Feersum Endjinn by Iain (aka Iain M.) Banks is the best sci-fi novel I’ve read in a while. Ian M. Banks is a Scottish fiction and science fiction writer. His sci-fi goes under “Iain M. Banks” and his straight fiction under “Iain Banks”. Feersum Endjinn is in that Brit dark fantasy/sci fi style of Mervyn Peake and later Pullman. It is tough to read with one narrator whose sections read in something like l33t speak. The world of Feersum Endjinn is an outsized castle where ruined rooms are broad fields or cities and there is a data corpus that anyone not too senior is implanted to be able to access. Citizens have multiple lives, both real and then virtual. Every page slowed me down with twisted insights or insights that twisted. Easily one of the most imaginative writers, though sometimes I worry M-Banks loses his plot in the display of wit and the fantastic. Just think about the title of the book.
Guardian Unlimited has an interesting chat transcript between fans and Iain M Banks.