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Transition

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 3,652 ratings · 344 reviews

There is 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 organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive in...more

Hardcover, 404 pages

Published September 23rd 2009 by Orbit (first published 2009)

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Mar 01, 2010 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-collection, love-strong-women, love-hate-relationship, question-reality, blew-my-mind, must-read-again, all-time-favorites, genre-bending, unique-theories, spec-fic

IAN'S NEW AND IMPROVED REVIEW OF TRANSITION.

Immediately below is my original review, written 2/27/10. Farther down is my update and addendum, written 3/1/10 after I'd given this book a lot more thought.
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Apparently, every contemporary sci-fi author is now required to weigh in on the Multiverse. Perhaps it will soon be as indispensable to a sci-fi author's repertoire as a layup is to a basketball player's. The best Multiverse n...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, question-reality, fits-like-a-glove, blew-my-mind, genre-bending, unique-theories

Is it considered an artificial padding of my GR shelves to add the audiobooks I've "read"? I loved the shit out of Transition, the actual book; you can read my review here. I loved the audiobook every bit as much. Peter Kenny is easily my favorite narrator. He does voices and accents amazingly well. (Okay, so he doesn't do an American accent very well, but kicks butt with all the European accents.) His sense of timing is wonderful, as is his situational awareness for lack of a better term ... I...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Mike Franklin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mainstream, favorites, all-read

I loved this book – it’s probably now one of my favourite Banks books – though I suspect that just two or three years ago I would have been much more ambivalent; possibly even disliked it. I am glad I have recently read my first couple of Iain Banks ‘mainstream’ books, as opposed to Iain M Banks science fiction, as this book seemed to have a foot in each camp. The main story premise is firmly science fiction but the style of writing is much closer to his pretty weird mainstream writing; I saw a...more I loved this book – it’s probably now one of my favourite Banks books – though I suspect that just two or three years ago I would have been much more ambivalent; possibly even disliked it. I am glad I have recently read my first couple of Iain Banks ‘mainstream’ books, as opposed to Iain M Banks science fiction, as this book seemed to have a foot in each camp. The main story premise is firmly science fiction but the style of writing is much closer to his pretty weird mainstream writing; I saw a lot of parallels with Walking on Glass both in content and style. That style being much more ambiguous than most of his SF work with more of a hidden subtext and requiring a little more effort from the reader; something I like a lot.

As to that subtext, it is very much a book about transitions or boundaries, beyond the obvious transitions between alternatives worlds/universes that is its main subject. I noticed many such themes throughout the book.

He talks about solipsism, which seems to be something of a recurring theme in his work, and in particular looks at the boundary between solipsism and belief in yourself; having the courage of your convictions and not crossing that boundary. Madame d’Ortolan is presented as someone who has crossed that boundary, with the belief that all the infinite worlds are there to serve here purpose, whereas Mrs Mulverhill must stay on the other side of the boundary with the belief that she is right to oppose Madame d’Ortolan, without justifying that belief simply because it is she who believes it.

There are other similar boundaries explored in the book. There is the distinction between terrorists and counter-terrorists. When the methods employed by counter-terrorists include torture, does that mean they’ve stepped over the line to become terrorists themselves? Banks almost forces us to consider that question by deliberately only addressing this issue in worlds where the terrorists are the Christian Terrorists. In particular we meet the first policeman to apply torture, thereby saving many lives, who then insisted on his own prosecution and imprisonment because he had broken the law. He is viewed by the new modern police (complete with their torturers) as a hero and he condemns those same police for thinking that way. As far as he is concerned the police have stepped over that boundary.

Another transition is Adrian’s transformation from coke dealer to ‘respectable’ hedge fund dealer. How big a difference is there between the two? Banks doesn’t seem to think there’s very much! The Patient 8262 thread examines the boundary between sane belief in an apparently insane reality and insane belief in an apparently impossible reality; another theme Banks seems to like visiting. I’m sure there are more examples that I have missed.

The basic premise of this book – the idea that people can flit across the multiple universes by taking over the bodies of people in that universe – is frankly so unlikely that it borders on the ridiculous and requires a significant suspension of disbelief. But that is okay; the ability to do this has always been one of the great strengths of science fiction; any science fiction book with time travel, faster than light travel, etc. falls into this area. However science fiction permits this sort of premise, allowing the author to then examine the implications and consequences, whether they be social, environmental, political, military, etc. Books that do this well rapidly become favourites for me and Banks’ transition is an outstanding example of this type of book.

Added later: One final thought – an omission in my view – was that, though briefly touched on a couple of times, there was no discussion of the morality of taking over the bodies of innocent ‘civilians,’ sometimes for extended periods of time, and sometimes leaving them to the consequences of their having ‘murdered’ somebody whilst they weren’t in control. I felt that this was an area the book could and should have addressed.(less)

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Jun 15, 2012 Tom Lloyd rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've not actually finished this, but currently I'm unsure whether I will. I'm halfway and taking a break from it - most likely I'll come back to it, but I'm not certain.

Why? Because most of it is Banksy talking at me. He's not telling me a story, he's telling me about elements within a story and i'm struggling to care. there's little interaction with people and relatively little action. Individual pieces are interesting, but while the connections are clear there's not yet been much to make me c...more I've not actually finished this, but currently I'm unsure whether I will. I'm halfway and taking a break from it - most likely I'll come back to it, but I'm not certain.

Why? Because most of it is Banksy talking at me. He's not telling me a story, he's telling me about elements within a story and i'm struggling to care. there's little interaction with people and relatively little action. Individual pieces are interesting, but while the connections are clear there's not yet been much to make me care about how it fits together - more of an impression that it's actually not going to end up as anything hugely interesting/surprising.

I've had a problem with a number of his more recent books. there's no doubt the man can write really well, but he's getting more long winded and less about letting a story unfold for the reader. And it's really bugging me, because with all that I love about many of his novels, he seems to have forgotten what made them so good. His style's changing as he gets older and it's just not working for me. I do want to finish it to see if it all comes together in the end, but I'm not holding out a whole lot of hope.

Edit - I've now finished it after a month or two away. It's an Iain Banks and I dislike walking away from one of his, given his undoubted skill as a writer and coupled with the fact it's a multi-strand novel that was clearly building to bring those all together. And was it all worth it?

No, not really. I read the rest pretty easily, the style either eased up or I was just more used to it, but the denouemont was incredibly flat - 'hero' gets an ass-load of convenient powers which means he escapes at the end, nothing's really explained, little enough can be derived and all the questions about a conspiracy are glossed over to the point where I felt fairly cheated of an ending. So sod it, I'm going to be far more picky about Banksy books in future - usually from the blurb I can tell whether or not I'm likely to enjoy it and he's used up any good will built up from books like Player of Games, Excession, Song of Stone, Whit, Crow Road etc. Transition, Matter, The Business, Inversions - there's a load of his books that have been significant disappointments. I don't care if I don't full get a novel - Feersum Enjinn and Use of Weapons certainly aren't easy, but I could see the quality still. Now it's just echoes of a writer's skill.(less)

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Aug 30, 2011 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who've been to Venice, like the quantum multiverse, and have read A Plague of Pythons

Shelves: older-women-younger-men, science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, multiverse

This entertaining SF thriller combines the premises of two of my favorite SF classics. In Asimov's The End of Eternity , an all-powerful group called the Eternals use time-travel to control the course of human history. Whenever something bad is about to happen, they engineer a carefully timed intervention to steer us away from it. Typically, these interventions are as inconspicuous as possible. Pohl's underrated A Plague of Pythons explores another, rather nastier idea. Suppose a device were in...more This entertaining SF thriller combines the premises of two of my favorite SF classics. In Asimov's The End of Eternity , an all-powerful group called the Eternals use time-travel to control the course of human history. Whenever something bad is about to happen, they engineer a carefully timed intervention to steer us away from it. Typically, these interventions are as inconspicuous as possible. Pohl's underrated A Plague of Pythons explores another, rather nastier idea. Suppose a device were invented which let you take over someone else's body at will. How would people use it, and what would happen to society?

Banks fuses these two themes and sets them within a nicely realized version of the quantum multiverse. Every possible quantum reality exists, and there is a drug which allows you to move between the different alternate worlds; as in the Pohl novel, you do this by directing your consciousness into another person's body. The organization who control the drug use it, so they say, to make the various worlds into better places. But, as in the Asimov book, it becomes increasingly clear that things are not what they are supposed to be.

Both the original novels are about power and the abuse of power, and Banks follows in their footsteps. He's sometimes a little too explicit and preachy, and I was oddly reminded of George Bernard Shaw: you're in the middle of a dramatic piece of sex or violence (there's plenty of both), and it's suddenly put on hold for a page-long moral disquisition. But, as with Shaw, I was generally willing to forgive him. The plot, though perhaps overly complicated, is gripping, and the writing is of the high quality Banks fans have come to expect. Also, Mrs Mulverhill is hawt.

As sometimes happens with Banks, there is a mild aftertaste of paranoia. I'm not sure I would have awarded it four stars if I'd read it a month ago, but it was one of those cases where the timing was spot-on perfect. I noticed it in a bookshop near the Piazza San Marco on Sunday, and after discovering that a large part of the novel was set in Venice found that I was simply unable to put it down; I finished it earlier this evening on the train back to Geneva, where I'm now writing this review.

Whatever made us go into the bookshop and then guided me to that particular book? I can't quite reconstruct the sequence of events, but if agents of the Concern somehow nudged me into doing it I have no idea what their motives were. I'll let you know if there are more odd coincidences.
(less)

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Mar 29, 2012 J.M. Leitch rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is one of Banks's best, in my opinion. It's an original story, has great characters, the plot was revealed in a very clever way and Banks's humour came through strong.

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Apr 15, 2013 Mike Hedley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have just finished this book, in the British edition (without the "M" in the author name) and while I've read other Banks works this one didn't excite overly much. Too complex, too many characters, although the basic premise of the book was sound. Plenty of moralising... I found it curious that the "terrorist culture" of this age, on this Earth, were Christians, when most people know which religion's adherents perform most of the contemporary Earth's terrorist acts. Perhaps Mr Banks transposed...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Smcleish rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in April 2010.

The idea behind Transition is not one particularly new in science fiction: there are millions of alternate Earths, and it is possible to travel between them through the use of a special drug; septus works rather like the sixties perception of the action of psychedelics, letting the mind transfer to a new body in a different world. However, a secret society, the Concern, acts in all the accessible worlds to ensure that history develops in a parti...more Originally published on my blog here in April 2010.

The idea behind Transition is not one particularly new in science fiction: there are millions of alternate Earths, and it is possible to travel between them through the use of a special drug; septus works rather like the sixties perception of the action of psychedelics, letting the mind transfer to a new body in a different world. However, a secret society, the Concern, acts in all the accessible worlds to ensure that history develops in a particular direction. To those it recruits, Concern claims to act to improve the lot of humanity, by eliminating (assassinating) those who will cause large scale suffering if their actions remain unchecked. Not everyone believes in the benevolence of the Concern, and the novel tells the story of one group which sets out to subvert the organisation and its shadowy leadership.

One of the things I like about Iain Banks is that its not that easy to suggest names of other authors who might be considered major influences. His novels tend to remind me of others of his novels. (At least, that applies to the non-Culture novels; the hyped-up space opera of the books for which he uses his middle initial has rather more obvious debts to earlier science fiction.) But here, in his twenty-fourth novel, I was almost immediately and strongly reminded of Michael Moorcock, particularly the Jerry Cornelius and Oswald Bastable novels.

The parallel worlds are what makes me think of Oswald Bastable: a fairly mundane link. (Jerry Cornelius is more similar in style and feeling.) However, Moorcock's worlds are much less similar to each other than Banks', and the people in them less important in comparison to those who are able to travel between the worlds. In the Bastable novels, following the careers of alternate versions of real people from Mick Jagger to Stalin is a large part of the interest, but few such people are mentioned by Banks. The alternate realities are barely more than just a mechanism to end a scene, like a punch line in a sketch show. The main difference between most of the alternates and reality is that the perceived terrorist threat to the Western world comes mainly from radical Christian extremists in the worlds Banks constructs.

The Concern is akin to the Business, from Banks' novel of that name, but seen in a darker light. (Though Kate, the heroine of The Business, eventually rejects them, too.) But, all in all, Transition is not much like the rest of Banks' writing. When reviewing The Steep Approach To Garbadale, I complained that it was too much a rehash of ideas from his other novels, but Transition goes too far the other way, throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Transition is told using multiple viewpoints (some in the first person, some in the third). Each chapter advances the personal stories of several, but not always the same ones. Only one is constant, Patient 8262, who is apparently hiding from the Concern in a mental hospital. Other viewpoints include a hedge fund manager, a torturer, an assassin, and a member of the Concern's ruling council. It is these central characters which are Transition's major weakness, as none of them are consistently interesting or enjoyable to read about.

Warning is given at the very beginning of the novel that the words on the page should not necessarily be believed. The title page tells us that Transition is "based on a false story", and the first words of the prologue are "Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator". These gimmicks perhaps belabour the point rather too heavily, but it certainly sticks in the back of the mind while reading the novel. I personally would have preferred to have been left to work out the narrator's unreliability for myself, and start with the line from the third section of the prologue: "This is how it ends": a much more effective irony.

All the constructive effort of the multiple narrative threads (something of a favourite device for Banks) needs to be rounded off with a satisfying, rounded ending in which they are brought together. This is more or less done, though the details are undermined by the emphasis on the unreliable narrator. (I myself have probably rather over-emphasised it here, but that is because it does seem to be a cause of many of the negative aspects of Transition.)

I never expected to say of an Iain Banks novel that it was boring, but it was something of a struggle to get to the end of Transition. Maybe it will seem better on a second reading, but that is not an experiment I am looking forward to conducting.(less)

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Feb 12, 2013 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ok. This book was rather long, fairly weird, and took a while just to figure out what the heck was going on. I'll at least help you with that last part.

There are multiple worlds/universes & in one of them there is a society that can travel among them. There are different skills in this society (travelers, people who can block travelers, people who can travel while taking someone else with them) and a group called the Concern that controls the drug that allows people to travel, as well as wh...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read

Shelves: calibre, fiction

SUMMARY: There is 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 organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?Among those operatives are Temudji...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Jonathan rated it 2 of 5 stars

"Transition" is typical of Banks' more recent (and lazier) science fiction- multiple character perspectives, stories within stories, a deus ex machina that gets pulled out towards the end to sort of tie things up without actually resolving very many of the plot points - but it's not his best science fiction by a long shot.

The tale revolves around a mysterious organization calling itself The Concern, whose adepts can "transition" or jump from reality to reality in the many-dimensional multiverse,

...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Ian James rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

The worst book by Iain M. Banks I have ever read.
Normally, I enjoy his books, but this one seems like he just threw it together without bothering to put much effort into it.

Maybe this is a criticism of the editors also, but there were so many inconsistencies that I found the book very irritating. Some eaxmples:
pg 213: All the transitioners lived on Calbefraques when they weren't on missions to other world. Does no-one care thay they are leaving an unattended husk in their own world? Does no-one...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Elf M. rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't think I can legitimately say I read Iain M. Banks' latest SF book, Transition. I think it's best to say that I subjected myself to it. Sometime past the halfway point, I snarked to someone that this book answered one of the burning questions of my lifetime: "What would happen if China Mieville wrote Nine Princes in Amber fanfic?" Having finished the book, I stand by that assessment.

Spoiler for the Zelazny snark: (view spoiler)...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

It looks like Iain Banks managed to sneak a science fiction book into what is normally his general fiction brand. Transition is very different from his usual space opera written as Iain M. Banks though.

The story follows four main characters, each one working, sometimes unknowingly, for the Concern. The Concern is an enterprise consisting of people who can move between alternate Earths, and their purpose seems to be to try and alter the course of history in the Earths they can get to, hopefully f...more It looks like Iain Banks managed to sneak a science fiction book into what is normally his general fiction brand. Transition is very different from his usual space opera written as Iain M. Banks though.

The story follows four main characters, each one working, sometimes unknowingly, for the Concern. The Concern is an enterprise consisting of people who can move between alternate Earths, and their purpose seems to be to try and alter the course of history in the Earths they can get to, hopefully for the better. Some of the novel takes place on our own Earth, but a fair amount in others too, with an Islamic Europe seeing a lot of the action.

In each chapter each character relates their story, and by the end those stories have become entwined with each other. The first character is an assassin called Oh who works for the Concern, and whose allegiances are not obvious at the start. Two others are characters who do not initially work for them but are recruited, Kleister being a state-sponsored torturer and Adrian a stock market trader. The final one is a patient at what appears to be a psychiatric hospital, at least at first. The main plot revolves around an attempted coup within the Concern, with characters on both sides of the line. However a lot of the novel also consists of each individual’s own back story, which are interesting but not that relevant to the plot. It has quite a few scenes with characters inflicting the kind of nasty sadism that Banks seems to use as a trademark.

While the book is reasonably successful at straddling the line of his usually well-separated general fiction and SF, I felt that possibly Banks’ usual readers (of either genre) might be a little disappointed. From an SF point of view very little detail was given of these alternate worlds, and the mechanism for travelling between them was deliberately hazy. Hardcore SF readers might be a little frustrated at that. For his general readers the hand-waving explanation of what the Concern was, and the lack of information about what the coup was actually intended to achieve might be irritating too.

However I enjoyed it as a light read; it went at a fast pace and as usual with Banks I found myself laughing in places and feeling nauseous in others. I felt the ending was a bit weak, as none of the main characters really played a major part in it, the deciding factor being provided by a character that was only introduced a few pages from the end. I would have actually liked the book to be longer, to find out a bit more about the characters, but Banks often seems to follow the principle of allowing the reader’s imagination to fill in a lot of the extra detail. It didn’t quite work as well here as usual though. I felt it was pretty average for this author but his many fans won’t be too disappointed.(less)

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Aug 28, 2011 Ivy Pavlova rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: to-re-read

Iain Banks is one hell of a writer. This ambitious and profoundly complex novel, a poetic meditation on power and its abuses, notions of doing good and fighting evil, and the implications of the human tendency to solipsism, is beautifully written, entertaining and thought-provoking from beginning to end.
You’re more or less told what you’re about to read up front, although I promptly forgot. You then find yourself in a world in which a sinister organisation has discovered a way to travel between...more Iain Banks is one hell of a writer. This ambitious and profoundly complex novel, a poetic meditation on power and its abuses, notions of doing good and fighting evil, and the implications of the human tendency to solipsism, is beautifully written, entertaining and thought-provoking from beginning to end.
You’re more or less told what you’re about to read up front, although I promptly forgot. You then find yourself in a world in which a sinister organisation has discovered a way to travel between the infinite versions of the universe, and is using this ability to promote an unclear agenda on what they’ve somehow determined to be the key versions of Earth. Two immensely powerful women grapple for control.
Four stories, set across multiple realities, emerge quite slowly and unfold out of sequence. By the time they start to intersect we’re at least half-way in. In less accomplished hands, this would be pretty much unreadable. Due to the supreme quality of the prose (even place names delighted me) and Banks’s remarkable control of his material, it’s instead both easy to follow and consistently engaging.
In fact, it’s a joy to read, assuming you don’t mind dark. We’ve moved on from the jarringly horrible set pieces long-time readers will remember from his earlier work - there are ugly and distressing scenes throughout this, all to the point. Fortunately, it’s also great fun. The graphic-novel style adventure of Temudjin Oh, multiversal assassin and double agent, through deftly depicted, often fantastical scenery both urban and natural, keeps you reading toward its implausible, wish-fulfillment climax.
I’ve seen lots of negative criticism of this book, much of which melts away if you accept that it’s another ‘The Bridge’, rather than sci-fi. As for the rest – there’s noticeably a lot of sex here, but it’s entirely germane, and the author doesn’t particularly indulge in it. Ade, our drug dealer turned hedge fund manager, is one-dimensional and doesn’t add much to anti-hero Oh’s story, but his simple, unselfconscious greed allows comparison to the moral exhaustion of Oh, who’s not even sure what he’s working toward, the belief of career torturer Kleist that he has the finest of motives, and the overwhelming powerlessness of an obscure mental patient. And his story’s perfectly readable, and anchors the book to our own version of Earth (or Banks’s – here’s that country pile in Scotland again!), while the other characters seem to inhabit less familiar alternatives. And yes, Banks likes to proselytise in a way that’s probably a bit self-indulgent, but does so here with considerably more restraint than in, say, ‘Garbadale’, and anyway so eloquently that I really didn’t mind it.
If there was one thing that did bother me about this, once I’d realised, about a week after finishing it, what I’d actually been reading, it’s that Oh’s story might be a bit too good. But this sort of thing is so difficult to do faithfully - there are always concessions to be made to readability. I enjoyed ‘The Bridge’, but more than that I felt huge respect for a comparatively young author who’d had the audacity to present it to his publishers. This is from a mature Banks, who in the intervening decades has been developing his ideas and honing his craft as both an accessible literary writer and widely respected sci-fi author, and boy does it show.
I can understand why ‘Iain M Banks’ readers have found this disappointing. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if I disliked sci-fi, but the ‘Culture’ novels don’t seem to work on me - the two versions of Banks appeal to very different tastes. It was unfair of his American publishers to put the ‘M’ on this, both on readers and the book itself.
Is it completely flawless? Probably not. Whether or not it even entirely hangs together, I’d have to re-read it to judge. Either way, I think it’s a stunning achievement. Probably his best.(less)

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Aug 20, 2011 D rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although Transition could be classified as science fiction, it is a departure from Banks' usual sci-fi fare, which is perhaps the reason why it has been published both Banks' sci-fi and non-sci-fi monikers. The story focuses on The Concern, a shadowy organization with a byzantine chain of command which fields operatives capable of transitioning, that is, moving between parallel universes. The motivation and history of The Concern, and the precise mechanics of transitioning are never thoroughly e...more Although Transition could be classified as science fiction, it is a departure from Banks' usual sci-fi fare, which is perhaps the reason why it has been published both Banks' sci-fi and non-sci-fi monikers. The story focuses on The Concern, a shadowy organization with a byzantine chain of command which fields operatives capable of transitioning, that is, moving between parallel universes. The motivation and history of The Concern, and the precise mechanics of transitioning are never thoroughly explained in the novel.

It is this focus on mystery that distinguishes Transition from Banks' other science fiction novels, and makes the novel what it is. Things are never quite explained, only subtly hinted at. Different plot lines focusing on the novel's various characters only serve to further muddle the issues, requiring the reader to pay close attention to figure out what is actually going on.

The plot features the usual amounts of action, suspense, betrayal and multiversal sex. There is also a number of philosophical debates contained within the novel, and sometimes they almost feel heavy-handed. In some places it seems obvious that the author wanted, for instance, a debate on the ethics and effectiveness of torture, so he used up several pages to have a character share his thoughts on it. It could feel more obvious and jarring, but fortunately such moments are mostly interleaved with and relevant to the story, and so go by smoothly.

Perhaps the greatest complaint to be leveled against the book is that in its pursuit of mystery it takes it too far. After the end, the reader is still left with many questions. Although the subtle hints left throughout the story may lead to speculation about the answers, the book leaves much room for individual interpretation. At some point, it becomes obvious that things will not be neatly tidied up and explained, and that the various mysteries and conspiracies driving the story will not be explained, instead serving to drive the story up to the very end. Of course, considering the nature of the novel, neat explanations would perhaps actually detract from the quality of the whole thing, but that does not help the feeling of dissatisfaction the reader is left with after the end of the novel, with the many unanswerable questions that it leaves. (less)

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Jul 26, 2011 Stuart added it

Shelves: science-fiction

Not very good. I give it two stars out of five because I did actually finish it, but I didn’t really like it much. For those of you who have not read the story elsewhere, the idea is that there is an infinite number of parallel and very similar worlds. A group of people calling themselves the “Concern” has discovered that by using a special drug, they can “flit” into other bodies in other dimensions and there adjust what will happen in other versions of Earth. The idea is that they can prevent b...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Banks fans

Recommended to Erik by: John Elkin

Shelves: sf

This is the first Banks novel I've read which was not about the Culture, not set in the far future. Still, it is science fiction, the device being interdimensionsional travel, the old branching time-line thing--all of it happening on various Earths, all of it in times more-or-less like our present. The overarching plot concerns a covert interdimensional organization, its contested leadership and their purposes. In this way it has many of the characteristics of a spy novel and may interest those...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Pat rated it 4 of 5 stars

I generally adore all of Iain Banks' non-Culture novels. Of his Culture novels the only one I've read was an early one, "Consider Phlebas", which was... eh. Ok. Interesting, but Space Opera isn't really my thing. His non- SF books, which are all published as "Iain M. Banks" instead of just Iain Banks, are freakin' brilliant, every one of them. This is one of his non-culture but still SF books, so it gets the central "M.". The basic plotline centers around the multiverse theory that will seem ext...more I generally adore all of Iain Banks' non-Culture novels. Of his Culture novels the only one I've read was an early one, "Consider Phlebas", which was... eh. Ok. Interesting, but Space Opera isn't really my thing. His non- SF books, which are all published as "Iain M. Banks" instead of just Iain Banks, are freakin' brilliant, every one of them. This is one of his non-culture but still SF books, so it gets the central "M.". The basic plotline centers around the multiverse theory that will seem extremely common to anyone who's read their share of comic books-- there are an infinite number of other Earths with an infinite number of variations on the basic theme of human existence. And with any good multiverse comes, of course, a vast conspiracy. Much of the book centers around "transitioning", i.e. sending your consciousness into another body on another Earth, where, say, Hitler remained an art student or this nobody was saved from a falling piano and therefore went on to make great leaps in quantum mechanics that changed that particular world for the better. The vast conspiracy, called the Collective, monitors and explores and occasionally kills (or saves) particular individuals to alter the history of each particular world. Most of the book details people caught up in what's essentially a coup d'etat attempt (although that part doesn't become clear until halfway through) and dwells less on the various worlds, so it's not quite like, say Stephen Donaldson's "Tom Covenant" stuff where the focus is on exploring the different world. There's a healthy dose of sex and violence, a little drug use (the transitioners use a drug called "septus", which is odd, since that word's latin root would point towards "7" and there's no particular significance attached to the number 7 in the books but whatever) All in all, without spoilers, I highly recommend this (or any) Iain M. Banks novel, it was an engrossing read and had enough little twists and twirls to keep it from being too predictable. Fairly well paced, well written (as always, Banks is GOOD), and pretty fun to read. The only reason I didn't finish this book months ago: I was enjoying it and trying to savor the last hundred pages or so to draw them out as long as possible. Definitely check it out, it's out in paperback. You won't be disappointed. Banks promises a fun read, and delivers. (less)

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Jan 15, 2011 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Slippery solipsists and slipstick-kissers (whatever that means)

Recommended to Alan by: Previous work and current subject matter

The events of September 11, 2001, reverberate across many worlds, both of fact and of fiction. Informed and infused by those events, Transition could not exist without them... even though it is set primarily in parallel threads of time, ones in which 9/11 did not happen at all, or happened in horribly different ways. In our universe, the twin towers of the World Trade Center were brought down by hijacked jet planes; in others, perhaps, organized CTs (Christian Terrorists) are committing massacre...more

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Oct 17, 2010 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Transition is a frustrating book.
This is my second attempt at reading Iain Banks. My first attempt at reading him, Inversions, was less than satisfactory. I have never read any of the Culture novels, despite having friends who have raved endlessly about them.
Being a fan of Moorcock, and Zelazny, and well immersed in the idea of multiple universes and alternate histories, I thought I would try and give Transition a try, and see if I could unlock Iain Banks to my imagination at last.

The attempt w...more

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Sep 29, 2010 Dev Null rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: parallel_worlds, science-fiction

Ok, so I should say up front that I quite liked this book. Is good. Not, maybe, Culture-novel-great, but it had more of a point than his The Buisiness, or that Scottish one that he wrote that was atmospheric but sort of ran off the rails at the end (The Crow Road, I think?) This was a good paralell-worlds yarn with some interesting twists and some cool characters.

So now the nitpicking. It was unusually sex-obsessed for Banks. I don't consider myself a prude, and I don't mind a bit of sex in a st...more Ok, so I should say up front that I quite liked this book. Is good. Not, maybe, Culture-novel-great, but it had more of a point than his The Buisiness, or that Scottish one that he wrote that was atmospheric but sort of ran off the rails at the end (The Crow Road, I think?) This was a good paralell-worlds yarn with some interesting twists and some cool characters.

So now the nitpicking. It was unusually sex-obsessed for Banks. I don't consider myself a prude, and I don't mind a bit of sex in a story, but it seemed to be of little actual benefit to the story itself, so it was just kind of space-filling fluff. Also, given that everyone in the story was supposedly swapping bodies every time they swapped worlds, you'd think that might at least get mentioned in all this physical rubbing up against one another; what does your partner look like this time?

There is a scene towards the end where one of the main characters is sexually assaulted. It seemed to me a bit ambiguous as to whether the assailant was working as part of a plan to do harm to that character, or was just some random pervert, but I lean towards the latter interpretation. That being the case, it _does_ have a point in the story. The character thinks hes being pursued by assassins, but doubts his own sanity and wonders if hes just paranoid. He finds someone really is assaulting him and feels vindicated, only to find that its just some random perv and falls even further into doubt about his own sanity. Only to double-take again when the real assassin turns up.

Or at least thats how it felt like it was supposed to play out, but it didn't really work. The timing was two short; I never really got the renewed self-doubt from the character - who was barely conscious at the time anyways - before we find out that he was right a few pages later. That made the whole scene seem a little gratuitously and pointlessly gross, until I sat down and thought about it and worked out what (I think) Banks was trying to do. Or made up my own justifications for it by reading too much into it - your choice.

But my real beef with this story was one really obvious bit of continuity checking that I would have thought any good editor should have caught. The entire premise of the book (no spoiler; he tells you about it on about page 10) was that alternate universes exist and people can travel to them only spiritually (or psychically, or mentally...) by possessing the bodies of people already present. And then theres a whole chapter in the middle of the book set in an entirely uninhabited world - which point he makes quite strongly, several times - and in which they specifically discuss exploring other uninhabited worlds. Really? How exactly does one visit an uninhabited world by possessing the body of someone already there? I know, its a nitpick, but it seemed a fairly major stuff-up. Its the sort of thing that could happen quite easily if the chapter were written early on if/when Banks hadn't quite settled on their method of travel, but it should still have been caught in the editing stage.

Anyways, its really quite a fun read; it could just have used a bit more polish to clean up the rough edges - 4 stars.(less)

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Sep 13, 2010 Marcus Gipps rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I always like a bit of Banks, although to be honest I've generally enjoyed his SF alter-ego's recent works a bit more than his 'straight' fiction. That isn't to say that I wasn't interested in reading this, mind you, but when I got hold of the proof and read the blurb on the back (not to mention the first few pages), I realised that this was going to be far more unusual than some of his recent 'mainstream' work. The fact that it's being published in the States as one of his 'M' books is a fairly...more I always like a bit of Banks, although to be honest I've generally enjoyed his SF alter-ego's recent works a bit more than his 'straight' fiction. That isn't to say that I wasn't interested in reading this, mind you, but when I got hold of the proof and read the blurb on the back (not to mention the first few pages), I realised that this was going to be far more unusual than some of his recent 'mainstream' work. The fact that it's being published in the States as one of his 'M' books is a fairly clear indication of the level to which the book falls into a grey area. Having read it, I'd have to say that this is the most overtly SF of his non-culture works since The Bridge, and perhaps even surpasses that. If this all means that the next book we get is a Culture novel as well, I'll be very happy (and from something he said at a talk I was at, I suspect this may be the case).

I do think however, that this is a bit of a risky move on Banks' part, not to mention his publishers. I can easily imagine a lot of the people who don't touch the 'M' stuff being quite alienated by this novel, as it is fairly unrelenting in narrative world-hopping, not to mention its demands on the reader. With almost half a dozen plot strands running simultaneously, and a bunch of characters who can change name, face and world at the blink of an eye, it does take a while for things to become clear. This isn't helped by the opening section, which jumps through a variety of scenes and situations at breakneck speed, leaving the reader to wonder just what the hell is going on. That isn't a bad thing, mind you, at least in my view, but it may be offputting to some.

Leaving aside questions of which version of the author is writing, though, and the reaction of their various readers, this is a cracking book. There's a real energy to the prose, which reminded me just how good a writer Banks can be, and the plotting is tight (albeit complex). The book finds time to make sly and sideways comments on various modern issues such as the banking crisis, and some rather more obvious ones about torture, loyalty and war. That may make it sound a bit dry, but the reality is anything but. Things do spiral a bit out of control towards the end, and I found the denouement a little unsatisfying, if I'm honest, but it was such fun getting there that I don't really mind.

I read a proof, but the Hardback is out now, ISBN: 97890316731072(less)

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Sep 07, 2010 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Madam d'Ortolan valiantly attempts to keep the peace across a multitude of worlds, between the fall of the Berlin wall and the Saudi Arabian attack on the US, while rebels and traitors conspire to open up humanity to alien incursion, led by a suspiciously-eyed Mrs Mulverhill. One suspects that the downfall of a tyrant will not result in the return of a republic...

I am so happy to see a non-dull, yet also non Culture novel! The ideas are properly old school, carried off with aplomb and lashings o...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Palmyrah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Don't know why this isn't an 'Iain M.' Definitely science fiction, though admittedly not space opera. A thriller set across the parallel worldlines postulated by Everett's famous many-world interpretation of quantum mechanics.

A mysterious outfit called the Concern sends its agents across the worldlines, ostensibly to do good. But is the mission truly philanthropic, or is there a darker, hidden agenda?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has all the qualities you expect from Iain Banks, with or wi...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is actually a very good book. My initial reactions were quite negative - see below for my original review.

But what is needed is careful thought and discussion on the themes of the book; much of the unresolved plotlines have their answers hidden. They are there, but not for the lazy reader.

In that, I was greatly assisted by
http://mssv.net/2009/09/26/notes-on-i...

Suffice it to say that the Concern really does have a dark sin - not a conspiracy but one that will surely lead to damnation (spoi...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

I've read a few Iain Banks books (some with the "M", some without), and this one fell a somewhat short for me. Told through a variety of alternating voices, the premise is pretty straightforward: there is a vast multiverse of parallel or alternate Earths, each of which represents some small change somewhere in history. Monitoring all these is an organization called "The Concern," whose members have the ability to travel (or "transition") between these worlds and intercede in them to maintain wha...more

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Jan 29, 2010 Lioneltrilling rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I love Ian M. Banks' Culture novels - read them all and Use of Weapons is one of the finest science fiction books for my money on the adventure/space opera side of that genre (to be distinguished from the social speculative side like Ursula K. Leguin). And I think that Banks' use of language and humour makes almost anything he writes a pleasure to read. I found most of Transition engaging and somewhat unnerving, because for some odd reason -- maybe too much quantume mechanics for lay-people book...more I love Ian M. Banks' Culture novels - read them all and Use of Weapons is one of the finest science fiction books for my money on the adventure/space opera side of that genre (to be distinguished from the social speculative side like Ursula K. Leguin). And I think that Banks' use of language and humour makes almost anything he writes a pleasure to read. I found most of Transition engaging and somewhat unnerving, because for some odd reason -- maybe too much quantume mechanics for lay-people books -- I was/am convinced of the reality of a multiverse, and his description of it seemed eerily "real." But there is a big plot hole that could only be deliberate and makes me think I missed something that explains it, or that Banks does not intend the world of his story to be real at all. Here it is: Mrs. M and Oh travel to at least one world where human beings supposedly don't exist -- they were all killed by a gamma ray burster. They have one of their debates there. Mrs. M mentions other Earhts having been visited that have no intelligent life. If the means of "flitting" always involves inhabiting a host human brain - it should be impossible to travel to these non-human realms. Yet it happens without comment or explanation by the characters. Also, Mrs. M notably always seems to travel to a body that looks like her own -- even in the oddest locales with nary a soul about. I suppose there might be an implied explanation that if a sould can bring a thing like a pack of pills along for the ride, then some souls can bring their whole body. There seems little other explanation for why Oh would appear in the form of naked man alone inside an abandoned Palazzo in Venice. Where did he come from, why was he there? He must have been created by Oh. But this extraordinary power is never remarked on, although the lesser power of flitting without the drug is one focus of the plot. This is bugging me - and I am sure the author intended it to bug people, since he's way too smart to do this by mistake. I'd be interested to hear anyone with thoughts on this nagging "hole" - thanks. - Alan(less)

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Dec 15, 2009 Harrys rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm... interesting. Better than I was expecting, not as good as I'd hoped. In retrospect the whole, "is it an Iain Banks or is it an Iain M. Banks?" question seems a lot less controversial, half way through I remembered "The Bridge" which had elements of both.

The characters weren't as well drawn as I'd hoped though if this milieu is continued maybe that will change, and I could have done after a while without quite so much of the rather purposeless shagging!

I also have to say I'm sure I came ac...more

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Oct 23, 2009 Gordon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Billed as a "return to form" (although apart from the more recent The Steep Approach to Garbadale I haven't really had any issues, especially the Iain M Banks sci-fi as opposed to the Iain Banks thrillers (which tend to be weaker). (Ok, goodreads and the US indexing system doesn't highlight this discrepency so go view it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks).

This is meant to be The Bridge-like and also to straddle his genres.

It starts well but then establishes itself as a fairly standard...more

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About Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, li...more Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1992. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He currently lives in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.

In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He relates his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.

His latest book is a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.

Author Iain M. Banks has revealed in April 2013 that he has late stage cancer and is unlikely to live for more than a year.

The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel "The Quarry", due to be published later this year, would be his last.(less)

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“Perdition awaits at the end of a road constructed entirely from good intentions, the devil emerges from the details and hell abides in the small print.” — 10 people liked it

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