> Currently I'm more interested in the Glasgow SF nexus --
> Chris Boyce, Iain M. Banks, and Ian McLeod -- than anything
> in prose that's coming out of Edinburgh.
I place Banks in the Ettrick Shepherd tradition--like the Hogg of 3 perils
of Man--he's got the most wonderful story-telling touch. In Feersum Enjun,
for instance, he can make you care about a mechanical ant, and I mean really
CARE. But you wish he could transcend it and punch a punchline that
surprises you. He's disappointed me every time since the Wasp Factory
(telegraphed 90 pages from the end) to Look To Windward (the most recent one
that I read) where you get to know that nothing awful CAN happen, because of
the structure of the story, so why should you care? Banks' trouble is that
he refuses to grow up. Otherwise he would by now be the most majestic,
brilliant storyteller on the planet. OK, so I'm exaggerating, but I'm
disappointed...
And Banks is a Fifer, what does that have to do with Glesga?
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