A Song of Stone
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Iain M. Banks paints a grim picture of a European nation after a bloody battle. Armed forces roam the lawless land where dark columns of smoke rise up from the surrounding farms and houses. For a young lord and lady, however, the trouble is only starting.
The couple are being kept captive in their home--a castle--by a sadistic female lieutenant from an outlaw band of guerillas. They are pawns in her dangerous game of desire, deceit, and death. The physical, sexual and political tensions that ensue catapult the narrative from war story to universal morality tale.
Review
His satire is exquisitely poised, his storytelling gripping. (INDEPENDENT )
Entertaining...comically inspired. (GUARDIAN )
A phenomenon! (WILLIAM GIBSON )
An apocalyptic masterpiece (FINANCIAL TIMES )
Entertaining...comically inspired. (GUARDIAN )
A phenomenon! (WILLIAM GIBSON )
An apocalyptic masterpiece (FINANCIAL TIMES )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a difficult book to read. There's something hard in the first person narration with every action and description firmly and coldly played out. The narration is intense but has a strange lyrical quality, one of the main reasons that I managed to stay with the book. The lead character is not a person the reader would easily understand or get to grips with. The Song of Stone reminded me a lot of Canal Dreams, another Iain Banks book, which includes a similar situation of invaders attacking but with that book, there was a different sense of the main character wanting to be freed from her isolation. This is unlike The Song of Stone which is heavily isolated and extremely cold. Still worth a read though not my favourite of his books.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Possibly one of the bleakest books I've ever read, and almost entirely lacking the warmth of some of his other works.
Set in some post apocolyptic land (Scotland? certainly not sci fi), this tells the sad tale of a minor member of the nobility's encounter with a bunch of roaming soldiers. The relationship between the two groups goes from bad to slightly better to even worse, and nobody ends up happy.
The ending of the book is so resolutely dark and without hope that you wondered why you bothered in the first place. And yet, being by the excellent Iain it is vividly and intently written, and stays with you like a particularly morbid dream for some weeks afterwards.
One to avoid if you're feeling blue (or if you fancy your sister..).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I finished reading this dismal book, I was left wondering if Banks had just cranked it out as a Contractual Obligation. I normally like Banks' books -- I'm particularly fond of The Crow Road, amongst his other more popular works -- but this is dire. From cold beginning to mean-spirited close, it seems to mock the reader throughout.
I don't necessarily need my reading to be happy affairs, but in this case it's almost as if Banks was battling a depression at the time and this was his way of lashing out at his readers -- particularly the very ending.
In its favour, it has brevity -- it shouldn't take up much of your time if you do feel like reading it; but then, you have so much more to do with your time. If you do feel the need to read something short, Scottish and philosophical you could do worse than Poor Things by Alasdair Gray or Pfitz by Andrew Crumey.
I don't necessarily need my reading to be happy affairs, but in this case it's almost as if Banks was battling a depression at the time and this was his way of lashing out at his readers -- particularly the very ending.
In its favour, it has brevity -- it shouldn't take up much of your time if you do feel like reading it; but then, you have so much more to do with your time. If you do feel the need to read something short, Scottish and philosophical you could do worse than Poor Things by Alasdair Gray or Pfitz by Andrew Crumey.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Up to Par
If you are fan of Iain Banks, in both guises, then this is a must. Has all the usual Banks flavours
Published 12 days ago by Tpaul
Woeful
Have enjoyed a lot of Iain Banks other works but this is just awful. Agree with the other reader that described this as being like a literary exercise. Hard work and unrewarding.
Published 8 months ago by Neil Aitkenhead
Makes McCarthy's "The Road" seem thin and shallow.
I've read this book so many times over the years and I'm astonished at the negative reviews on here.
Yes it's a bleak future vision but it's much, much more than that. Read more
Yes it's a bleak future vision but it's much, much more than that. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Cloudy
A truly horrid book
I quite like Banks and this book appealed because I know the castle and area where it's supposed to be set. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Puskas
To where do I claim a refund for the hours lost on reading this??
I have been a huge fan of Banks since the day when I was 13, my art teacher at school told me about The Wasp Factory. I found it equally beautiful, fascinating and repulsive. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Alison M. Grant
Life Is Tough?
No story? No characters?
I can't understand some of the other reviews here.
The story is there, the characters haunt me still, many months after I read the book. Read more
I can't understand some of the other reviews here.
The story is there, the characters haunt me still, many months after I read the book. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Coyote Skateboard Survivor - now favouring Sector 9 Bamboo Zen, n'est-ce pas?
Genius has an off-day
In order to criticize, it's sometimes usefull to have an idea of what the author was intending to do, and with this book, that in itself is a challenge. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Neil Hugh Holliday
Masterpiece
For me this book is a masterpiece.
It contrasts the voluptuous language of the protagonist's aristocratic, overrefined and educated first person perspective with the... Read more
It contrasts the voluptuous language of the protagonist's aristocratic, overrefined and educated first person perspective with the... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Roman Benesch
Sub-sonic Song
I tried, I really tried, to like and understand this book, and promise that I persevered right to the end. Even with the help of earlier reviews, I still don't get it. Read more
Published on 21 May 2010 by W D McTaylor
Banks tanks
One of the great skills Banks displays in his best novels is to tell a good yarn. Stories with a beginning middle and usually, a surprising twist at the end. Read more
Published on 18 May 2009 by I. Sillett
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