The Wasp Factory and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
Price: £2.81
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
See all 2 customer images
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading The Wasp Factory on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Wasp Factory [Paperback]

Iain Banks (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (193 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £5.59 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.40 (30%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want delivery by Wednesday, 22 May? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £3.99   -- --
Hardcover, Audiobook --   -- --
Paperback £5.59   -- --
Audio, CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged --   -- --
Unknown Binding --   -- --
Audio Download, Unabridged £13.12 or Free with Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial
Books Trade-In
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

Publication Date: 1 April 1992

Frank, no ordinary sixteen-year-old, lives with his father outsIde a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly.

Iain Banks' celebrated first novel is a work of extraordinary originality, imagination and horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because it enters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of life and death are alien to our society; and compulsive, because the humour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all.

Frequently Bought Together

The Wasp Factory + Complicity (Abacus Paperback)
Price For Both: £12.48

Buy the selected items together

Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New Ed edition (1 April 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0349101779
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349101774
  • Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 1.7 x 19.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (193 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Iain Banks Page
Iain Banks
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

One of the most brilliant first novels I have come across. (DAILY TELEGRAPH )

Read it if you dare. (DAILY Express )

A brilliant book, barmy and barnacled with the grotesque. (New Statesman )

A Gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre and...quite impossible to put down (FINANCIAL TIMES )

Book Description

* Paperback reissue of Iain Banks' momentous first novel, published in 1984
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
61 of 66 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and mysterious 22 July 2006
By J.R.Hartley VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
I first read this book about 8 years ago and have since read it several times as the brilliance and originality of it make it a rewarding read. That's not to say it's a happy book because it most certainly isn't. The Wasp Factory is a darkly twisted first person narrative of Frank, a profoundly disturbed teenager whose principle sources of entertainment are torturing animals and bumping off unwanted cousins. And we're not just talking about incinerating ants with a magnifying glass or a bread knife in the back, we are talking DIY flamethrowers, bombs, kites, snake venom and The Wasp Factory - a device of psychopathic genius.

I've never read another book like this and to be honest I'm not sure I want to. Frank's simple yet warped logic is brilliantly explained by the author and gives the reader a new way of seeing the world and seeing connections between seemingly unconnected events that were never obvious before until you've taken a trip in Frank's mind.

Banks isn't renowned for subtlety and that charge could be made here but that would be to miss the subtle way the book builds to a climax as Frank's mentally ill brother makes his way home to an explosive endgame after escaping from the secure hospital where he is detained.

The Wasp Factory is darkly comic, truly horrifying and well-paced, but most of all it's expertly written and you'll just want to read more and more. Well, that is if the battle with the rabbits near the beginning doesn't put you off. I'd say read it if you dare but don't say I didn't warn you.
5 Comments | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Grotesque and yet compelling 28 Jun 2001
By R. Weir
Format:Paperback
Having read some of Banks' SF, and then started reading his fiction as well, I still shied away a little from reading "The Wasp Factory". It says much that the bad reviews as well as the good are included on the sleeve, and while it may sometimes not seem as extreme as you might have been lead to believe that's more through the changes to our society and what is now considered acceptable in a work of fiction.

The story focuses on Frank, a 16 year old living with his father on a small Scottish island, part of possibly the ultimate dysfunctional family - all of whom seem to be to varying degrees insane. As Frank's horrific history is revealed, there's the prospect of an even more horrific future as his brother - lately escaped from a secure hospital - makes his way back for a visit....

Much of what you may have heard about this book is true. There are horrors upon horrors, it goes all out to shock at some points, and is definately not for the squeamish. The fact that it doesn't descend to being yet another trashy horror shocker is entirely due to the quality of the writing and Banks' unique way of hooking his readers so that one simply has to carry on and find out exactly what it is that he has planted the seeds of. There is much (very) dark humour in some of Frank's descriptions of the events he has participated in, and throughout there's the blackly comic undercurrent of Frank's assumption that he is in fact the only sane one in his family - despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Much is said about "the twist" and the brilliance of it, but I found it not nearly as startling as some others seem to have, and in fact it ends in an almost tame way - albeit, as with many a good yarn, with an open-endedness that allows you to think about what may follow.

Not a book for everyone by any means, and maybe not as fulfilling a read as some of his later works (especially Complicity) but nonetheless an absorbing, grotesque, horrifying, captivating novel.

1 Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb! 25 Aug 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
My introduction to the wonderful world of Iain Banks came a couple of years ago when someone recommended I read The Wasp Factory - it has stuck in my mind as the most memorable book I have ever read since then. It was recommended by a friend, with much giggling and raising of eyebrows - I assume in anticipation of my shock and horror at its contents. Shocked and horrified at The Wasp Factory? Never! Delighted, amazed and over-awed at such wit and clever writing is more how I would describe my reaction to this perfect piece of literature. I went on to read every other book by Mr Banks I could get my hands on and even though I have enjoyed every one of them, I don't remember any of them with as much fondness as I do The Wasp Factory (the closest I have come is with The Crow Road and Whit). I agree that maybe anyone who has led too sheltered a lifestyle may be a little perturbed by the detailing of Frank's more-than-a-little warped personality, but if you read the book without any previous misgivings (hard to do I know) and try to keep an open mind and your sense of humour, you should be pleasantly surprised. (The exception to this rule may be my Mum (sorry Mum) who gave up halfway through as she just didn't "get it" - but that's Mums for you!).

Give it a go, you really don't know what you're missing.

.... And anyone who reads the back page of a book first should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves!

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting Memory
I read this book over 20 years ago and it has stayed with me. In a dusty bookshop in a small backwater of the Sussex countryside, I happened upon a copy again just the other day... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Shirley Ramone
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping
This novel was so different, So many questions at the beginning and it gradually answered them throughout. The end was amazing.
Published 9 days ago by lindylou
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting!
Not usually my type of read but couldn't put it down! Very descriptive writing. Dark humour. Will try another of his books for sure!
Published 9 days ago by Carolyn Stanley
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Never saw the end coming til the last few pages......don't read first!!! Really enjoyed. Worth reading, great style and imagination
Published 11 days ago by Sharon85
4.0 out of 5 stars An easy read and not as frightening as I thought it would be
Having read some of the other reviews I was initially worried that I would find this book too stomach-turning but actually I thought that it was quite a good read and I didnt see... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Three Bays
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
This is a very special book. The depth and direction of the writing is absorbing.
Not for the faint hearted.
Published 12 days ago by I D Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars wierd but...
excellent read, gripping until the end. I think this was an early work from Banks - a definite omen of what was to come...
Published 14 days ago by loobyloo
5.0 out of 5 stars Weird, but brilliant
Excellent, only picked it up after he sadly passed away earlier this year, and very happy I did, it makes you think question your own morals and ultimately realise the old adage... Read more
Published 20 days ago by barrytitcomb
5.0 out of 5 stars Wasp Factory
As wierd as it is enjoyable.

I found the book strange and compelling in equal measures. I am not a literary type so probably did not understand all the messages and... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Darren Stock
4.0 out of 5 stars Scary but fascinating
I somehow missed this novel. What a read! At times I was scared. What an imagination and talent. I will read more.
Published 21 days ago by Cherry
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      Wasp Factory other similar novels. 2 19 Mar 2013
      › See all discussions...  
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Search Customer Discussions
         
      Related forums

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback


      Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges