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The Business
The tale starts off with the protagonist getting woken up at 4AM: one of her subordinates, who is due to participate in an important deal the next day, has woken up with half of his teeth surgically removed.
Who controls the British Crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
The Business is the world's largest and most powerful entity that you've never heard of. Supposedly predating the Christian Church, the Business once owned the Roman Empire (but only for a little while -- it didn't work out), and now has a great many fingers in a great many pies. Swiss banks? Yes. Offshore islands? Yes. Covert operations? Yes. The Business is like a sort of capitalistic fantasy come to life, the Illuminati made real.
Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
Kathryn Telman is a Level Three in the Business, which makes her Rather Important in the scheme of things but she still has ambitions to make it to the top. Kate is one of the Business' experts in the modern world of high technology, and this expertise has allowed her to rise quickly -- she has a natural gift for buying low and selling high, as you will see. But besides the day-to-day operations, the Business is moving strategically: they want to purchase a nation so that they can have a seat at the United Nations. This is one of the few perks that the Business does not already possess, and they are a bit envious of the other Seats ... errr, Nations.
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
The whole book is written in the lyrical, flowing, pleasant style that characterizes several of Banks' less gruesome books, such as Look to Windward or Inversions. It's a bit odd, since most writers would write a book like this in a very tense, clipped fashion and Banks rejects that. It's a fun read, all the way through, and even if it won't leave you with a feeling of wonder like some of Banks' books, it's still well worth your time.
Who robs cave fish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do, we do!
You can find this book at Fatbrain, which also features an excerpt from the book.
I suspect that more members of the Slashdot demographic are familiar with Banks' science fiction (written as Iain M. Banks) than his "normal" fiction (written as Iain Banks without the M), and I'd just like to say: if you're in that category, do yourself a favour, and check out some of his non-M books NOW!
I do like his SF.. some very good ideas in there. But I think his non-SF work is better than good, it's some of the best stuff I've ever read in my life!
The Business is great.. and better still are Espedair Street (the story of a washed-up (or not?) Scottish rock star gone into seclusion), The Crow Road (the story of a rather odd Scottish family), and Complicity (the story of a Scottish journalist and a sinister conspiracy). Iain Banks is very Scottish. :-)
That's not really unusual, I interviewed at CMG a while back, and they have a similar policy. Also, like The Business, they are financially transparent internally, everyone knows what everyone else makes.
If you've not read any non-SF Banks stuff, this is not the best place to start. Try the Wasp Factory, Whit or -- preferably -- Complicity. All are much better than this one.
Which is not to say that The Business isn't entertaining, just that it's some way from his best. And it has his usual problem: the female characters are just not very well formed (they're just men with breasts). Unfortunately, a female character is the hero...
As a Stonecutter, I fervently disagree with the use of our theme song to promote something as trivial as a book. Ever since the sacred scroll was destroyed by that cheese-and-donut-munching buffoon, lodge just hasn't been the same. Drat it. Let's sue them for the use of our anthem.
Stonecutters UNITE!
Jethro
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
I have to agree with stephnd's comment:
And it has his usual problem: the female characters are just not very well formed (they're just men with breasts). Unfortunately, a female character is the hero...
I think a basic problem of this book is that ultracapitalists are boring people, unless they are completely insane and godlike (c.f. James Bond villains, Felix Jongleur of Otherland, the Tessier-Ashpools of Neuromancer). They all have too much money and cleverness and inability to find satisfaction in non-material things, so they have lots of toys. There's the eccentric Brit with his castle and aforementioned airplane-catapult; the eccentric American with military surplus and war movie fetish; the eccentric Japanese who likes to destroy ships. What seems like variety at first reveals itself to be a cookie-cutter approach to humor. They have no real fear of failure (since they have too much money and power and sense to ever lose all of it), are much too rational and intelligent to suffer severe emotional struggle, and can't really experience any kind of spiritual sense, since they've replaced that with the effective but boring belief in the Invisible Hand. Those who aren't cut out right, who are in the Business but suffer from one of the seven deadly sins, all get their tediously moralistic comeuppance.
Or maybe it's just the main character (and the book is in the limited first person, so it's all about her and from her perspective) who is painfully, painfully boring. She is a dull woman. Yes, she's beautiful, smart, clever, and driven, but she doesn't really suffer a bit in the book. (Ooh! She loves a man who she can't have, and doesn't love the man she can! But, in the end, she does the right thing, and ends up slowly growing fond of the man who she can have. Maybe it's the best ending for her, but it's painfully dull for the reader.)
The peripheral male characters lead interesting lives and act irrationally and pout and suffer and all those things that make a non-flashy book like this (aka "a Novel") enjoyable and satisfying, but they are mere garnishes on the gray, tough meat of the book. Read the first chapter to get the witty description of the Business (or just read Michael's fawning review), and then put the book down. The promises made of an interesting mystery and unusual situations are not kept.
But if you want to read how very incapable Brits are of being happy (or sad, really), this is a good choice.
Read the Bridge instead, a lyrical and strange novel that lies in the realm of Borges and Calvino.
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Make mine methylphenidate.
Workers councils, good OSS projects, you name it...
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Wether you believe that the bovarian illuminati actually controlled anything, the fact is that a real group did (and may still) exist under that name.
The Bovarian Illuminati? What, they raised the price of milk? Started the whole "Cow Rights movement? A-HA! This explains all of the Chik-Fil-A campaigns!
"This is your world. These are your people. You can live for yourself today, or help build tomorrow for everyone."
Yes very novel. Workers councils in short. Pioneered during the February and October Russian Revolutions, and before that for the two months of the Paris commune.
Worked pretty well by all accounts.
Phil