Iain Banks' daring new novel opens in a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be knocked down in a few days. Ken Nott is a devoutly contrarian vaguely left wing radio shock-jock living in London. After a wedding breakfast people start dropping fruits from a balcony on to a deserted carpark ten storeys below, then they start dropping other things; an old TV that doesn't work, a blown loudspeaker, beanbags, other unwanted furniture...Then they get carried away and start dropping things that are still working, while wrecking the rest of the apartment. But mobile phones start ringing and they're told to turn on a TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Centre. At ease with the volatility of modernity, Iain Banks is also our most accomplished literary writer of narrative-driven adventure stories that never ignore the injustices and moral conundrums of the real world. His new novel, displays his trademark dark wit, buoyancy and momentum.
Dead Air
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Amazon Review
There's no question that the anticipation for each successive Iain Banks novel grows ever greater, and Dead Air is a literary event. The sardonic, inventive prose guarantees a unique reading experience with each new book (the misfires may be counted on one hand), and whatever genre he tackles, Banks is one of the most stimulating writers at work in Britain today.
His protagonist here is Ken Nott, a character as penetratingly realised as ever. He's a committed contrarian, ekeing out a living as a left-wing radio shock-jock in London. He makes his home in a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be demolished in a few days. After a wedding breakfast, people begin to pitch fruit from a balcony on to a deserted car park 10 storeys below; then they begin dispatching other things: a broken TV, a loudspeaker with a ruptured cone, bean bags and other useless furniture. Then the guests enter a kind of frenzy and start dropping things that are still working, at the same time trashing the rest of the apartment. But suddenly mobile phones start to ring urgently and they're told to turn on the TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. And Ken Nott finds his life is to change irrevocably.
Banks's subject here is nothing less than the survival of the individual in the face of a chaotic world. The destruction of personality under the lacerating values of modernity is a subject repeatedly addressed by JG Ballard (and that author's shadow is clearly evident here), and although this is one of the Iain Banks novels in which he pointedly does not use the "M" in his name that marks his science fiction, this nightmare vision of contemporary London has more than a trace of that genre in its sense of fractured reality. But all the caustic humour and dark character development that Banks excels in are fully in place. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
* 'The most imaginative British novelist of his generation' - THE TIMES * 'A Buchanesque adventure yarn set in 21st century London' - THE TIMES * 'Banks has pulled off a great double - a deeply satirical and thought-provoking thriller that will make you laugh but will also have you shredding your fingernails.' - SUNDAY EXPRESS * 'A thrilling read, it's a dazzlingly clever, edgy, suspenseful book.' - SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've read all of Iain Bank's works, so I guess I'm a fan, but I found this book disappointing. The main character - as in Complicity - is left-wing, works in the media, takes drugs, is sexually active. Unlike Complicity, there is little or no real story, instead the vast majority of the book is spent listening to the narrator's views on what is wrong - and right - with the world.
Now, I'm a Guardian-reading liberal who would agree with over 80% of the polemic in this book, but listening to the main character's diatribes becomes tiring. I was turning the pages looking for a story, a twist, a revelation, and ultimately I was not rewarded.
Iain, if you read this, I think you are a wonderful writer and I share your viewpoints but please next time bring more of your story-telling arts and capacity for drama and humour to the party, and leave the rants at the state of the world behind.
Finally, why do I appear to be the first person reviewing this book ?
Now, I'm a Guardian-reading liberal who would agree with over 80% of the polemic in this book, but listening to the main character's diatribes becomes tiring. I was turning the pages looking for a story, a twist, a revelation, and ultimately I was not rewarded.
Iain, if you read this, I think you are a wonderful writer and I share your viewpoints but please next time bring more of your story-telling arts and capacity for drama and humour to the party, and leave the rants at the state of the world behind.
Finally, why do I appear to be the first person reviewing this book ?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By L. Green
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Barcode: 9780349116648
I read this just after i read The Wasp Factory and well... let's just say this is a very different story, both in content and quality. Don't get me wrong, Banks is a fantastic writer and it shows in this book, thus the 4 stars. The plot is tense, the dialogue witty and the characters likable. Above all, it is intensely realistic, and that is where my doubts first come in.
It is almost too realistic. When reading people like to escape but this is way too close to home, set as it is in contemporary London, dealing with terrorism and so on. This is one of those texts where you just wish the lead character would get a break and something good would happen but instead he just comes up against misfortune upon misfortune right up to the end.
The sex scenes feel overly seedy, the true love that is behind them not shwoing through enough although aside from that are are quite a few moments of genuinely charming interaction between various characters. Also, like another reviewer said, prepare yourself for major social/political views to come flying at you - it is quite clear the author likes to invest his characters with what he thinks and it shows all too clearly. Now, as best i can remember, i didn't object to his views overly, they't just a bit in your face and are they really the thing you want to read about when you pick up a novel?
I'd still recomend this book though as it is fascinating and it'd make for a great film. Bank's gift at realism is incredible and it is worth reading his book for that alone.
I read this just after i read The Wasp Factory and well... let's just say this is a very different story, both in content and quality. Don't get me wrong, Banks is a fantastic writer and it shows in this book, thus the 4 stars. The plot is tense, the dialogue witty and the characters likable. Above all, it is intensely realistic, and that is where my doubts first come in.
It is almost too realistic. When reading people like to escape but this is way too close to home, set as it is in contemporary London, dealing with terrorism and so on. This is one of those texts where you just wish the lead character would get a break and something good would happen but instead he just comes up against misfortune upon misfortune right up to the end.
The sex scenes feel overly seedy, the true love that is behind them not shwoing through enough although aside from that are are quite a few moments of genuinely charming interaction between various characters. Also, like another reviewer said, prepare yourself for major social/political views to come flying at you - it is quite clear the author likes to invest his characters with what he thinks and it shows all too clearly. Now, as best i can remember, i didn't object to his views overly, they't just a bit in your face and are they really the thing you want to read about when you pick up a novel?
I'd still recomend this book though as it is fascinating and it'd make for a great film. Bank's gift at realism is incredible and it is worth reading his book for that alone.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Have to say I have mixed feelings about this story of the life of fictional shock-jock, Ken Notts. For one thing, I can't stand it when authors discuss or express political views through the dialogue between their characters, and this is frequently the case in this novel as Notts embarks upon long, uninteresting rants on politics, society and sport. The character felt nothing more than an excuse for the writer to express posssible views of his own that would have seen him linched if this wasn't a work of fiction. In the end I skipped them all until he took the reader back to the narrative. The dialogues also slow the novel right down, too.
The other thing I don't like about the novel is what I'd consider a blatant exploitation of the 9/11 disaster, for there's very little reference to, connection with, or discussion, on the tragedy at all in the book. It has simply been used to attract the attention of the reader, which I find very bad taste, and has put me right off Iain Banks.
The first half seems to drift nowhere in particular, with nothing of note other than the accident, the introduction of Nott's affair with a gangster's wife and the kidnapping, though these don't really hook you because of the distractions of the dialogue from the narrative.
Then, all of a sudden, the book kicks into life in the second half, becomes a fairly enjoyable read with some real moments of tension and you wonder what Banks was playing at in the first half. I particularly enjoyed Nott's confrontation with a Holocaust denier - even if this reflected a possible political argument of the author! - and how he gets himself in and out of the tight spot regarding his affair with the gangster's wife, I also liked how he Notts related what was going through his mind.
If you're the type of person that has a pile of books to get through, "Dead Air" is one to be put to the bottom until you've read all the others, since the first half makes it a get-it-over-and-done-with-style novel. If it hadn't have been for the second half I wouldn't have give "Dead Air" any stars.
The other thing I don't like about the novel is what I'd consider a blatant exploitation of the 9/11 disaster, for there's very little reference to, connection with, or discussion, on the tragedy at all in the book. It has simply been used to attract the attention of the reader, which I find very bad taste, and has put me right off Iain Banks.
The first half seems to drift nowhere in particular, with nothing of note other than the accident, the introduction of Nott's affair with a gangster's wife and the kidnapping, though these don't really hook you because of the distractions of the dialogue from the narrative.
Then, all of a sudden, the book kicks into life in the second half, becomes a fairly enjoyable read with some real moments of tension and you wonder what Banks was playing at in the first half. I particularly enjoyed Nott's confrontation with a Holocaust denier - even if this reflected a possible political argument of the author! - and how he gets himself in and out of the tight spot regarding his affair with the gangster's wife, I also liked how he Notts related what was going through his mind.
If you're the type of person that has a pile of books to get through, "Dead Air" is one to be put to the bottom until you've read all the others, since the first half makes it a get-it-over-and-done-with-style novel. If it hadn't have been for the second half I wouldn't have give "Dead Air" any stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
dull air
It's the first Iain Banks book I've read so I can't compare it to any earlier or later work. As a story I didn't find it particularly gripping and it's certainly not a page turner... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Martin Grace
3.0 out of 5 stars
Jeremy Clarkson on drugs
These are some comments from my book group which scored this book between 2 and 8 (out of 10) averaging out at 5. Read more
Published on 10 April 2008 by Paddington
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dead Air by Iain Banks
Reviewed by Kez Russell
Shock-Jock local DJ Ken Nott is outrageous and outspoken. He has an eye for the ladies and a vitriolic point to make - several points, in fact. Read more
Shock-Jock local DJ Ken Nott is outrageous and outspoken. He has an eye for the ladies and a vitriolic point to make - several points, in fact. Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2008 by Ms. Kez Russell
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Banks Formula
This is another of Banks' formulaic novels, which nevertheless makes it no worse for the reading when in the right mind-frame. Read more
Published on 25 July 2007 by Talc Demon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant.
I'm no writer, so I'll keep this review short. This is so far away from 'pish' as one reviewer has eloquently described it. Read more
Published on 23 July 2007 by S. Howse
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
If you start to read this book you will become bored. However, if you do get to the end of the book it is actually an okay story, which is why I gave it 2 stars. Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2006 by Sam
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dreadful
Banks uses his central character as a mouthpiece for a number of increasingly tedious rants, and presumably thinks that these are sufficiently amusing/informative/controversial to... Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2006 by Bill
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bored
Bored stiff by page 153. By far Bank's weakest book for me. Where's the hook? Where's the sympathy for any of the characters? Read more
Published on 14 July 2006 by Steve Sullivan
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
This book doesn't really go anywhere. It starts with a radio shock-jock drinking, taking drugs and shagging around and ends with a radio shock-jock drinking, taking drugs and... Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2006 by "londonman11"
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pish!
I'm not sure that Banks will ever surpass his first book 'The Wasp Factory', but whether he will or not I can confirm one thing, and that is that this is not the book to have done... Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2006 by R. Britain
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