Re:Banks -- love him or hate him. (Score 1)

I think you're right about the love him or hate him as an author point of view. Personally, I loved Feersum Endjinn even though it was one of the hardest books I've forced myself to get through in the last 5 years. Right up there next to Cryptonomicon which, even though I'm enjoying it, is not an easy read. He's got a pretty quirky writing style that I find amusing. I've read all of Ian M. Banks scifi works and none of his more main stream stuff. If you really want to get into Ian M. Banks as a SciFi writer you should start with his books about the Culture and move into other stuff from there. His character development in Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas makes both books worth reading. The stories themselves deal with a lot of societal issues and I love some of the ideas that he introduces in his books like the idea that ships have names like "Love is Hard" and personalities that match their names.