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Dead Air
A loft apartment in London's East cool but doomed, demolition and redevelopment slated for the following week. Ken Nott, attending a mid-week wedding lunch, starts dropping stuff off the roof towards the deserted car park a hundred feet below. Other guests join in and soon half the contents of the flat are following the fruit towards the pitted tarmac...just as mobiles start to ring, and the apartment's remaining TV is turned on, because apparently a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center...
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
79 people are currently reading
3259 people want to read
About the author
Iain Banks
39 books4,844 followersThis author also published science fiction under the pseudonym Iain M. Banks.
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.
Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1982. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He lived most recently in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.
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.
In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He related his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.
Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.
His latest book was a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.
Author Iain M. Banks revealed in April 2013 that he had late-stage cancer. He died the following June.
The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel The Quarry, due to be published later this year*, would be his last.
* The Quarry was published in June 2013.
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.
Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1982. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He lived most recently in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.
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.
In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He related his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.
Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.
His latest book was a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.
Author Iain M. Banks revealed in April 2013 that he had late-stage cancer. He died the following June.
The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel The Quarry, due to be published later this year*, would be his last.
* The Quarry was published in June 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 263 reviews
November 26, 2021
My first Iain Banks, and apparently one not much loved by the critics. A first person narrated tale of British shock jock, Ken Knott which starts at a loft party on the night of that 9-11. The traumatic globally shocking incident allows Banks to underline who and what Knott is from the oft. 'Playa' Knott's life is possible forever changed when he has an affair with a real gangsters wife, and it is the outcomes and outputs of that relationship that are the real subjects of this book.
It is indeed! When I read this I was unaware that the critics didn't really go for it, if I'd only known. I though the book was OK, although it felt 'laddish', which I loathe. I felt that from this sole read that Banks was overrated as a writer and gave the book a 6 out of 12, but now I know that this wasn't one of his better works I'll look out for other works by him.
2005 read
It is indeed! When I read this I was unaware that the critics didn't really go for it, if I'd only known. I though the book was OK, although it felt 'laddish', which I loathe. I felt that from this sole read that Banks was overrated as a writer and gave the book a 6 out of 12, but now I know that this wasn't one of his better works I'll look out for other works by him.
2005 read
November 17, 2012
Many people appear to hate this book, for reasons that aren't completely clear to me. I really liked it. OK, the main character, a British shock jock, is a bit of an asshole, but he's a very entertaining asshole. I didn't find it difficult to accept him on his own terms, and just get on with enjoying the story. And as for all the indignation that a sublimely beautiful woman should fall for this horrible person... well, in an ideal world that maybe wouldn't happen, but you only have to open a gossip magazine to see that it happens all the time. Like, to pick the first example that pops into my head, Penélope Cruz and Tom Cruise. I rest my case.
The reason I suddenly thought of Dead Air, however, was the current furore over the Holocaust-denier bishop: there's a wonderful scene here which is completely apropos.
The reason I suddenly thought of Dead Air, however, was the current furore over the Holocaust-denier bishop: there's a wonderful scene here which is completely apropos.
December 3, 2011
What the critics (may have allegedly) said:
Dear Iain, please gain a little perspective and paint over your current social wallpaper; don your I heart Tony Blair t-shirt and form an orderly queue at the passport office.
What the monkey says:
Loved this! Admittedly this is my first foray into the world of Iain Banks (with or without the .M as I've never read any of his sci-fi either) but it did what it said on the tin. Pacey, engaging story of a gob-on-a-stick British shock jock and his whimsical antics. Ok Ken Nott is possibly the human equivalent of the congealed gunk scraped off the underside of the News of the World staff canteen microwave, but lets not dwell on that fact. Nott smokes, snorts and gurgles his way through the sparkly world of Londons media glitterati, leaving the shells of exploded verbal bombs and the prone bodies of shagged women in his wake. Although his initial passage through the novel did seem to be lubricated by a fair dollop of oleaginous smug, this soon dries up when he falls for a gangsters moll and in moment of lust-lorn, hormonally lobotomised stupidity leaves a sloppy message on her home answer phone. Cue a race against time as Nott struggles to hit the erase button before hubby gets home and dials 1471 and in all likelihood parts Nott from his manhood by way of a response. So, to summarise, booze, birds, sex, drugs, gob-shites, gangsters and improbable set up regarding an answering machine message.
Dear Iain, please gain a little perspective and paint over your current social wallpaper; don your I heart Tony Blair t-shirt and form an orderly queue at the passport office.
What the monkey says:
Loved this! Admittedly this is my first foray into the world of Iain Banks (with or without the .M as I've never read any of his sci-fi either) but it did what it said on the tin. Pacey, engaging story of a gob-on-a-stick British shock jock and his whimsical antics. Ok Ken Nott is possibly the human equivalent of the congealed gunk scraped off the underside of the News of the World staff canteen microwave, but lets not dwell on that fact. Nott smokes, snorts and gurgles his way through the sparkly world of Londons media glitterati, leaving the shells of exploded verbal bombs and the prone bodies of shagged women in his wake. Although his initial passage through the novel did seem to be lubricated by a fair dollop of oleaginous smug, this soon dries up when he falls for a gangsters moll and in moment of lust-lorn, hormonally lobotomised stupidity leaves a sloppy message on her home answer phone. Cue a race against time as Nott struggles to hit the erase button before hubby gets home and dials 1471 and in all likelihood parts Nott from his manhood by way of a response. So, to summarise, booze, birds, sex, drugs, gob-shites, gangsters and improbable set up regarding an answering machine message.
January 15, 2023
"Political correctness is what right-wing bigots call what everybody else calls being polite."
'Dead Air' is a cross between 'The Crow Road' and 'Complicity' and sees Iain Banks returning to familiar ground with his characters and plot.
Glaswegian Ken Nott is a devoutly left-wing contrarian shock jock working for Capital Live!, a London commercial radio station where he rants about everything from religion to gun control to congestion, taking pleasure in belittling his listeners and receiving death threats. The story opens in September 2001 when Ken is attending a party in London just as the Twin Towers are attacked. The story opens with a bang and basically accelerates through one man's political obsessions dropping Ken in some interesting situations involving death threats, women, drugs and live television along the way.
Ken isn't a particularly likeable character, he is a opinionated, drug-taking, self-centred lothario skipping from one sexual partner to another with little thought for the turmoil he leaves in his wake. The main story revolves around Ken’s affair with a gangland boss's wife. When Ken leaves an ill-advised telephone message on her home's answering machine his life starts to spiral out of control.
To tell you the truth at the end of this novel I wasn’t sure what it was actually about. OK, you see Ken bound up in some dodgy predicaments of his own making, from the deadly serious to the hilarious, but you don’t get a sense of a whole. It is well written, clever and funny with great characters and set scenes that made me laugh, I’m just not sure if it actually had a plot. We are simply dropped in to the middle of Ken’s life, we watch a few set scenes unfold that made me laugh, then it is over and everything carries on.
Don’t get me wrong I'm a big fan off the author's works even if they aren't for the morally squeamish and perhaps worryingly I found myself agreeing with many of Nott's rants but I also found it a bit shallow and vacuous. It's a bit like a McDonald's burger, it satisfies you for a short period of time but you are soon left wanting something more substantial. If I could award half points I would mark it up.
'Dead Air' is a cross between 'The Crow Road' and 'Complicity' and sees Iain Banks returning to familiar ground with his characters and plot.
Glaswegian Ken Nott is a devoutly left-wing contrarian shock jock working for Capital Live!, a London commercial radio station where he rants about everything from religion to gun control to congestion, taking pleasure in belittling his listeners and receiving death threats. The story opens in September 2001 when Ken is attending a party in London just as the Twin Towers are attacked. The story opens with a bang and basically accelerates through one man's political obsessions dropping Ken in some interesting situations involving death threats, women, drugs and live television along the way.
Ken isn't a particularly likeable character, he is a opinionated, drug-taking, self-centred lothario skipping from one sexual partner to another with little thought for the turmoil he leaves in his wake. The main story revolves around Ken’s affair with a gangland boss's wife. When Ken leaves an ill-advised telephone message on her home's answering machine his life starts to spiral out of control.
To tell you the truth at the end of this novel I wasn’t sure what it was actually about. OK, you see Ken bound up in some dodgy predicaments of his own making, from the deadly serious to the hilarious, but you don’t get a sense of a whole. It is well written, clever and funny with great characters and set scenes that made me laugh, I’m just not sure if it actually had a plot. We are simply dropped in to the middle of Ken’s life, we watch a few set scenes unfold that made me laugh, then it is over and everything carries on.
Don’t get me wrong I'm a big fan off the author's works even if they aren't for the morally squeamish and perhaps worryingly I found myself agreeing with many of Nott's rants but I also found it a bit shallow and vacuous. It's a bit like a McDonald's burger, it satisfies you for a short period of time but you are soon left wanting something more substantial. If I could award half points I would mark it up.
March 25, 2008
“Dead Air” is a little bit of all the things that make Iain Banks great. It is funny in the blackest of ways; it is political and demands that we pay attention to the serious issues it’s addressing; it is rich in characterization, making us love Ken Nott and all the strange denizens of London that he comes across; and it is, above all, entertaining. Iain Banks is the greatest living commonwealth writer to never be up for the Man Booker Prize, and he likely never will be, but he remains a writer of great talent no matter what his theme or mode or message. He is one of those rare authors who can do it all, from comedy to thriller to drama to tragedy. Do yourself and the entire literary world a favor -- read Banks’ “Dead Air.” It is a scathing ode to the post 9-11 world that should not be missed.
February 18, 2013
Couldn't finish it. It's not that it was badly written I just had no desire to carry on reading. I was disinterested in the lead character and couldn't establish any particular plot or driving narrative. It was mostly just a bunch of shock jock rants. The excitement I usually feel at the prospect of picking up my book to read the next installment was absent for this book. Quite surprised as I have enjoyed a good few Iain Banks books in the past.
I used to force myself to read on and finish books but I've decided life is too short to plug away at a book I'm not enjoying when there are so many other books out there.
I used to force myself to read on and finish books but I've decided life is too short to plug away at a book I'm not enjoying when there are so many other books out there.
August 28, 2012
Laddish account of urban hedonism punctuated with progressive riffs against the ugly signs of our times. Banks made me laugh, but appeared to be going in opposite directions. One could imagine the subsequent torque generated would be exciting. It wasn't, at least not in such an artiistic arc. Banks plays a comic suspense effect pedal adroitly over the last 70 pages. I was impressed with that but was baffled per the novel as a whole.
I'd afford the novel another .5 for the dialogue which crackles.
I'd afford the novel another .5 for the dialogue which crackles.
November 20, 2008
Dead Air. It should be called Hot Air.
Never in my life have I read a book with such a multitude of unlikeable characters. These are pseudo celebs and media whores, ploughing the depths of the tarnished glitterati and have no redeeming quality or anything whatsoever to endear them.
Ken Nott is a "shock jock", and ok, he makes a few good points, but there is nothing new or ground breaking, and the typescripts from a James Whale show meets George Galloway Talk Sport-esque rant-a-thon does not a novel make. He also comes across as self obsessed (or more rather sex obsessed) and amoral. He has the most beautiful of women falling at his feet - why? For goodness sake???? Maybe it’s a novel written for men - at least vapid, shallow, metrosexuals with the personality of a retarded amoeba…but I expected a little more than this.
The setting against the backdrop of 9/11 appears thus far - -nearly 300 pages in appears to be irrelevant an a cheap way to draw in readers, cynically used on the back cover (maybe I should hold off on this until I have finished, but really..) The plot such as it is could easily stand alone without it thus far.
And having now completed this nonsensical book the above remains true. There was a flurry of about 50 pages towards the end where the thought processes related to tenseness and panic are very well written (clearly the guy has potential) and gets it a second star, but the tragic demise of the protagonist who brings about his own downfall due to over indulgence in alcohol and the fact that he can't keep his d*ck in his pants for more than 5 pages is hardly Homer....I kind of left the book with relief wishing the ending could have been a tad different as now there is always the threat he could re-surface.....
Never in my life have I read a book with such a multitude of unlikeable characters. These are pseudo celebs and media whores, ploughing the depths of the tarnished glitterati and have no redeeming quality or anything whatsoever to endear them.
Ken Nott is a "shock jock", and ok, he makes a few good points, but there is nothing new or ground breaking, and the typescripts from a James Whale show meets George Galloway Talk Sport-esque rant-a-thon does not a novel make. He also comes across as self obsessed (or more rather sex obsessed) and amoral. He has the most beautiful of women falling at his feet - why? For goodness sake???? Maybe it’s a novel written for men - at least vapid, shallow, metrosexuals with the personality of a retarded amoeba…but I expected a little more than this.
The setting against the backdrop of 9/11 appears thus far - -nearly 300 pages in appears to be irrelevant an a cheap way to draw in readers, cynically used on the back cover (maybe I should hold off on this until I have finished, but really..) The plot such as it is could easily stand alone without it thus far.
And having now completed this nonsensical book the above remains true. There was a flurry of about 50 pages towards the end where the thought processes related to tenseness and panic are very well written (clearly the guy has potential) and gets it a second star, but the tragic demise of the protagonist who brings about his own downfall due to over indulgence in alcohol and the fact that he can't keep his d*ck in his pants for more than 5 pages is hardly Homer....I kind of left the book with relief wishing the ending could have been a tad different as now there is always the threat he could re-surface.....
September 15, 2012
Historically I've struggled with Iain Banks novels. Three out of four of his novels that I've started have ended up on my didnt-finish shelf. Iain M. Banks is a another case entirely mind – his science-fiction I adore. So, it was with some trepidation that I ventured into another of Banks' non-science-fiction novels. But, Louise had a copy knocking about and it was listed in the
1 001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
book so when it reached the top of the to-read list I decided to give it a go.
Ken Nott is a radio DJ, a shock-jock, for a commercial London radio station called Capital Live! (not in anyway supposed to sound like Capital FM I suspect). He's argumentative, not overly likeable, and a bit of a whore. Somehow Banks still manages to make him readable – for a start he's clever (although not usually wise), and funny and very quick with his responses, which do seem to distract you from his lack of any real kind of moral fibre. When not insulting religious groups on his show, picking up women in bars or drinking with his mates, he is managing to cheat on his girlfriend with the most beautiful women he has ever seen. Who, just happens to be the wife of London's most notorious gangster. So, no chance of anything going wrong there then.
Dead Air is the term for any time when a radio station should be broadcasting something, but is in fact silent. Generally stations fear these gaps like people do awkward pauses in conversations, but some radio DJs deliberately use these gaps for effect. I wonder if, in this context it is also trying to refer to something else? Empty airspace over London maybe? A pause in people's lives as the events of 9/11 hit them? Many reviewers have described this as a post-9/11 novel, and to an extent it is – it is both written and set after that event. But it doesn't really seem to dwell on the event. It is mentioned briefly as the news breaks while most of the characters are at a party, and there are a couple of references to quieter skies and people feeling less trusting on the tube, but that's it. This isn't some huge 9/11 statement that I could see.
In fact, the biggest political section of the book is where Ken sets himself up against a holocaust denier which has quite a long teased build-up giving you lots of opportunity to try and work out his secret plan.
It's a slow starter, very slow; a couple of times I really wondered if I was going to see the whole thing through or not. But as the book wore on, Ken wormed his way into my affections and I started to care (a little bit anyway). It helped that the pace of the book picks up (slowly) as it progresses and eventually his life begins to truly fall apart. Most of the other characters are fairly thin, but we are seeing it from Ken's point-of-view and he's a fairly shallow individual, so that actually kinda makes sense, and the ending is a little too neat maybe, but maybe I've misjudged Iain Banks without the M. and I need to go restart some of those books that I gave up on before. Finally, surely at least some bonus points for managing to have an entire page and a half of text contained in a single set of parentheses – that's some side-statement!
Ken Nott is a radio DJ, a shock-jock, for a commercial London radio station called Capital Live! (not in anyway supposed to sound like Capital FM I suspect). He's argumentative, not overly likeable, and a bit of a whore. Somehow Banks still manages to make him readable – for a start he's clever (although not usually wise), and funny and very quick with his responses, which do seem to distract you from his lack of any real kind of moral fibre. When not insulting religious groups on his show, picking up women in bars or drinking with his mates, he is managing to cheat on his girlfriend with the most beautiful women he has ever seen. Who, just happens to be the wife of London's most notorious gangster. So, no chance of anything going wrong there then.
Dead Air is the term for any time when a radio station should be broadcasting something, but is in fact silent. Generally stations fear these gaps like people do awkward pauses in conversations, but some radio DJs deliberately use these gaps for effect. I wonder if, in this context it is also trying to refer to something else? Empty airspace over London maybe? A pause in people's lives as the events of 9/11 hit them? Many reviewers have described this as a post-9/11 novel, and to an extent it is – it is both written and set after that event. But it doesn't really seem to dwell on the event. It is mentioned briefly as the news breaks while most of the characters are at a party, and there are a couple of references to quieter skies and people feeling less trusting on the tube, but that's it. This isn't some huge 9/11 statement that I could see.
In fact, the biggest political section of the book is where Ken sets himself up against a holocaust denier which has quite a long teased build-up giving you lots of opportunity to try and work out his secret plan.
It's a slow starter, very slow; a couple of times I really wondered if I was going to see the whole thing through or not. But as the book wore on, Ken wormed his way into my affections and I started to care (a little bit anyway). It helped that the pace of the book picks up (slowly) as it progresses and eventually his life begins to truly fall apart. Most of the other characters are fairly thin, but we are seeing it from Ken's point-of-view and he's a fairly shallow individual, so that actually kinda makes sense, and the ending is a little too neat maybe, but maybe I've misjudged Iain Banks without the M. and I need to go restart some of those books that I gave up on before. Finally, surely at least some bonus points for managing to have an entire page and a half of text contained in a single set of parentheses – that's some side-statement!
February 24, 2016
September 11, 2001:
It may still be too soon... Dead Air was obviously written very quickly, by an Iain Banks who was, equally obviously, both deeply in love with and furious at the United States that he saw going off the rails. As was Ken Nott, Banks' protagonist, displaced Scotsman and self-described "shock jock" broadcasting from London. As was I, but I wasn't nearly as articulate about it as either Banks or Nott.
We were, all of us back then, though, just background noise—voces clamantes en deserto, drowned out by the relentless drums of war.
Not that Ken's an entirely admirable character—far from it. He's a serial adulterer and massively parallel substance abuser, not nearly as bold and independent a thinker as he makes himself out to be. But he comes down reliably, by and large, on the side of the angels.
Dead Air isn't all politics, of course. In fact, if you edit out the rants and the cinematic set pieces (like the brilliant way Ken eventually handles his long-deferred TV interview with a Holocaust denier), what this novel's primarily about are Ken's relationships—with his girlfriend Jo, his good mates Craig and Ed, his loyal on-air partner Phil, his boss Jamie, and of course with the impossibly beautiful and enigmatic Celia.
Banks displays his sure touch with dialogue and characterization here too; Ken was extremely lucky to have such an expert novelist writing his material. Even when he's not on the air, he's able to convey sly gems, like this compact assessment of his ex-wife Judith:
I don't think Dead Air received the reception it deserved when it was published, and it may still be too soon for this novel to be appreciated for the perceptive and topical, sharply political, yet overall warm and human work that it is. And that's a shame. We are not yet free from flag-waving demagogues; we are no more immune from making tragic missteps than we were a decade and a half ago. And that's a shame too.
Iain Banks was writing for us—as he always did, but this time, I think, it was personal, and we'd do well to listen now, even if we didn't then.
"What a brilliant excuse that's turned out to be, for so many things."If more people had been listening to Iain Banks' Dead Air in 2002—or, hell, just listening to dead air—than to what actually went on the air after 9/11 and the various military misadventures that characterized the ensuing Aughts (accent on the "augh"), then our 21st Century might well have become a more peaceful and rational place. But Dead Air fell on deaf ears, I'm afraid. At least on this side of the pond—I can't recall seeing a copy of or even hearing about this incandescent novel (with its eerily echoing cover photo of a jet flying over twin smokestacks) , until I ran across a second-hand copy in a really good used bookstore in 2016.
—Phil Ashby, p.128
It may still be too soon... Dead Air was obviously written very quickly, by an Iain Banks who was, equally obviously, both deeply in love with and furious at the United States that he saw going off the rails. As was Ken Nott, Banks' protagonist, displaced Scotsman and self-described "shock jock" broadcasting from London. As was I, but I wasn't nearly as articulate about it as either Banks or Nott.
We were, all of us back then, though, just background noise—voces clamantes en deserto, drowned out by the relentless drums of war.
Not that Ken's an entirely admirable character—far from it. He's a serial adulterer and massively parallel substance abuser, not nearly as bold and independent a thinker as he makes himself out to be. But he comes down reliably, by and large, on the side of the angels.
Dead Air isn't all politics, of course. In fact, if you edit out the rants and the cinematic set pieces (like the brilliant way Ken eventually handles his long-deferred TV interview with a Holocaust denier), what this novel's primarily about are Ken's relationships—with his girlfriend Jo, his good mates Craig and Ed, his loyal on-air partner Phil, his boss Jamie, and of course with the impossibly beautiful and enigmatic Celia.
Banks displays his sure touch with dialogue and characterization here too; Ken was extremely lucky to have such an expert novelist writing his material. Even when he's not on the air, he's able to convey sly gems, like this compact assessment of his ex-wife Judith:
Great sex, similar interests, robust cross-platform political beliefs with only a few troublesome legacy systems—she believed in astrology—compatible groups of friends...
—p.112
I don't think Dead Air received the reception it deserved when it was published, and it may still be too soon for this novel to be appreciated for the perceptive and topical, sharply political, yet overall warm and human work that it is. And that's a shame. We are not yet free from flag-waving demagogues; we are no more immune from making tragic missteps than we were a decade and a half ago. And that's a shame too.
Iain Banks was writing for us—as he always did, but this time, I think, it was personal, and we'd do well to listen now, even if we didn't then.
December 14, 2009
Iain Banks is a good writer with a modern, highly readable prose style (although the books sometimes seem lazily edited). I’m a great fan of ‘The Wasp Factory’ and ‘The Crow Road’, however his ratio of hits to misses is not that great.
There are a number of problems with this book:
Firstly, the lead character is a self-centred, selfish and distinctly unpleasant human being. He’s also at points a complete idiot. This makes him hard to root for. Secondly, the protagonist is a radio shock-jock. He is a left wing version which gives him something of a selling point, but in my view reading about someone ranting on the radio is no more fun than listening to it. Banks however seems to really enjoy it, so there are lots of passages which were frustratingly irritating to me. Thirdly, the plot is all over the place. There are lots of disparate elements, and none of them really come together to make a convincing whole. And the fact that the protagonist is so difficult to warm to makes it hard to care what happens to him anyway.
In short, if I was to recommend a Banks book to someone it wouldn’t be this one.
(I got this edition from the library. Banks uses metric measurements throughout, and strangely someone has gone through with a pencil and changed them all to Imperial. Has anyone else ever encountered the like?)
There are a number of problems with this book:
Firstly, the lead character is a self-centred, selfish and distinctly unpleasant human being. He’s also at points a complete idiot. This makes him hard to root for. Secondly, the protagonist is a radio shock-jock. He is a left wing version which gives him something of a selling point, but in my view reading about someone ranting on the radio is no more fun than listening to it. Banks however seems to really enjoy it, so there are lots of passages which were frustratingly irritating to me. Thirdly, the plot is all over the place. There are lots of disparate elements, and none of them really come together to make a convincing whole. And the fact that the protagonist is so difficult to warm to makes it hard to care what happens to him anyway.
In short, if I was to recommend a Banks book to someone it wouldn’t be this one.
(I got this edition from the library. Banks uses metric measurements throughout, and strangely someone has gone through with a pencil and changed them all to Imperial. Has anyone else ever encountered the like?)
March 26, 2015
Well, they can't all be The Crow Road, I guess, but this was a major disappointment both as a novel and as the first Iain Banks novel I'd read in years. Where to begin - a slight plot, characters to whom it's impossible to warm (or even take an interest in), an implausibly happy and romantic ending and, more important, an overwhelmingly persistent question: why write this novel and what are its themes? Honestly, if I were Banks' editor I would have rejected this one.
When you compare it with a novel like Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz (which is about modern relationships, a huge part of the focus of Dead Air), it seems like an even sadder waste of time. Blurgh. Only good tasting tuna get to be StarKist. And I'm not in the habit of reading bad novels. So I'm grumpy about having read this one.
When you compare it with a novel like Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz (which is about modern relationships, a huge part of the focus of Dead Air), it seems like an even sadder waste of time. Blurgh. Only good tasting tuna get to be StarKist. And I'm not in the habit of reading bad novels. So I'm grumpy about having read this one.
September 15, 2012
Started reading this, wasn't sure it would be my sort of book, but being involved in a deconstructionist group, it might make interesting conversation pieces... Nearly finished, and it has been hard to keep reading it... This is a man's book, in my view, and all the conversations are a bit overdone, ie boring: footie, etc, but I had heard the end was good so persevered, and yes it is un-put-downable towards the end, but was it worth it? Not really, poor story-line I thought. Proud to have got this far actually! And this is only because I'm off sick at present!!
January 26, 2016
The book is mildly amusing but I had trouble identifying with the main protagonist who I suspect is supposed to be a charming cheeky chappy type but comes across as an abusive misogynist, smug, self centred, self satisfied, duplicitous, aggressive, treacherous shite who is the worst kind of low life and far too clever for his own good. Unfortunately he fails to get his just desserts. You cannot feel anxious when he is in danger when you are hoping that he does get what should have been coming to him. I would avoid reading it again.
July 25, 2023
The Wasp Factory was one of the best books I've ever read at the time I read it in the early 1990s and I went on to follow Iain Banks reading all his books as they were released for a while but somewhere along the way I stopped.
Dead Air is one of his later books (I was unaware that he had died back in 2013) written in 2002.
While I found it well written and what could be described as 'a fast paced thriller', I struggled at times with it. The main reasons for this are that I felt no empathy for the lead character, a cocky, outspoken Scottish DJ working in London whose live revolved around drink and drugs and women. These are not particularly traits that would automatically put me off a character but in this case, I found him to be an arrogant, thoughtless pig headed fool who had no concern what the consequence his actions and deeds and words might have on those around him.
In addition, the character spouted a whole load of political views, often contrary and ill formed, which did nothing to endear him to me either.
Spoiler alert:
In the course of the novel his actions do indeed get him into serious life threatening trouble but I spent the latter part of the book hoping he would get his comeuppance which sadly doesn't happen.
I spent a lot of time for little reward with this book so despite Iain Banks having given me a great deal of pleasure in the past, this was not one I enjoyed. I wonder what revisiting his earlier works will bring?
Dead Air is one of his later books (I was unaware that he had died back in 2013) written in 2002.
While I found it well written and what could be described as 'a fast paced thriller', I struggled at times with it. The main reasons for this are that I felt no empathy for the lead character, a cocky, outspoken Scottish DJ working in London whose live revolved around drink and drugs and women. These are not particularly traits that would automatically put me off a character but in this case, I found him to be an arrogant, thoughtless pig headed fool who had no concern what the consequence his actions and deeds and words might have on those around him.
In addition, the character spouted a whole load of political views, often contrary and ill formed, which did nothing to endear him to me either.
Spoiler alert:
In the course of the novel his actions do indeed get him into serious life threatening trouble but I spent the latter part of the book hoping he would get his comeuppance which sadly doesn't happen.
I spent a lot of time for little reward with this book so despite Iain Banks having given me a great deal of pleasure in the past, this was not one I enjoyed. I wonder what revisiting his earlier works will bring?
November 24, 2011
The plot is quite simple; We follow Kenneth (Or Ken Nott) a radio DJ on a moderately popular radio station in the time right after September 11. 2001. Surprisingly – or perhaps not, I am not quite sure yet – Ken is quite unaffected by the whole terrorist attack.
Public service announcement: This article does not contain any spoilers.
Dead Air – written by Iain Banks
published 2002, by Little, Brown publishing. (which, incidentally, is owned by time warner books. When will we see the film?
When I first was introduced to Iain Banks, I was amazed by his sheer storytelling power. Since, I have started reading a Banks book as every second book I’ve read. When I discovered my local supermarket had a deal on hardbacks, and especially when I found banks’ book, I was hooked.
The plot
The plot is quite simple; We follow Kenneth (Or Ken Nott) a radio DJ on a moderately popular radio station in the time right after September 11. Surprisingly – or perhaps not, I am not quite sure yet – Ken is quite unaffected by the whole terrorist attack.
The book starts with Ken and some friends at a party. A moving-away party for some posh friends of theirs. In a state of loads-of-drugs-and-alcohol, Ken decides it is a good idea to throw fruit down from the balcony onto the carpark below, seing the fruit splatter. Eventually, their game evolves into throwing televisions, beanbags, and all kinds of other junk over the edge.
Which is when they start noticing something on television. A plane, crashing into atower. And another one.
From here on, things just get more and more interesting… Ken witnesses a traffic accident, gets involved with a crime boss, goes on national television, doing something completely outrageous against a holocaust-denier, gets kidnapped, nearly gets killed, but lives happily ever after. All these plot points are finely interwoven in a style no less of what you’d expect of Banks.
Why this book just might be worth reading.
Primarily? It is a cozy book. It is probably one of the most light-hearted things I have ever read by Banks - no unspeakable horrors (wasp factory) or insane twists in the plot, just a largish dose of nice, clean fun.
It helps that Ken Nott is a pretty damn witty man with some incredibly sharp comebacks. His rants and ideas about life are reasonably politically correct, but at the same time quite thought-provoking. The book is about people - people interacting in private lives and in the workplace. Mostly in a funny way, but also very believable in many ways; Suspension of disbelief is limited to a minimum.
As the reader, you get a pretty good insight into the world of radio journalism and DJing. Based on my experiences in the field (limited as such, but still), it seems fairly accurate as well.
The book reads very much like a film, actually: It is very detailed in all the points where you would expect a film to be detailed, and you can just see Brad Pitt or one of the other big ones sprout the snappy conversations. In addition to that, I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get to the point faster. Some of the sections are incredibly exciting and lay very close to that of a thriller.
I read the first fifty pages of this book in a week or so. The rest of it (total of 400-odd pages) I ploughed through in less than two days, effectively leaving me without sleep for three nights in a row.
I like this book. A lot. It lacks that unsuspected Banks twist, but because of the sheer storytelling power, it does not really matter.
Without adding anything significant to the literature world in term of philosophical or literary value, this is still a book worth having a look at if you would like to kill a few hours on a journey, by train, or bus. Or even on a plane, if you can stomach the occasional references to terrorist threats. Or just in your favorite comfy chair in your journey of life, if you will.
Public service announcement: This article does not contain any spoilers.
Dead Air – written by Iain Banks
published 2002, by Little, Brown publishing. (which, incidentally, is owned by time warner books. When will we see the film?
When I first was introduced to Iain Banks, I was amazed by his sheer storytelling power. Since, I have started reading a Banks book as every second book I’ve read. When I discovered my local supermarket had a deal on hardbacks, and especially when I found banks’ book, I was hooked.
The plot
The plot is quite simple; We follow Kenneth (Or Ken Nott) a radio DJ on a moderately popular radio station in the time right after September 11. Surprisingly – or perhaps not, I am not quite sure yet – Ken is quite unaffected by the whole terrorist attack.
The book starts with Ken and some friends at a party. A moving-away party for some posh friends of theirs. In a state of loads-of-drugs-and-alcohol, Ken decides it is a good idea to throw fruit down from the balcony onto the carpark below, seing the fruit splatter. Eventually, their game evolves into throwing televisions, beanbags, and all kinds of other junk over the edge.
Which is when they start noticing something on television. A plane, crashing into atower. And another one.
From here on, things just get more and more interesting… Ken witnesses a traffic accident, gets involved with a crime boss, goes on national television, doing something completely outrageous against a holocaust-denier, gets kidnapped, nearly gets killed, but lives happily ever after. All these plot points are finely interwoven in a style no less of what you’d expect of Banks.
Why this book just might be worth reading.
Primarily? It is a cozy book. It is probably one of the most light-hearted things I have ever read by Banks - no unspeakable horrors (wasp factory) or insane twists in the plot, just a largish dose of nice, clean fun.
It helps that Ken Nott is a pretty damn witty man with some incredibly sharp comebacks. His rants and ideas about life are reasonably politically correct, but at the same time quite thought-provoking. The book is about people - people interacting in private lives and in the workplace. Mostly in a funny way, but also very believable in many ways; Suspension of disbelief is limited to a minimum.
As the reader, you get a pretty good insight into the world of radio journalism and DJing. Based on my experiences in the field (limited as such, but still), it seems fairly accurate as well.
The book reads very much like a film, actually: It is very detailed in all the points where you would expect a film to be detailed, and you can just see Brad Pitt or one of the other big ones sprout the snappy conversations. In addition to that, I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get to the point faster. Some of the sections are incredibly exciting and lay very close to that of a thriller.
I read the first fifty pages of this book in a week or so. The rest of it (total of 400-odd pages) I ploughed through in less than two days, effectively leaving me without sleep for three nights in a row.
I like this book. A lot. It lacks that unsuspected Banks twist, but because of the sheer storytelling power, it does not really matter.
Without adding anything significant to the literature world in term of philosophical or literary value, this is still a book worth having a look at if you would like to kill a few hours on a journey, by train, or bus. Or even on a plane, if you can stomach the occasional references to terrorist threats. Or just in your favorite comfy chair in your journey of life, if you will.
March 10, 2016
Lo terminé porque era un regalo, de otra forma hubiera sido un DNF como una casa.
Mi impresión de los dos libros que he leído de este autor ha sido la misma: ¿De qué va esto? y ¿A quién le importa?
Mi impresión de los dos libros que he leído de este autor ha sido la misma: ¿De qué va esto? y ¿A quién le importa?
March 18, 2020
My second attempt at this novel, not Banks's worst. As Scotland on Sunday tactfully put it, 'Dead Air will do nothing to diminish his reputation'. Because much of his portfolio is very impressive, some of them ineffably good, a couple even world class (yes, that good).
Dead Air is no dead wood in his extremely impressive portfolio. It is Iain Banks' opportunity to discuss faith and reason, democracy and bullshit, love and loyalty, and their opposites, allowing himself, loosely disguised as a radio shock-jockey, to fantasise about sleeping with an entire buffet of delectable beauties of all shades and class, while giving voice to militant liberalist Ken Nott - a pun on 'knows nothing', 'understands nothing', and a ready denial.
Within two pages it is clear who his intended audience is: the thinking-person's literary fantasist-cum-escapist - or, basically, us, our age, his age; and, largely, men. For, after all, we are the latter generation wishing to be the former, again. (If only the plumbing still worked as it did). Now this demographic Shakespeare might have described as the stage of man that 'consolidates' where it cannot now actively participate, that stage of man which realises he is on the cusp of losing half of what he owns to the woman whom he no longer does. For - as a divorce lawyer once educated me on a train from Frankfurt to Zürich (now there's food for fantasy) - what does a middle-aged man fear the most? My answer: losing the love of his life? Her answer: losing his money.
That one train ride taught me more about the natural stages of man in two minutes than ten years' worth of thinking about the bard's seemingly more profound meaning.
But back to the plot. The wider plot is no different to most of Banks's Culture SF: we - whether the human civilisation or the demographic stage of man - long for escape from this nine-to-five excess of slavery to the scrabble for ownership of means and resources, via either the indulgences of leisure and pleasure, or the necessary escapism of fantasy (see: The Interesting Times Gang). What Banks does very well is posit this personal desire - which I recognise grudgingly that I share, being of a similar age, and sex - in a cast of frivolously bright young things who are at once both smart and sexy, yet vacuously unthoughtful and/or selfish. This is, essentially, the difference between logical knowledge, and experience. We who have the somewhat cringing perspective of experience long to return to those carefree days of clever indulgence without really knowing how deep the well of loss might be, while yet being almost entirely unaware what loneliness really feels like.
1 in 4 get cancer; 3 in 4 get divorced. Time to stop drinking and start consolidating! Definitely stop the drinking, Ken. Nothing but trouble for you.
Ken is a youngish man (35-8) of very strong moral opinions, but loose moral example. One is a set outspoken; the other is a set lived by. Ken doesn't see the difference. You and I most likely live it. Ken ignores this difference down a mike broadcasting to the world (London), part of the hypocrisy of living in the facile society. Ken is facile. Ken is the side of Mr. Banks who can play as he wishes; he's the fun side; he's the fantasy Mr. Banks; he's the boy the thinking man was; he's the stage of living we would love to return to, so carefree, so irresponsible, yet not the level of experience or wisdom (yes, some) we could now not disown. The problem with playing with this child is... well, he's very childish. Sometimes it's hard to separate the thinking author from some irreverent fantasy Peter Pan who never wants to grow up, and so becomes more verbally facile every time he opens his smart mouth. Having such intelligence, such a wit, isn't always a blessing. On paper, anyway.
All of Bank's novels, mainstream or SF, are fantasies. Banks is smart, Banks is witty, and occasionally actually lol funny. And Banks can say in four words what you and I would say in two - but wittily, humourously, affectionately. He is always playing games with us, with our intelligence, always connecting with that spark which fires friendship across the bar. But since I never enter a bar these days, I feel it all belongs to some other generation or past life, and I've moved on, frankly. But there's another couple of personal issues: one, I don't like radio, punkt, and certainly not commercial radio; two, I don't care for London, having had to live there for work for too long; three, it's all very well holding and holding forth your liberal views, but they don't carry an ounce of pull in this nativist world these days - unless there's some secret hidden cabal of politically powerful liberals somewhere that I don't know about.
The problem with liberalism is that you have to be tolerant of people who lie for a living. The problem with being a militant liberal is that you offend a lot of people, especially if you have access to broadcast commercial radio. But then... I start sounding like Ken McNutt (see pp.203-4, Abacus, 2003), and there I must stop, while he goes on. So, the only other story strand that might stand a chance is Ken's philandering. And I'm dead set against such egocentric indulgences, and descriptions of sex, because they just don't come off, let alone that kind of fun-loving disloyalty. So there's not much left of this book for me to love. Even the darkly comic in-house skit is slightly overcooked. In the end, too many words, smart, half-smart, jovial, serious or whatever. A bit much repetition, from Ken's smart mouth, too much fuckwit stupidity to be truly funny. Needed a wee edit. But even so, I couldn't have written it.
Iain Banks is a modern master of: smart fantasy. It can be - and most often is - sexy, witty, funny, entertaining, and thought-provoking, often very. You may not always like his characters (Whit, Complicity, Espedair Street, Dead Air). But Banks allows us a brief spell of freedom from the waves of reverberation that seem to be gathering momentum towards some impending crisis of even greater consequence. In Dead Air, he discusses some of them, through the pompous self-righteous liberalism of Ken Nott. But we can't take it seriously, any of it, because it has all just got worse, and more banal. What personally can we do about this, except share in the black comedy of one of our most imaginative and darkly witty writers, who I find I sadly miss, along with Terry Pratchett.
Not his best (Walking On Glass [1985], The Bridge [1986], Excession (1996], The Business [1999]), not his worst (The Wasp Factory [1984], Canal Dreams [1987], Espedair Street [1989], A Song Of Stone [1997]), but distinctly his.
Dead Air is no dead wood in his extremely impressive portfolio. It is Iain Banks' opportunity to discuss faith and reason, democracy and bullshit, love and loyalty, and their opposites, allowing himself, loosely disguised as a radio shock-jockey, to fantasise about sleeping with an entire buffet of delectable beauties of all shades and class, while giving voice to militant liberalist Ken Nott - a pun on 'knows nothing', 'understands nothing', and a ready denial.
Within two pages it is clear who his intended audience is: the thinking-person's literary fantasist-cum-escapist - or, basically, us, our age, his age; and, largely, men. For, after all, we are the latter generation wishing to be the former, again. (If only the plumbing still worked as it did). Now this demographic Shakespeare might have described as the stage of man that 'consolidates' where it cannot now actively participate, that stage of man which realises he is on the cusp of losing half of what he owns to the woman whom he no longer does. For - as a divorce lawyer once educated me on a train from Frankfurt to Zürich (now there's food for fantasy) - what does a middle-aged man fear the most? My answer: losing the love of his life? Her answer: losing his money.
That one train ride taught me more about the natural stages of man in two minutes than ten years' worth of thinking about the bard's seemingly more profound meaning.
But back to the plot. The wider plot is no different to most of Banks's Culture SF: we - whether the human civilisation or the demographic stage of man - long for escape from this nine-to-five excess of slavery to the scrabble for ownership of means and resources, via either the indulgences of leisure and pleasure, or the necessary escapism of fantasy (see: The Interesting Times Gang). What Banks does very well is posit this personal desire - which I recognise grudgingly that I share, being of a similar age, and sex - in a cast of frivolously bright young things who are at once both smart and sexy, yet vacuously unthoughtful and/or selfish. This is, essentially, the difference between logical knowledge, and experience. We who have the somewhat cringing perspective of experience long to return to those carefree days of clever indulgence without really knowing how deep the well of loss might be, while yet being almost entirely unaware what loneliness really feels like.
1 in 4 get cancer; 3 in 4 get divorced. Time to stop drinking and start consolidating! Definitely stop the drinking, Ken. Nothing but trouble for you.
Ken is a youngish man (35-8) of very strong moral opinions, but loose moral example. One is a set outspoken; the other is a set lived by. Ken doesn't see the difference. You and I most likely live it. Ken ignores this difference down a mike broadcasting to the world (London), part of the hypocrisy of living in the facile society. Ken is facile. Ken is the side of Mr. Banks who can play as he wishes; he's the fun side; he's the fantasy Mr. Banks; he's the boy the thinking man was; he's the stage of living we would love to return to, so carefree, so irresponsible, yet not the level of experience or wisdom (yes, some) we could now not disown. The problem with playing with this child is... well, he's very childish. Sometimes it's hard to separate the thinking author from some irreverent fantasy Peter Pan who never wants to grow up, and so becomes more verbally facile every time he opens his smart mouth. Having such intelligence, such a wit, isn't always a blessing. On paper, anyway.
All of Bank's novels, mainstream or SF, are fantasies. Banks is smart, Banks is witty, and occasionally actually lol funny. And Banks can say in four words what you and I would say in two - but wittily, humourously, affectionately. He is always playing games with us, with our intelligence, always connecting with that spark which fires friendship across the bar. But since I never enter a bar these days, I feel it all belongs to some other generation or past life, and I've moved on, frankly. But there's another couple of personal issues: one, I don't like radio, punkt, and certainly not commercial radio; two, I don't care for London, having had to live there for work for too long; three, it's all very well holding and holding forth your liberal views, but they don't carry an ounce of pull in this nativist world these days - unless there's some secret hidden cabal of politically powerful liberals somewhere that I don't know about.
The problem with liberalism is that you have to be tolerant of people who lie for a living. The problem with being a militant liberal is that you offend a lot of people, especially if you have access to broadcast commercial radio. But then... I start sounding like Ken McNutt (see pp.203-4, Abacus, 2003), and there I must stop, while he goes on. So, the only other story strand that might stand a chance is Ken's philandering. And I'm dead set against such egocentric indulgences, and descriptions of sex, because they just don't come off, let alone that kind of fun-loving disloyalty. So there's not much left of this book for me to love. Even the darkly comic in-house skit is slightly overcooked. In the end, too many words, smart, half-smart, jovial, serious or whatever. A bit much repetition, from Ken's smart mouth, too much fuckwit stupidity to be truly funny. Needed a wee edit. But even so, I couldn't have written it.
Iain Banks is a modern master of: smart fantasy. It can be - and most often is - sexy, witty, funny, entertaining, and thought-provoking, often very. You may not always like his characters (Whit, Complicity, Espedair Street, Dead Air). But Banks allows us a brief spell of freedom from the waves of reverberation that seem to be gathering momentum towards some impending crisis of even greater consequence. In Dead Air, he discusses some of them, through the pompous self-righteous liberalism of Ken Nott. But we can't take it seriously, any of it, because it has all just got worse, and more banal. What personally can we do about this, except share in the black comedy of one of our most imaginative and darkly witty writers, who I find I sadly miss, along with Terry Pratchett.
Not his best (Walking On Glass [1985], The Bridge [1986], Excession (1996], The Business [1999]), not his worst (The Wasp Factory [1984], Canal Dreams [1987], Espedair Street [1989], A Song Of Stone [1997]), but distinctly his.
March 1, 2023
A bit of a strange one. Definitely not one of my favourite Banks' books but I'm working my way through all his work as he's my favourite author. I wouldn't say it's one to skip though.
The book is set around the time of the twin towers attacks and follows a left wing radio "shock jock" who's a Scottish man living in London called Ken. I'm not sure I've ever heard a leftie equivalent of someone like Jeremie Vine and feel like that might be pure fantasy on Bank's part but YMMV. Ken is slightly used as a mouthpiece for Banks to rant about things but more interestingly he's also a fairly difficult protagonist to like unlike a lot of Bank's - he's cynical, fairly nihilistic in his personal life and a serial womaniser. This latter character trait has him ogling practically every woman he meets and drives the plot as he sleeps with (or attempts to sleep with) a number of people whilst in a relationship.
In typical Banks' style the plot is fairly extreme and goes off the deep end but mainly this is basically a love story featuring our unlikeable DJ and an unlikely partner. Overall I found that a bit hard to believe but there are some memorable bits. I thought the book didn't really have anything specific to say in terms of the main plot but it was interesting to see an exploration of a somewhat negative man-child protagonist even though he was a bit hard work.
The love story itself (and plot) didn't seem believable especially with the character seemingly being afraid of commitment... Perhaps the mad events are meant to make him change his ways?
The ending was pretty unsatisfying and it felt like he didn't really know where to go with it so it just got painted by the numbers
The book is set around the time of the twin towers attacks and follows a left wing radio "shock jock" who's a Scottish man living in London called Ken. I'm not sure I've ever heard a leftie equivalent of someone like Jeremie Vine and feel like that might be pure fantasy on Bank's part but YMMV. Ken is slightly used as a mouthpiece for Banks to rant about things but more interestingly he's also a fairly difficult protagonist to like unlike a lot of Bank's - he's cynical, fairly nihilistic in his personal life and a serial womaniser. This latter character trait has him ogling practically every woman he meets and drives the plot as he sleeps with (or attempts to sleep with) a number of people whilst in a relationship.
In typical Banks' style the plot is fairly extreme and goes off the deep end but mainly this is basically a love story featuring our unlikeable DJ and an unlikely partner. Overall I found that a bit hard to believe but there are some memorable bits. I thought the book didn't really have anything specific to say in terms of the main plot but it was interesting to see an exploration of a somewhat negative man-child protagonist even though he was a bit hard work.
The love story itself (and plot) didn't seem believable especially with the character seemingly being afraid of commitment... Perhaps the mad events are meant to make him change his ways?
The ending was pretty unsatisfying and it felt like he didn't really know where to go with it so it just got painted by the numbers
January 23, 2021
The last in my current big pile of Iain Banks novels - I can move on to something else now!
This one covers the life of a slightly controversial radio DJ, and his messy private life, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He's Scottish, but unlike the other Banks novels I've read, the action takes place pretty much entirely in London, with only occasional references to the character's youth in Scotland, and a final passing mention of Glasgow on the last page.
I won't give too much away, but the lead character ends up getting in a very complex mess with some very dangerous people, partly through bad luck and partly through doing something extremely stupid when drunk. It ends up with a pretty tense finale, where you can really feel the tension. Right up until the last few pages, it's very hard to see where it's going to go.
It's a very good portrait of a tense time in the world, and how people tried to cope with it, with the stresses and strains it placed on their relationships and behaviour. There's a wide mix of people in here, some decent, some awful, some who could go either way, and it's a good illustration of how nothing is simple, and a lot of our actions can have very unintended consequences. Very enjoyable.
This one covers the life of a slightly controversial radio DJ, and his messy private life, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He's Scottish, but unlike the other Banks novels I've read, the action takes place pretty much entirely in London, with only occasional references to the character's youth in Scotland, and a final passing mention of Glasgow on the last page.
I won't give too much away, but the lead character ends up getting in a very complex mess with some very dangerous people, partly through bad luck and partly through doing something extremely stupid when drunk. It ends up with a pretty tense finale, where you can really feel the tension. Right up until the last few pages, it's very hard to see where it's going to go.
It's a very good portrait of a tense time in the world, and how people tried to cope with it, with the stresses and strains it placed on their relationships and behaviour. There's a wide mix of people in here, some decent, some awful, some who could go either way, and it's a good illustration of how nothing is simple, and a lot of our actions can have very unintended consequences. Very enjoyable.
January 31, 2019
Not Ian Banks’ finest by some margin. Ken Nott comes across as a self important blowhard, and J didn’t really care whether he found love, or even survived till the end of the book. But he did punch a holocaust denier and then deny it, so no one’s totally useless...
Judged as ‘just a novel’ it’s a solid 3 stars. Judge by Banks’ high standards, it’s a shocker.
Judged as ‘just a novel’ it’s a solid 3 stars. Judge by Banks’ high standards, it’s a shocker.
October 28, 2021
A fantastic reminder of why Iain Banks is my favourite author: deep characters, visceral dialogue and an engaging plot.
The story follows the hedonistic adventures of "shock jock" radio DJ Kenneth Nott as he drinks, gets high and screws his way around London. However, his life is in danger, but from where or who...?
It is the depth, realism and dialogue of Banks's characters that really enchants me. They have confronting convictions, about things like politics or religious expression or corporate malfeasance, that they will debate and defend, and throughout the story these beliefs may evolve or even change outright. No other author has such deep characters, that I feel I could actually have a meaningful conversation with about interesting topics.
Interestingly, I read a lot of Banks in my mid to late teens, and I guess quite a lot of the beliefs held by his stronger characters, not least Ken Nott, actually influenced me significantly, and I still hold these beliefs influenced by his characters to this day. There is no other author that has had such a significant influence on shaping me as a person!
Here's an example of a particularly brilliant scene: Ken is discussing the motivations behind September 11, in his opinion the American political interference in other countries since the 1970's (i.e., The CIA funding, training and arming of groups to oppose powers that are not favourable to the American agenda/American corporate profits), with a Pro-"war on terror" American that grossly oversimplifies the situation into "good" vs "evil"... I have actually had similar conversations, and Banks really nails the aggressive tunnel vision of the opposing mindset.
My only criticism with the book is the occasional section consisting only of snatches of drunk/drugged up conversation, which don't really further the plot or characters. In saying that, however, memories formed in such situations do tend to appear later as random snatches, and some of these scenes do add to the context a bit.
Overall, another brilliant Banks novel, highly recommended!
The story follows the hedonistic adventures of "shock jock" radio DJ Kenneth Nott as he drinks, gets high and screws his way around London. However, his life is in danger, but from where or who...?
It is the depth, realism and dialogue of Banks's characters that really enchants me. They have confronting convictions, about things like politics or religious expression or corporate malfeasance, that they will debate and defend, and throughout the story these beliefs may evolve or even change outright. No other author has such deep characters, that I feel I could actually have a meaningful conversation with about interesting topics.
Interestingly, I read a lot of Banks in my mid to late teens, and I guess quite a lot of the beliefs held by his stronger characters, not least Ken Nott, actually influenced me significantly, and I still hold these beliefs influenced by his characters to this day. There is no other author that has had such a significant influence on shaping me as a person!
Here's an example of a particularly brilliant scene: Ken is discussing the motivations behind September 11, in his opinion the American political interference in other countries since the 1970's (i.e., The CIA funding, training and arming of groups to oppose powers that are not favourable to the American agenda/American corporate profits), with a Pro-"war on terror" American that grossly oversimplifies the situation into "good" vs "evil"... I have actually had similar conversations, and Banks really nails the aggressive tunnel vision of the opposing mindset.
My only criticism with the book is the occasional section consisting only of snatches of drunk/drugged up conversation, which don't really further the plot or characters. In saying that, however, memories formed in such situations do tend to appear later as random snatches, and some of these scenes do add to the context a bit.
Overall, another brilliant Banks novel, highly recommended!
August 3, 2013
Ken Nott is a preternaturally contrary radio commentator, in other words a shock-jock, who is socially immature and driven by the sexual mores of an alley cat. His excessive libido leads him into a series of increasingly fraught situations, ending with a dangerous quagmire. I run a little ahead of myself...
The book opens with the shocking revelation of 9/11. All the way through I kind of wondered just what this haunting catastrophe had to do with the main plot - but as far as I can determine it is there to do just that, to haunt and contrast Ken's immaturity and dodgy behaviour.
He inhabits a canal boat on the Thames at a peppercorn rent because it is owned by the millionaire who also owns the Radio Station where he works. His lifestyle is hedonistic, with frequent dips into alcoholic and cocaine binging. Put the personality and mores into the mix and give it a bit of a stir and difficulties become increasingly inevitable.
The storyline is wickedly satirical - I have to grant Banks that. I daresay Ken gets his just desserts when he falls in love with the lightning struck woman that he begun by lusting after. The only problem is the fact that she is the wife of a notorious gangster...
If Ken has a redeeming quality it's his quick thinking... But is he quick enough, and does the beautiful lady love him sufficiently back, to outwit Fate?
I won't spoil the plot by saying more.
I would strongly recommend it for the quality of the writing, the humour and the sheer entertainment.
The book opens with the shocking revelation of 9/11. All the way through I kind of wondered just what this haunting catastrophe had to do with the main plot - but as far as I can determine it is there to do just that, to haunt and contrast Ken's immaturity and dodgy behaviour.
He inhabits a canal boat on the Thames at a peppercorn rent because it is owned by the millionaire who also owns the Radio Station where he works. His lifestyle is hedonistic, with frequent dips into alcoholic and cocaine binging. Put the personality and mores into the mix and give it a bit of a stir and difficulties become increasingly inevitable.
The storyline is wickedly satirical - I have to grant Banks that. I daresay Ken gets his just desserts when he falls in love with the lightning struck woman that he begun by lusting after. The only problem is the fact that she is the wife of a notorious gangster...
If Ken has a redeeming quality it's his quick thinking... But is he quick enough, and does the beautiful lady love him sufficiently back, to outwit Fate?
I won't spoil the plot by saying more.
I would strongly recommend it for the quality of the writing, the humour and the sheer entertainment.
December 19, 2016
What did I think? Besides the fact that Iain Banks is one of the best writers of dialogue who ever existed? Well, this one here's a strange book. It's in the days immediately following 9/11. London left-wing radio shock jock Ken Nott is a contrarian mess. His morning radio show is a success. His relationship with his girlfriend is on the rocks, seeing as he can't keep his dick in his pants around the pretty ladies who throw themselves at him. His best mates think he's a know-it-all, seeing as he *really* likes to pontificate his thoughts on things such as the environment, stupid politicians, atheism, fascism, Britain's strained relationship with Europe (foreseeing Brexit by about 14 years), and a whole host of other topics. He's been getting death threats as of late, and to top the whole thing off, he's fallen into a romantic tryst with the wife of one of London's most notorious gangsters. Dead Air is almost a stream-of-consciousness novel, as we see life through the eyes of Nott, a heavily flawed, deeply intelligent, and intensely loquacious character. The novel meanders sometimes into a quagmire of opinionated monologues, but the language - and yes, the dialogue - soars. There is a host of great characters surrounding Ken Nott, each of them with their own history, their own thoughts, and their own voices - and goddamn it Iain Banks paints them all so damn vividly. A joy of a book, even if the story gets lost in all that fine writing at times. I didn't mind. A solid 4 out of 5.
December 18, 2017
Skim read the last 130 pages, predictable stuff and not a lot to offer. I am glad to have read it, it only confirms to me more if I needed it, that the left side of the political spectrum simply does not get it anymore. They do not have a clue how they are implicated in their governments actions and in their cultural commitments. They are still clinging to some childish sense of moral innocence and superiority. A label they have purely given to themselves. And when reality does not fit in line with this delusion they have tantrums and outbursts of faux rage at an enemy they create themselves. Followed by beating themselves up about how bad the world is, thinking they could make the world better if only people were like them... It's a sad, tragic story in a way. But I don't think this is the story Iain Banks was trying to tell. It's the story I am telling about a failed story that unfortunately believes in its own hype, and really does think it's standpoint is morally superior to others. This latter is where we have gone wrong in the west, and we need to wake up fast. Moral superiority leads to spiritual bankruptcy. This is the message I read between the lines of this story. A cautionary tale only to be read if you are willing to tolerate over 400 pages of listening to the rantings of a liberal Buffoon.
September 1, 2017
Not to speak ill of the dead (please don't haunt me, Iain!), but I hate Iain Bank's dialogue! I can't work out (this is only my second Banks novel) whether it's meant to be thin and unbelievable in some post modern ironic way, like the whole book is farce, the characters are a farce, society itself is a farce = ART! Maybe? I just can't past the feeling that for a book heavy in dialogue it doesn't seem to encompass any natural prosody and the conversations feel like cocaine fuelled rants of the writer that had characters attached as a vehicle so he could call it a book and put it on the market?
And I hate his characters. The only person I really liked in this book was maybe Craig and Ed. I didn't believe in Ken Nott at all, and at the end I was really gunning for the baddies. However, I will admit the last 100 pages or so picked up in terms of plot and readability - inferred from my own lack of teeth clenching as the novel wore on. Hoping Banks doesn't have too many more on the list - maybe I'll shuffle them down to the end of the list and hope I fall into a vat of chocolate and drown before I have to pick them up. A girl can dream, right?
And I hate his characters. The only person I really liked in this book was maybe Craig and Ed. I didn't believe in Ken Nott at all, and at the end I was really gunning for the baddies. However, I will admit the last 100 pages or so picked up in terms of plot and readability - inferred from my own lack of teeth clenching as the novel wore on. Hoping Banks doesn't have too many more on the list - maybe I'll shuffle them down to the end of the list and hope I fall into a vat of chocolate and drown before I have to pick them up. A girl can dream, right?
August 9, 2014
I have read all of Iain Banks books and I normally read them in the year they were published. As Iain Banks fiction is very much of its time and full of contemporary references, its nice to have read them 'in their time' and to understand how Iain is living very much in the same world as we are. And to listen to how he intelligently reflects on and mirrors the years of our life even as we live them.
Dead Air is one such book. Published in 2002, the book is mute with the shock of 9/11. A shock so raw, Iain Banks does not reference it in any way except to show the event on a television screen at the start of the narrative.
Dead Air is a good reflection of Britain in 2002. London was a boom city brim full of money and drugs. Shock jocks were new and loft-living was all the rage.
I did not really like this book mainly because I did not like the hero Ken Nott, his rants and drug and booze lifestyle. However it was a compelling read and I saw it through to the end. As always with Iain Banks, I thought it had much to recommend it.
Dead Air is one such book. Published in 2002, the book is mute with the shock of 9/11. A shock so raw, Iain Banks does not reference it in any way except to show the event on a television screen at the start of the narrative.
Dead Air is a good reflection of Britain in 2002. London was a boom city brim full of money and drugs. Shock jocks were new and loft-living was all the rage.
I did not really like this book mainly because I did not like the hero Ken Nott, his rants and drug and booze lifestyle. However it was a compelling read and I saw it through to the end. As always with Iain Banks, I thought it had much to recommend it.
May 28, 2009
The main character is a highly articulate, somewhat monomaniacal provocative talk radio host in London - this sometimes feels like a mechanism by which the author can advance his political views in lengthy monologues but it is also extremely funny and engaging.
Among other topics (and depending on your politics), you may deeply sympathize with the character's frustrated attempt to argue out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a fiercely Zionist ex-girlfriend, getting a drink thrown in his face for his trouble.
The September 11, 2001 attacks in New York make a persistent but low-level background theme which allows for a lot of talk about US foreign policy. Ultimately though it is more or less a love story with a few bizarrely violent (and characteristically Banksian) twists.
Among other topics (and depending on your politics), you may deeply sympathize with the character's frustrated attempt to argue out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a fiercely Zionist ex-girlfriend, getting a drink thrown in his face for his trouble.
The September 11, 2001 attacks in New York make a persistent but low-level background theme which allows for a lot of talk about US foreign policy. Ultimately though it is more or less a love story with a few bizarrely violent (and characteristically Banksian) twists.
March 30, 2015
The main character, Ken is a fairly bad guy. Opinionated, unfaithful, drunken but he is funny and I forgave him his sins!
His job is to be opinionated as he is a 'shock jock' at a London radio station. I also happened to agree by and large with his opinions. His drunkenness and love of the ladies almost gets him killed a few times in the book but he is a great survivor and maintains his charm throughout.
Not Ian Banks' best book but his worst would be a lot better than many writers.
Perhaps a hundred pages too long but a fine read.
His job is to be opinionated as he is a 'shock jock' at a London radio station. I also happened to agree by and large with his opinions. His drunkenness and love of the ladies almost gets him killed a few times in the book but he is a great survivor and maintains his charm throughout.
Not Ian Banks' best book but his worst would be a lot better than many writers.
Perhaps a hundred pages too long but a fine read.
October 3, 2019
Looking back I read the Wasp Factory 8 years ago and although I don’t really remember it, my review didn’t really rate it. Overall I got on better with this one despite the fact for a long time it doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. I didn’t take to Ken at all, he just didn’t come across as a very nice man. It did heat up towards then end when he left a drunken message on an answer phone but seeing as I didn’t like the bloke I felt a bit let down by the ending.
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