a lot of the Ian Banks novels, most of witch are the kind of story's you can't put down, but I had trouble keeping an interest in this one. I could not see any particular relation between the three and they would have done better as three short story's. The only one with any humour in it was the second the other two being dead on arrival, their was none of the whit of the 'Wasp factory' or 'Whit' could be time to look for a new disillusioned Scottish writer.

Rating: - Ambiguities that will make you paranoid!

This is my favourite book from Ian Banks and it shows just how imaginative he can be when given a premise that allows him to discard all standard procedure when writing. As a fan of any literature, film or art, that disregards conventional structuring I found this book a breath of fresh air. This book does not require you to think because it will make you. Banks realizes the power of the readers imagination and so tortures you with ambiguities that will make you read into his characters and their lives even deeper than if he were just reciting the story.

People have commented in other reviews (not on this site) that the three interlinked stories that run parallel through the book are not brought to a satisfying conclusion. I feel that the nature of what are otherwise mundane connections are at the same time incredibly thought provoking when seen from a philosophical point of view and are what bring the book together as a piece.

If you need to have a fully resolved ending to a piece of work that needs no interpretation and the words THE END written at the bottom then do not bother with this book,just go and by Harry Potter.

Rating: - Intrigues, yet tries too hard.

As I am not very keen on the Sci-Fi element of Iain Banks' writing, i suppose it is fair to say that this novel would obviously not appeal instantly to me. After the controversial story of his debut novel, 'The Wasp Factory', Banks follows with this, a strange Fiction/ Sci-fi hybrid story, which is a genuinely intriguing read. Banks merges the three plots together expertly and cleverly creates three sub plots that all suck in the reader and keep them in suspense.

However, the book is a little too abstract for my tastes, and the final controversy of Graham's story just seems to be a feeble attempt to recreate the dramatic ending of 'The wasp factory'. It is too hard to see how the plots all directly relate to each other, even with several rereads of the book. This book is an interesting purchase, and a must for any Banks fan, but he has written many better novels than this.

Rating: - Clever and surreal

Quirkily believable characters are one of Iain Banks' hallmarks, but here it is the intertwining of entirely incongruous plots that strikes me as particularly original and stimulating. One of his best novels - and certainly the most surreal - Walking On Glass may take a few readings to appreciate fully.

Rating: - Gormenghast meets Being John Malkovich

The synopsis doesn't begin to do justice to this outstanding book.

Some guy is in love. There's another guy who's rather paranoid. And a third guy who's trapped in a castle. So what?

But trust me, from these seemingly unremarkable scenarios a staggeringly imaginative story emerges. You'll start by laughing at crazy world of the paranoid Grout, then meet Quiss in the next chapter, and suddenly Grout doesn't seem as crazy. It's a mastery piece of storytelling, and that's just the first chapter.

And then there's the highlight of the book: the weirdly surreal neo-gothic castle that Quiss inhabits. It's as if Mervyn Peake had written Gormenghast after watching the film Being John Malkovich. Fans of Banks' sci-fi novels will not be disappointed.

Read this book or regret it forever.

Review Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 Next »