Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Helsinki : Gummerus, 2013
Description
Sharing nothing in common except links to an organization committed to protecting the world from itself, an assembly of dubious characters including a torturer, a reluctant assassin, and an amnesiac patient confront challenges beyond their imagining.
Media reviews
In the end, for better or worse, this is a novel held together by its author’s moral vision. Transition may boast a postmodern plethora of worlds, but it offers a single old-fashioned world-view which all this random rattling about paradoxically reveals... This is a thriller with a conscience,
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decent and timely, even if, amid all the blood and thunder, it sounds what can seem an incongruously still small voice. Show Less
A Son of The Rock
Despite being published without the M in the author’s name - except in the US - this Iain Banks novel features parallel worlds, and flitting between them, and has as a plot point the existence or not of alien intelligences somewhere out there. As such it can scarcely be described as mainstream.
Transition does, though, signal its literariness from the outset – its strapline is “based on a false story” and the first words of its prologue are, “Apparently I am what is known as an unreliable narrator.” There is, too, a high degree of characterisation throughout even though, with the aid of a drug known as septus, most of its main characters can flit from one body to another. In typical Banksian fashion there is a shadowy organisation - here known as l’Expédience, or the Concern (which last is a pun) based on a world unusually known as Calbefraques rather than Earth - in charge of the use and distribution of septus and of recruitment to and training for the transition process.
I did notice that while at one point it is said that there has to be a recipient body for transitioning to take place - the one left behind has only rudimentary function as a husk - later transitions to uninhabited worlds do take place without added explanation.
The narrative is divided between various viewpoint personalities, Patient 8262, who is in hiding in a hospital in a country where the local language is not his own, The Transitionary, who may be an earlier incarnation of Patient 8262, Adrian, a former drug dealer turned hedge fund manager, Madame d’Ortolan, foremost member of the Concern’s ruling council, The Philosopher, a legal torturer, and occasional others. The Transitionary’s is a first person present tense narrative, others are past tense, sometimes first, sometimes third person. The most intriguing character is the rather prosaically named Mrs Mulverhill – who is not married, merely likes the name.
In the sort of inversion beloved of SF authors one of the parallel worlds has a set of Christian fanatics pitted against the state and indulging in suicide bombings and the like. The scenario gives Banks the opportunity to riff on how proportionate a response society ought to have to terrorism and on the (in)efficacy of torture. One of his characters also skewers “the invisible hand.”
Devotees of Iain M Banks will probably find this a treat. Followers of his M-less namesake ought also to find enough in it to satisfy them.
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But then early Iain “no M” Banks offerings (Walking On Glass, The Bridge, Canal Dreams) were suffused with SFness and/or sensibility (The Wasp Factory.)Transition does, though, signal its literariness from the outset – its strapline is “based on a false story” and the first words of its prologue are, “Apparently I am what is known as an unreliable narrator.” There is, too, a high degree of characterisation throughout even though, with the aid of a drug known as septus, most of its main characters can flit from one body to another. In typical Banksian fashion there is a shadowy organisation - here known as l’Expédience, or the Concern (which last is a pun) based on a world unusually known as Calbefraques rather than Earth - in charge of the use and distribution of septus and of recruitment to and training for the transition process.
I did notice that while at one point it is said that there has to be a recipient body for transitioning to take place - the one left behind has only rudimentary function as a husk - later transitions to uninhabited worlds do take place without added explanation.
The narrative is divided between various viewpoint personalities, Patient 8262, who is in hiding in a hospital in a country where the local language is not his own, The Transitionary, who may be an earlier incarnation of Patient 8262, Adrian, a former drug dealer turned hedge fund manager, Madame d’Ortolan, foremost member of the Concern’s ruling council, The Philosopher, a legal torturer, and occasional others. The Transitionary’s is a first person present tense narrative, others are past tense, sometimes first, sometimes third person. The most intriguing character is the rather prosaically named Mrs Mulverhill – who is not married, merely likes the name.
In the sort of inversion beloved of SF authors one of the parallel worlds has a set of Christian fanatics pitted against the state and indulging in suicide bombings and the like. The scenario gives Banks the opportunity to riff on how proportionate a response society ought to have to terrorism and on the (in)efficacy of torture. One of his characters also skewers “the invisible hand.”
Devotees of Iain M Banks will probably find this a treat. Followers of his M-less namesake ought also to find enough in it to satisfy them.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Watty
So, here's the thing.
I feel - because, essentially, we are similar people- a connection to Iain Banks. He writes stuff which touch on my interests and obsessions; he writes properly intelligent SF (the only kind worth bothering with), and he's defying stereotype by shifting ever more leftward as he
The one thing everyone knows about him, of course, is that he's really two authors: the nice, safe, mainstream one (a little edgy at times, increasingly political, but his characters are almost always redeemed by love in the end), and the odd, cerebral SF one, who you don't have to bother with if you don't like your fiction to have spaceships in it. Oddly, though, the SF one (the one with the M in the middle) is the really interesting one. When freed of the shackles of earth-bound plotting, Banks can really let his imagination go, and often makes some serious philosophical points alongside the odd aliens, and the standard tropes of the genre ('everyone wants to live forever and have superpowers' just about sums it up.)
Anyway, alongside my '4 Pink Floyds' theory (remind me to tell you about my '4 Pink Floyds' theory someday), I posit that there are 4 Iain Bankses - the literary fiction Banks, the Airport novel Banks, the Culture/fantasy Banks, and the SF Banks - and it's this last one who actually has the interesting things to say.
The presence or otherwise of the middle M is a red herring, something which I think even he's beginning to realise; perhaps he should reserve it for just the Culture books in future, and let everyone else take their chances. For example, two of his most effective 'non-M' books are essentially SF books in disguise - The Bridge and Song of Stone. I know otherwise rational people who dislike 'Song of Stone', mainly because it doesn't make sense until you understand that it's actually not set on this planet.
The LitFic Banks is more or less in remission these days - 'Dead Air' really didn't work (I think it was meant to be a sub-Martin Amis rant about modern society, but it was just too grating, and not really true to itself), but the airport novel Banks just keeps churning them out - the most recent, 'The Steep Approach to Garbadale', was a sweeping family saga with the inevitable Banks twist (and an awful lot of ranting about Americans; our Iain really didn't like the last US president.)
This one, however, is a real oddity. It's published in the UK as a non-M book, but on this side of the Atlantic it has an M in it - presumably so that it doesn't frighten the horses. This is prudent, for it is as SF as anything he's ever written, and perhaps more so. The story is told from multiple points of view (so far, so Banks), but it is clear from the beginning that these are not ordinary narrators - in the first sentence, the first narrator we meet tells us with added capitals that he is an Unreliable Narrator. None of what follows is true, kids, and don't you forget it!
This has the curious effect of causing the reader not to particularly care about the characters, although once you work out that some of them are the same person, seen at different points in their personal timeframe (I have to be careful here, since keeping track of time is one of the key issues with the story), and that some of them are in different universes, the whole thing actually starts to make some kind of sense.
As a piece of narrative, I'd say it works very well; as a critique of modern Western society, slightly less well (the faux-East End wideboy drug dealer / bonds trader character is just pure caricature), but as a novel it has (for me, anyway) two critical faults.
The first is that it proclaims early on, and repeatedly maintains that there are an infinite (I went back and checked; he does say infinite) number of universes. Logically, then, the actions of all the characters, given what they know, and what the author knows, are literally pointless. Why does any of what happens matter, if there is another universe where it doesn't happen? Secondly, there are two competing political factions in the story, each populated by amoral figures. We are instructed by the author to care that one of them succeeds and the other fails, but there is never any compelling evidence given as to why this should be. It seems that (particularly given the parallel universes thing) either side could win without much changing, except that Banks would have less room to make some political points.
In short (because no-one's going to be bothered reading all that), if you liked 'The Crow Road', 'The Business', and 'Garbadale', and you're hoping for another sprawling story about a zany Scottish family and their dotty elderly relatives, you'll be perplexed and baffled by this. If you approach it as a SF book, and keep a completely open mind about the physics of it all, you may well be entertained. If you're a nit-picking old curmudgeon like me, however, you'll turn the final page muttering "yes, but..." This may or may not be a good thing.
I feel - because, essentially, we are similar people- a connection to Iain Banks. He writes stuff which touch on my interests and obsessions; he writes properly intelligent SF (the only kind worth bothering with), and he's defying stereotype by shifting ever more leftward as he
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ages. Which is all good.The one thing everyone knows about him, of course, is that he's really two authors: the nice, safe, mainstream one (a little edgy at times, increasingly political, but his characters are almost always redeemed by love in the end), and the odd, cerebral SF one, who you don't have to bother with if you don't like your fiction to have spaceships in it. Oddly, though, the SF one (the one with the M in the middle) is the really interesting one. When freed of the shackles of earth-bound plotting, Banks can really let his imagination go, and often makes some serious philosophical points alongside the odd aliens, and the standard tropes of the genre ('everyone wants to live forever and have superpowers' just about sums it up.)
Anyway, alongside my '4 Pink Floyds' theory (remind me to tell you about my '4 Pink Floyds' theory someday), I posit that there are 4 Iain Bankses - the literary fiction Banks, the Airport novel Banks, the Culture/fantasy Banks, and the SF Banks - and it's this last one who actually has the interesting things to say.
The presence or otherwise of the middle M is a red herring, something which I think even he's beginning to realise; perhaps he should reserve it for just the Culture books in future, and let everyone else take their chances. For example, two of his most effective 'non-M' books are essentially SF books in disguise - The Bridge and Song of Stone. I know otherwise rational people who dislike 'Song of Stone', mainly because it doesn't make sense until you understand that it's actually not set on this planet.
The LitFic Banks is more or less in remission these days - 'Dead Air' really didn't work (I think it was meant to be a sub-Martin Amis rant about modern society, but it was just too grating, and not really true to itself), but the airport novel Banks just keeps churning them out - the most recent, 'The Steep Approach to Garbadale', was a sweeping family saga with the inevitable Banks twist (and an awful lot of ranting about Americans; our Iain really didn't like the last US president.)
This one, however, is a real oddity. It's published in the UK as a non-M book, but on this side of the Atlantic it has an M in it - presumably so that it doesn't frighten the horses. This is prudent, for it is as SF as anything he's ever written, and perhaps more so. The story is told from multiple points of view (so far, so Banks), but it is clear from the beginning that these are not ordinary narrators - in the first sentence, the first narrator we meet tells us with added capitals that he is an Unreliable Narrator. None of what follows is true, kids, and don't you forget it!
This has the curious effect of causing the reader not to particularly care about the characters, although once you work out that some of them are the same person, seen at different points in their personal timeframe (I have to be careful here, since keeping track of time is one of the key issues with the story), and that some of them are in different universes, the whole thing actually starts to make some kind of sense.
As a piece of narrative, I'd say it works very well; as a critique of modern Western society, slightly less well (the faux-East End wideboy drug dealer / bonds trader character is just pure caricature), but as a novel it has (for me, anyway) two critical faults.
The first is that it proclaims early on, and repeatedly maintains that there are an infinite (I went back and checked; he does say infinite) number of universes. Logically, then, the actions of all the characters, given what they know, and what the author knows, are literally pointless. Why does any of what happens matter, if there is another universe where it doesn't happen? Secondly, there are two competing political factions in the story, each populated by amoral figures. We are instructed by the author to care that one of them succeeds and the other fails, but there is never any compelling evidence given as to why this should be. It seems that (particularly given the parallel universes thing) either side could win without much changing, except that Banks would have less room to make some political points.
In short (because no-one's going to be bothered reading all that), if you liked 'The Crow Road', 'The Business', and 'Garbadale', and you're hoping for another sprawling story about a zany Scottish family and their dotty elderly relatives, you'll be perplexed and baffled by this. If you approach it as a SF book, and keep a completely open mind about the physics of it all, you may well be entertained. If you're a nit-picking old curmudgeon like me, however, you'll turn the final page muttering "yes, but..." This may or may not be a good thing.
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LibraryThing member Noisy
Hmmm. I love the work of Iain (M.) Banks (in both incarnations). But ... this one ... leaves me struggling. I love the writing, but the fantasy setting makes me think that he should have chosen yet another name to write under for works that aren't science fiction and aren't straight novels. You
This has multiple narrators, and you're pretty sure that their stories are going to come together at some point, but the worlds they reside in seem quite different. This is explained as you find out that the story is woven around a 'multiverse' setting, with some characters able to jump between different world-lines. There are some graphic descriptions of torture and sex, and most of the characters are pretty unsympathetic. No, actually they are all quite amoral/immoral to a greater or lesser degree. The descriptions of the scenes and settings are up to the usual Banks standard. And if you think this review is jumping around without a coherent thread, then you're probably getting a fair idea of the narrative itself.
So, how do I feel about it then? Well, his writing style is still brilliant in my opinion, and I enjoyed the book, but I want more from Iain Banks. It made me think; the location descriptions just took me straight there; I saw through the eyes of the characters. I still came away disappointed, but that's only in a relative sense because he still blows almost everyone else out of the water.
Should you read this book? Yeeeess ... but only if you've read a lot of his other works, and are prepared to ignore the story and accept it for the ideas and the writing. If you do want a proper storyline, and you don't care much for fantasy, well I'm afraid to say you should start elsewhere in his canon.
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see, anyone starting reading his works here will immediately get switched off if they assumed that Iain Banks was for the straightforward novels. This has multiple narrators, and you're pretty sure that their stories are going to come together at some point, but the worlds they reside in seem quite different. This is explained as you find out that the story is woven around a 'multiverse' setting, with some characters able to jump between different world-lines. There are some graphic descriptions of torture and sex, and most of the characters are pretty unsympathetic. No, actually they are all quite amoral/immoral to a greater or lesser degree. The descriptions of the scenes and settings are up to the usual Banks standard. And if you think this review is jumping around without a coherent thread, then you're probably getting a fair idea of the narrative itself.
So, how do I feel about it then? Well, his writing style is still brilliant in my opinion, and I enjoyed the book, but I want more from Iain Banks. It made me think; the location descriptions just took me straight there; I saw through the eyes of the characters. I still came away disappointed, but that's only in a relative sense because he still blows almost everyone else out of the water.
Should you read this book? Yeeeess ... but only if you've read a lot of his other works, and are prepared to ignore the story and accept it for the ideas and the writing. If you do want a proper storyline, and you don't care much for fantasy, well I'm afraid to say you should start elsewhere in his canon.
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LibraryThing member BMorrisAllen
Transition is an intensely political novel. Not in the Katherine Kurtz Deryni sense, but in the sense that it was clearly written in reference to recent and ongoing real-world events. It's not subtle, but neither is it overbearing.
One of the benefits of reading (or, I can say, writing) dark fiction
The story deals with a large cast of characters and multiple, often limited, or as the story itself points out, unreliable narrators. It takes quite some time to get a handle on what's going on, though I can reveal without spoilers that the core concept is that some people can move from their own minds into the minds of other people in alternate realities. There's a Circle organizing it all, and of course there are bad apples and power struggles (so there is some narrative politics as well).
As always with Banks, the writing is smooth. This time, however, the pieces just didn't add up to a compelling story for me. There are a number of thin or not terribly credible pieces, and a fairly substantial number of loose ends left hanging. The ending was pretty unsatisfactory.
I appreciate that Banks steered away from the Culture, which is wearing a bit thin, but this was not his best effort. True Banks fans probably already have this. If you're new to Banks or not a devotee, I suggest looking elswhere.
One of the benefits of reading (or, I can say, writing) dark fiction
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is that you can wake up from it with relief. Unfortunately, from the dark world of Transition, where torture and other terrible things happen, I woke to a real world where they also happen. It's a bit grim, and while the politics shouldn't put you off, the torture might - especially when you reflect that it's not just fiction - all these things are really happening. And that's from a guy who writes some dark stuff, and just finished writing a story about torture himself.The story deals with a large cast of characters and multiple, often limited, or as the story itself points out, unreliable narrators. It takes quite some time to get a handle on what's going on, though I can reveal without spoilers that the core concept is that some people can move from their own minds into the minds of other people in alternate realities. There's a Circle organizing it all, and of course there are bad apples and power struggles (so there is some narrative politics as well).
As always with Banks, the writing is smooth. This time, however, the pieces just didn't add up to a compelling story for me. There are a number of thin or not terribly credible pieces, and a fairly substantial number of loose ends left hanging. The ending was pretty unsatisfactory.
I appreciate that Banks steered away from the Culture, which is wearing a bit thin, but this was not his best effort. True Banks fans probably already have this. If you're new to Banks or not a devotee, I suggest looking elswhere.
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
In this exploration of the 'many worlds' theory, Iain (M.) Banks hearks back to two of his earlier works that pre-date his science fictional explorations, 'Walking on Glass' and 'The Bridge'. This caused his publishers some confusion; it was published in the UK as an Iain Banks novel, presumably
We also have a set of intertwining plotlines with a number of different characters, and a non-linear structure. Those who are comfortable with 'Use of Weapons' will find no problems with this. Mostly, we follow a character named Temujin Oh, who hails from a parallel Earth where the pre-eminent culture is Mongolian; but we never see that. We do visit a lot of alternative Earths as the story plunges us into the Concern, a trans-dimensional organisation ostensibly devoted to the betterment of humankind, everywhere. It's another vast, shadowy organisation of the sort that Banks enjoyed exploring in books like 'The Business', or the family firms in 'The Crow Road' or 'The Steep Approach to Garbadale', or even the Culture's Special Circumstances division. We also get some of Iain's trademark politics, though there's also a political joke towards the end that feels as though it has been injected by his friend Ken Macleod. (You will have to share Macleod's wide knowledge of Leftist politics to spot it, but it is a laugh-out-loud example.)
There is a certain amount of politicking, a lot of travel and considerable helpings of hedonism. For someone like me, who revels in world-building, this is a treat, and there are some set-piece scenes which allow for plenty of action. Those who do not like violence will probably find this book not to their taste, however; there is a lot of discussion about the practice of torture and some instances of it in the plot.
I recently had the opportunity to read an extract from an earlier draft of this novel, a fragment privately published as 'The Spheres'. It revealed some things about Temujin Oh that did not make it into the final novel, and indeed it would have set the book travelling along a completely different path; in that early draft, Oh was a very different sort of person, and the parallel Earth we are introduced to rather different. The final book did not go down that path; it might have made an even more interesting novel ,with range of very alien Earths, but reconciling that with a story of human extremes was probably too big an ask within the confines of one novel.
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because of one character, a venal City wide boy in the early 2000s giving it a contemporary fiction vibe; whilst in the USA, it was published as an Iain M. Banks novel because of a lot of hopping between parallel universes. I think the Americans have it right on this one.We also have a set of intertwining plotlines with a number of different characters, and a non-linear structure. Those who are comfortable with 'Use of Weapons' will find no problems with this. Mostly, we follow a character named Temujin Oh, who hails from a parallel Earth where the pre-eminent culture is Mongolian; but we never see that. We do visit a lot of alternative Earths as the story plunges us into the Concern, a trans-dimensional organisation ostensibly devoted to the betterment of humankind, everywhere. It's another vast, shadowy organisation of the sort that Banks enjoyed exploring in books like 'The Business', or the family firms in 'The Crow Road' or 'The Steep Approach to Garbadale', or even the Culture's Special Circumstances division. We also get some of Iain's trademark politics, though there's also a political joke towards the end that feels as though it has been injected by his friend Ken Macleod. (You will have to share Macleod's wide knowledge of Leftist politics to spot it, but it is a laugh-out-loud example.)
There is a certain amount of politicking, a lot of travel and considerable helpings of hedonism. For someone like me, who revels in world-building, this is a treat, and there are some set-piece scenes which allow for plenty of action. Those who do not like violence will probably find this book not to their taste, however; there is a lot of discussion about the practice of torture and some instances of it in the plot.
I recently had the opportunity to read an extract from an earlier draft of this novel, a fragment privately published as 'The Spheres'. It revealed some things about Temujin Oh that did not make it into the final novel, and indeed it would have set the book travelling along a completely different path; in that early draft, Oh was a very different sort of person, and the parallel Earth we are introduced to rather different. The final book did not go down that path; it might have made an even more interesting novel ,with range of very alien Earths, but reconciling that with a story of human extremes was probably too big an ask within the confines of one novel.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
Transition is such a complex book that about a quarter of the way through, I found myself wishing I had kept notes while reading, just so I could keep everything straight. The big idea is that there is not one Earth but an infinite number of them, and more are created with every possible divergence
The story is told from the points of view of several different characters: an assassin who excels in transitioning among the various worlds; a former drug dealer and current day trader; a torturer called the Philosopher; and a nameless patient in a mental institution. As they relate their parts in the unfolding story, these characters also tell their own histories, jumping around in time as well as among worlds. Some may even be the same person; with names, faces and bodies changing from transition to transition, it can be hard to tell. Like the multiple Earths spiraling out, their narratives spiral into greater and greater complexity, and their connections to one another don’t even become apparent until deep into the book.
Manipulating these male point-of-view characters are two strong, powerful and opposed women: Madame D’Ortolan, who has taken over the Concern in a coup with an unknown but probably nefarious goal; and Mrs. Mulverhill, who is leading a revolt against her. Both women excel at transitioning, and since they leave their bodies behind and inhabit new ones when they jump, it is sometimes difficult to know who the characters are even talking to.
It may seem strange to assign a high rating to a book that kept me feeling a little lost and confused most of the time I was reading it, but as I let the story pull me along, I became captivated by unraveling all the threads and drawing all the connections. The threads do come together at the end, and I have to admit that some of the revelations seemed a bit underwhelming, but that didn’t prevent me from becoming enthralled.
It is a good book that can make the impossible seem not only possible, but true. By the end, I thoroughly believed in these other Earths and actually wanted to visit some of them (perhaps this is the start of a series?). And yet, I questioned everything as well. One of the narrators suggests that perhaps the multiple worlds are only figments of his own imagination, that his mind created them all. Perhaps so. Banks doesn’t tell us, and I respect him for that. At some point, I would like to reread Transition so I can better understand and admire how Banks has constructed this intricate novel.
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of events, even minor ones. Some people are aware of these multiple Earths and are able to travel among them with the help of the drug Septus in a process called transitioning. On one version of Earth where everyone is Aware, as they call knowledge of the other worlds, a group called the Concern has taken it upon itself to guide the paths of the other worlds with well-timed interference, including the odd assassination. But is this group as benevolent as they profess themselves to be?The story is told from the points of view of several different characters: an assassin who excels in transitioning among the various worlds; a former drug dealer and current day trader; a torturer called the Philosopher; and a nameless patient in a mental institution. As they relate their parts in the unfolding story, these characters also tell their own histories, jumping around in time as well as among worlds. Some may even be the same person; with names, faces and bodies changing from transition to transition, it can be hard to tell. Like the multiple Earths spiraling out, their narratives spiral into greater and greater complexity, and their connections to one another don’t even become apparent until deep into the book.
Manipulating these male point-of-view characters are two strong, powerful and opposed women: Madame D’Ortolan, who has taken over the Concern in a coup with an unknown but probably nefarious goal; and Mrs. Mulverhill, who is leading a revolt against her. Both women excel at transitioning, and since they leave their bodies behind and inhabit new ones when they jump, it is sometimes difficult to know who the characters are even talking to.
It may seem strange to assign a high rating to a book that kept me feeling a little lost and confused most of the time I was reading it, but as I let the story pull me along, I became captivated by unraveling all the threads and drawing all the connections. The threads do come together at the end, and I have to admit that some of the revelations seemed a bit underwhelming, but that didn’t prevent me from becoming enthralled.
It is a good book that can make the impossible seem not only possible, but true. By the end, I thoroughly believed in these other Earths and actually wanted to visit some of them (perhaps this is the start of a series?). And yet, I questioned everything as well. One of the narrators suggests that perhaps the multiple worlds are only figments of his own imagination, that his mind created them all. Perhaps so. Banks doesn’t tell us, and I respect him for that. At some point, I would like to reread Transition so I can better understand and admire how Banks has constructed this intricate novel.
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LibraryThing member Karlstar
I used to be an Iain M. Banks fan, but this book was just bad. There are many, many parallel universes and many parallel Earths (and a very few non-Earths) and in this universe there are a few lucky people who can transition at will between universes and take over a person. Banks takes us through
Somewhere in the middle Banks throws in a completely random, pointless 'Christian Terrorist' group which causes problems in one universe - for what reasons he never explains, nor why its important to the book. It just shows up to allow him his mandatory anti-religion rant, without him bothering to make it effective. Sure, in an infinite multitude of worlds such a thing is possible, but since it was a total tangent (and never resolved) to his main conspiracy, what was the point?
Pointless, drifting, random, meaningless. A real transition for Banks, from well-written scifi to worthless action thriller.
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the lives of a few different versions of the same person, plus a few other main characters. The book jumps from viewpoint to viewpoint quite often. Most of the characters are not pleasant people. Through this universe of transitions there is one organization that seeks to nudge things in a positive direction - until it starts to do the opposite and there is a power struggle for control. Who's a good guy and who's a bad guy is a mystery through the book. Unfortunately, this is mainly a biography of some bad, mostly forgettable people with some James Bond-ish action thrown in, undertaken by someone who can pop from universe to universe and still maintain the abilities of a Bond type agent no matter what body or universe they are in. Eventually his 'hero' develops mysterious superpowers out of nowhere.Somewhere in the middle Banks throws in a completely random, pointless 'Christian Terrorist' group which causes problems in one universe - for what reasons he never explains, nor why its important to the book. It just shows up to allow him his mandatory anti-religion rant, without him bothering to make it effective. Sure, in an infinite multitude of worlds such a thing is possible, but since it was a total tangent (and never resolved) to his main conspiracy, what was the point?
Pointless, drifting, random, meaningless. A real transition for Banks, from well-written scifi to worthless action thriller.
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LibraryThing member nmele
It's been two days since I finished this book (as always with Banks an interesting, enjoyable read) and I still can't decide whether it's one I really like or not. As always, the plotting is complex and the environment complex, but the basic driving devices are well-worn--multiple alternate worlds,
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a shadowy agency working among them. Banks colors his characters, world and plot so well, so subtly, however, that at the end I am unable to decide what to think of this novel. Check in periodically, I may figure myself out. Show Less
LibraryThing member plabebob
One of his better ones, this novel is gripping & exciting. Sometimes I feel a bit lost in a Banks novel, especially with his habit of switching between characters & narrative style like a loony, however in this book the switching works with the story in a brilliantly conceived plot line. Violent &
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sexy in places & with an awesome twist at the end. Love it! Show Less
LibraryThing member Mithril
Some effort needed initially but overall excellent.
LibraryThing member Dunx
makes effective use of non-linear narrative structure to weave a striking story of alternate histories. I thought it was one of his more thought-provoking science fiction novels - odd then that it was published under his mainstream monicker.
LibraryThing member kkisser
This is the second book by Ian Banks I've started and the only one of his I've finished. Everyone raves about his ideas and his stories but what they fail to note is that his characters are utter shits. Not a redeemable or likeable one in the story and since it was a story encompassing thousands of
Ideas are great and story is nice (though this one is a muddle for the first half and a needlessly convoluted in the second half) but they don't carry any weight or have any staying power without interesting characters to bring them to life. Banks' characters are thin to weightless, Which makes for a disappointing read.
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alternate worlds, is saying something. If heroes were counted by the amount of space on the page devoted to them, Banks would have us root for a psychopathic torturer and a greedy douchebag hedge fund manager.Ideas are great and story is nice (though this one is a muddle for the first half and a needlessly convoluted in the second half) but they don't carry any weight or have any staying power without interesting characters to bring them to life. Banks' characters are thin to weightless, Which makes for a disappointing read.
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LibraryThing member Gwendydd
Transition is about The Concern, an organization that sends people throughout the infinite parallel universes to make sure that humanity stays on the right track, that events turn out for the best. The story follows several different characters, and at first the book feels quite disjointed, but it
I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was outstanding - he used very distinct voices and accents for each of the characters.
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is satisfying when it all comes together. The book includes some philosophical musings that are unfortunately less profound than they seem to want to be.I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was outstanding - he used very distinct voices and accents for each of the characters.
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LibraryThing member Pyobon
As a fan of Banks, this book disappointed me. Some of his books have been brilliant, a few have been a waste of time. This sits somewhere in between. There are some really good parts to - some of the writing and some of the ideas. However, as a whole, it just didn't add up. There are so many
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threads to the story and I don't believe all of them were resolved; or if they were then it was lost in the complexity and confusion. Also there were plot holes associated with a central concept. I have no problem with suspension of disbelief in SciFi provided that there is a self consistency and logic to concept being used. In several places this consistency is violated and that perturbs my suspension of disbelief. The writing is also a bit patchy. There are some great parts and then there are some very one dimensional characters and parts inserted rather crudely to convey a political point. It really needed a strong editor to tell him it wasn't ready to publish! If you are a Banks fan, of course read it. If you are new to Banks there are much better books that he has written. Show Less
LibraryThing member piankeshaw
I am new to Iain Banks' works. He came recommended by the Sony Reader software based upon what I've read in the past. The recommendation has paid off. I've read "The Wasp Factory" and then now "Transition" and have enjoyed both, although they are very different.
Transition was an interesting read.
Transition was an interesting read.
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The diverse voices that create the novel came together nicely in the end. I found it fast-paced and thrilling. Show Less
LibraryThing member agdturner
I had to suspend disbelief for some time to allow for flitting where a person not just imagines themselves in someone elses shoes, but really finds themselves there. Flitting as described is usually invoked with the use of a drug controlled in one dimensions in a multiverse of possible normally
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distinct physical universes. The story takes a narrative form and I wondered if the main character would turn out to just be dreaming in an empathetic type of way. This helped to carry me along through the suspension of disbelief and I managed to enjoy this as a story. Some of the content is what I would consider to be adult rated and it probed some interesting although mainly dark concepts as it drew on this multiverse concept. I have only read one other book by the author and I have been informed that the works are mainly of two genres and that this one is something more of a mix than others being set sort of in the past, present and future. It is both about our world and those other forms our world might take if things turned out slightly differently. Show Less
LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
Well this one just about manages to scrape 3 stars in my opinion. I'm a big fan of Iain Banks (in both his SF and 'mainstream' incarnations) but I did feel this was one of his weaker efforts. It felt like it needed some judicious editing. There are still flashes of brilliance in his writing (too
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few in this instance) and the prose is as readable as ever, but the flow of the plot seems to come unstuck at times, there is too much jumping from one perspective to another, and many of the characters and their reflections/experiences seem a little too flat and uninteresting. Anyone who has read Banks' recent works would know that at times his books can be slow-burners, taking their time in setting the scene and the characters, before building up to a spectacular finish. The formula didn't quiet work as well here. And am I the only one to detect plot holes that could not simply be put down to 'unreliable narrators'? (For example, when Temujin and Mrs. M. transition to the parallel world where mankind is extinct and a tyrant had built a palace up on mount Everst - whose bodies are they inhabiting?) After the unrestrained sprawl of most of the book, the ending seemed to have been forced into a nice neat little package in far too short a time. Long time fans of Banks will probably read this anyway, but for others I would recommend starting with any of a number of his other books. Show Less
LibraryThing member Philogos
This is an Iain Banks that could just as well have been an Iain M Banks. The story is based on the 'infinite universes' hypothesis in which we (or at least some of us) have learned to travel across the multiverse of possible worlds.
And, of course, the question then arises as to what you would do
The story is told from a number of points of view and we get to see both the goodies and the baddies from the inside. Interesting stuff, as always from Mr Banks but with a few loose ends (or maybe I didn't understand everything) and an over neat ending for my taste...
And, of course, the question then arises as to what you would do
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with that power if you could and, if those with the power believed that they wanted to use it for good, how long thye would remain uncorrupted.The story is told from a number of points of view and we get to see both the goodies and the baddies from the inside. Interesting stuff, as always from Mr Banks but with a few loose ends (or maybe I didn't understand everything) and an over neat ending for my taste...
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LibraryThing member firebird8
I'm putting in everything on one shelf. I remember finding this one interesting, now that I've reminded myself what it was about, but it didn't stick with me and I have little feeling about it now. So, meh.
LibraryThing member Wintermute1
I began listening to the free bbc podcast of the first half of this book. Very satisfying, if a little slow paced.
LibraryThing member PortiaLong
First book I have read by this author. Good writing, interesting premise. For some reason I got bogged down through the second half and it went slower than I usually read.
Favorite line:
We live in an infinity of infinities, and we reshape our lives with every passing thought and each unconscious
Favorite line:
We live in an infinity of infinities, and we reshape our lives with every passing thought and each unconscious
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action, threading an ever-changing course through the myriad possibilities of existence. Show Less
LibraryThing member geertwissink
It took me quite some pages (>100) to get into the story, but after that it was an exhilarating ride till the end. Bank brings the concept of 'flitting' or transitioning between alternative worlds and the impact it has on one's mind, body and soul very convincing and full with detail.
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
I guess this was a work in progress but he ran out of time. I could have done without all the copulating but the basic idea of the multiverse was tackled really well. So thanks for a last book.
Ah - I later realise this wasn't his last book, so theoretically he could have done some
Tried re-reading but didn't hold my attention so only got a few chapters in.
Ah - I later realise this wasn't his last book, so theoretically he could have done some
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editing......Tried re-reading but didn't hold my attention so only got a few chapters in.
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LibraryThing member stuart10er
I enjoyed this book, however I thought it was set in the Culture and it wasn't. It was pre-culture or something. The premise of the book is around extraordinary rendition and how that might play out in a sufficiently advanced culture. Interesting idea and well written exploration of it.
LibraryThing member curiousgene
One of the things I like about Banks is that exposition is handled very well - there's a tendency to avoid big info dumps, and some things just aren't explained. There's no compulsive need to explain every last little detail. He doesn't fall prey to the need to somehow lay out thousands of years of
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history just so you know that he had it planned out in case anybody asked. Well crafted book. Always a pleasure. Show Less
LibraryThing member pinax
I've just started "Transition". So far, this is pretty different for Iain Banks (well, Iain M. Banks). I'd say, different in a diffused, non-coalescing kind of way. I've liked other works of his better; I'm a pretty uncritical fan of his "Culture" series, and I'd give "Raw Spirits" a rave review.
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However, since I am generally a big fan of his work, I shall give Transition a chance. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
SF Site Reader's Choice (2009)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2010)
Locus Recommended Reading (2009)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009-09-03
Physical description
566 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
9789512086603