D Защото, според мен, дори през '93-та вече да се говори как "Форд" смятат да придобият "Ягуар", това още не се е случило и авторът едва ли би сложил в устата на героя си такава шегичка, би измислил нещо по-актуално и уместно като за '93-та...

I won't make this lengthier than it needs to be. It's blindingly obvious that Banks was extraordinarily talented. Here, he portrays a journalist with a complex and messy life, who inadvertently gets embroiled in some grisly murders of high-profile people. He gets stitched up for them, and has to try and figure out who is responsible. Given the reputation of Iain M Banks as a writer of unorthodox sci - fi and contraversial novels, I am surprised that only 2 of his works have ever been adapted for screen - The Crow Road (which I never liked either as a book or series) and Complicity, his only film outing. There are a lot (and I mean it) of good things about this book. The book is written in Gonzo style, which basically means the story is being narrated in first person. Where the brilliance of this approach lies is that Banks uses this tool both for the protagonist Colley as well as the mysterious serial killer. As a result, you are perplexed as to whether Colley is indeed the culprit. The reader needs to be alert as Banks keeps switching the narration between Colley & the killer in almost every chapter until the identity of the killer is revealed. It all might seem a bit confusing at first but one gets used to it. As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.And I’m there, in the one place I’ve hidden from myself’ not that cold day by the hole in the ice or the other day in the sunlit woods near the hole in the hill – days deniable because I was then not yet the me I have become – but just eighteen months ago; the time of my failure and my simple, shaming incapacity to reap and work the obvious power of what I was observing; the place that exposed my incompetence, my hopeless inability to witness. All Banks’s Culture novels feature Minds, hyperintelligent mirror-surfaced ellipsoids that run starships and other large engineering structures. But in Excession, the Minds become the primary protagonists, as they debate what to do about the titular phenomenon – an inscrutable alien artefact that seems to be older than the universe itself – and about a barbarous competing civilisation that glories in the name “the Affront”. As Minds are persons, they are not obliged to be open and honest with one another or anyone else, and some conspire to allow “gigadeathcrimes” on utilitarian principles, rather like crazed effective altruists.

An excellent nervy book, both cool and terrifying at its dark centre where the perfect logic of the protagonist is devoid of pity. Banks's muscular style and gruesome imagination make this a fast-moving thriller not to be missed * Daily Telegraph * No such scene exists in the film. This title and cover seem to be one more chapter in the harsh treatment this film has suffered at the hands of distributors. Iain Banks is simply brilliant, with and without the M. His books steal a bit of headspace and never really leave you. I like it because Iain B. makes you think. He challenges your preconceptions, delights in startling you and gives you a mental workout. I like it because he invents strong, believable characters and puts them in hideous situations with storylines that are unpredictable and challenging. I like it because his dark and difficult books are clever, engaging and enjoyable to read. They put footprints all over your brain.Cameron Colley is a 30-ish Scottish journalist with liberal leanings, a tendency to binge on alcohol and other (illicit) stimulants, and an ongoing clandestine relationship with his childhood sweetheart Yvonne. Unfortunately for Cameron, Yvonne is married to their mutual friend William. A more serious problem is presented by the exploits of a Dexter-like serial killer, who is engaged in a spree of execution-style killings of prominent business leaders and corrupt politicians for which he is systematically framing Cameron. My aim is to keep the guidance as straightforward as possible, not because I think you should only do it this way or that way, but because most people (myself included) handle complexity best when they start with the foundations. Author Iain M. Banks revealed in April 2013 that he had late-stage cancer. He died the following June. I was so intrigued by this book that I bought an original DVD of the movie based on the book. But I admit without shame that I did not watch the movie before re-reading the book for the second time!

Point of view (POV) describes whose head we’re in when we read a book ... from whose perspective we discover what’s going on – and the smells, sounds, sights and emotions involved. Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

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Complicity was a violent, dark thriller, that furiously critiqued the excesses of Thatcherism. When freewheeling, amoral, drug addicted journalist Cameron Colle is drawn into a complex web of murder and deception as he probes the (supposedly) interlinked murders of several ruthless, shadowy Establishment types; the core of the case is too close for his own comfort; or the comfort of his condescending smug yuppy mates (who have the irritating habit of calling St Andrews - 'St Andy's'!?). The descriptions of all the murders that take place is excellent - you feel as if you are right there watching the killer do it. It's all bloody & gory with a sexual element to it (sometimes), but it's one of the strongest points of the book. There's also a generous amount of sex in it as well, but it doesn't dampen your view of the book even one bit. There are scenes in the book telling of the main character's time at university, which is named to be Stirling University, where Iain Banks was himself a student. Brutal in the nightmarishness of its gruesome murders and sexual explicitness but never less than a no-holds-barred blitz of a thriller * Daily Mail * We follow Cameron Colley, a journalist with a mild drug, drink and gaming habit. He doesn't actually seem to do much work, but runs around after an anonymous source called Archer, who is hinting at links between the deaths of Nuclear scientists and associated people. But what is going on is far more sinister. There's a series of brutal murders across the country and suddenly Cameron is arrested. He knows he didn't do them, but can he be sure he's not complicit in the crimes!

The themes of violence and substance abuse in the book, along with the grim ending, seem to point to Banks' growing pacifism. Significant sections of the novel are written in second-person narrative. In second-person narrative POVs, the pronoun is ‘you’. This narration is intimate, but strangely so, as if the author is talking directly to the reader as a character.For that reason, consider the purpose of this narrative style and the extent to which you employ it. It might be better constrained – limited to chapters inhabited by specific viewpoint characters. I also loved how Banks indulges in concepts like morality, greed & the darker side of human beings. He also explores the socio-economic theories of capitalism & socialism, besides dabbling a bit in political ideologies through discussions among his book's characters.