This brutal tale starts in a bleak, brutal European any-war. Abel and Morgan live in a forboding castle, alone and isolated, until the conflict intrudes on their numb lives in the form of a cruel mercenary lieutenant and her violent, ravaging men who take up residence. From there, the tale disintegrates into darkness and atrocity, punctuated by Abel's memories of earlier joy and pain. Iain Banks pushes the story steadily downward, dragging the morbidly fascinated reader into the depths of human despair. Gang rape, torture, and incest are seen through Abel's uncaring eyes--this book is not for the squeamish. And although Banks strives for a Passion play in the end, what's missing is even the tiniest kernel of real redemption. Fans of The Wasp Factory and Banks's other non-science fiction works will find familiar details here, but A Song of Stone stands alone as a fable of hopelessness. --Therese Littleton


From Publishers Weekly
"This could be any place or time," observes the narrator of this near-future fable, summing up the universality of its antiwar sentiments. Although vague in the details of geography and history, Banks's latest U.S. release (after Excession) is sharp and perceptive in its philosophical exploration of the dehumanizing potential of armed conflict. Set in a Brechtian landscape of revolution and depleted resources, it follows the tribulations of Abel, an aristocrat forced to billet Lieutenant Lute and her guerrilla army in his castle. Initially, the two treat each other with a strained civility that allows Abel to gloat secretly at the profane hordes who "commonise... what should be free from vulgar threat." As the battle draws threateningly nearer, the pretense of mutual respect dissolves and Abel finds the increasingly barbaric behavior of his captors resonating with a savagery in his own soul. Like J.G. Ballard and Anthony Burgess, Banks is a visionary whose depictions of the strange forms morality, politics and social relationships assume under the pressure of extreme circumstances fall almost by default into the realm of science fiction and horror. His impeccable prose undulates with a poetry and sensuality that transform the most ordinary movements of his tale into resonant images of beauty and terror. In less skilled hands, Abel's reluctant acknowledgment of his class's complicity in the despoliation of the country might have been just another war-is-hell story. Banks makes it the fulcrum of an emotionally intense odyssey of self-revelation. (Sept.) FYI: Simon & Schuster will simultaneously reissue Banks's first novel, The Wasp Factory (1984), in trade paper.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In an unidentified land somewhere in Europe, in the midst of an unidentified but very bloody war, a lord and lady attempt to flee their castle but are turned back by a woman lieutenant and her band of soldiers, who take refuge in the castle and make playthings of their unwilling hosts. Bombardments rain down on the castle, an old servant dies of shock, and soon the soldiers take their vengeance on the castle inmates. The images here are astonishingly grim and forceful: crucified orphans; a ludicrous hunting trip forced on the lord by the lieutenant; soldiers wrecking the castle and then tossing the bound lord into a well, where they urinate on him; the lord placing the bloodied head of the near-dead lieutenant on a millstone; the lady thrown from the parapet, one ankle bound, and drowned in the moat. But grim images aren't enough to make a story, and the lack of details?where are we, who are these people, and why are they fighting??work against the novel's success. We cannot be drawn in as the lord grimly recounts both past and present in a near-monotone, and just when we should be looking, aghast, trying to fathom human nature, we turn our heads. Worthy but nearly unbearable to read, never mind that it was a best seller in Britain.-?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Richard Eder
Banks writes with rich tactile detail and dark suspense, borne upon an undercurrent of revulsion. The revulsion issues from the corrupt voice of Abel, his narrator. It grips us insistently and too close; it breathes a perfumed rottenness in our face; it employs unabashed confession as an ultimate smoke screen. Banks uses this smoke to trace out his novel's theme: the perduring evil that underlies all history and histories.


The Washington Post Book World, John Clute
There is something in this novel that is heavier than the stone world it purports to sing. There is something here, as well, that braces the heart, though not soon. The simple story of A Song of Stone is told complicatedly, from behind an arras or two, and its joys unpack late. It is not an easy ride to the last word.


From Booklist
A ragged band of soldiers looking for shelter in an unnamed war occupies a 400-year-old castle that is the family seat of the aristocratic Abel and his mysterious lady, Morgan. The bulk of the novel is Abel's surreal, matter-of-fact recitation of the occupation, the couple's imprisonment and degradation, and a horrifically brutal denouement. It begins as a story of war but eerily and almost hypnotically evolves into a morality tale and, ultimately, a passion play with startlingly twisted passions. Banks' acclaimed novel The Wasp Factory (1984) has been named by one newspaper as one of the century's 100 best novels. This dark tale of revolution, dissolution, and depravity will further strengthen Banks' reputation as one of England's most important and compelling writers. Thomas Gaughan


From Kirkus Reviews
A grim, mordant portrait of the corrosive effects of moral corruption and a generalized atmosphere of violence, played out against the brutal background of a Bosnian-style war. Banks (Complicity, 1995, etc.) has always demonstrated an appetite for tackling such large questions as the origins of sin and the possibility of redemption, and he has demonstrated a willingness to take risks. Both qualities are on display here. In an unnamed European country, and in a day very like the present, an aristocrat and his lover flee the ancient family castle in a time of troubles. A civil war of swirling, uncertain outline is pitching bands of partisans against one another. The aristocrat is captured by one such band, ruled by a particularly lethal female officer (the Lieutenant, or ``Loot''), and taken back to the castle, where the ragged but vicious group sets itself up in style and carries on a desultorily bloody campaign against other partisans. The gruesome climax is urged into motion by Loot's infatuation with the nameless aristocrats lover; as it turns out, shes not his wife but his sister. (The two have been conducting a violent affair since they were teenagers.) Much of the story, narrated by the erstwhile lord of the manor, shuttles between his recollections of a privilegedeven if perverselife and his reactions to present horrors (villages are burned, refugees randomly executed, and some children mysteriously crucified). When he stumbles on Loot and his sister in bed together, a showdown is inevitable. The metaphors here (the castle as a site of power and corruption; an enervated aristocracy) arent new. But Banks imbues them with fresh vigor; and finds in the reflections of his bright but twisted narrator a core of sorrow in the human heart, and an angry appetite for destruction. Not for the squeamish, but those looking for a confrontational work will find this a daring, deeply unsettling meditation on the very human face of evil. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
Times Literary Supplement (London) Banks's already high reputation can only be enhanced.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A European nation not unlike Bosnia: Armed forces roam the lawless land where dark columns of smoke rise up from the surrounding farms and houses. The war is ending, perhaps ended. But for the castle and its occupants, a young lord and lady, the trouble is just beginning. Fearing an invasion of soldiers, the amorous couple take to the roads with the other refugees, disguised in rags. But the sadistic female lieutenant of an outlaw band of guerrillas has other ideas. Just hours into their escape, the fleeing aristocrats are delivered back to the castle, where, now prisoners in their own home, they become pawns in the lieutenant's dangerous game of desire, deceit, and death. The physical, sexual, and political tensions that ensue catapult the narrative from war story to universal morality tale.

Already a number-one bestseller in England, A Song of Stone demonstrates Iain Banks's unique ability to combine gripping narrative with a soaring, voyaging imagination. As he did in his widely acclaimed novel The Wasp Factory, Banks once again addresses the timeless questions of truth, betrayal, duty, and loyalty, weaving them around a complex plot and into a seamless, spellbinding whole. Banks has been hailed by The Times of London as the most imaginative British novelist of his generation; this noir fable confirms his reputation as the master of things dark and debauched. Singular, haunting, and viciously wry, A Song of Stone is a tour de force of contemporary fiction.

SYNOPSIS

Iain Banks, author of such dazzling genre-busting novels as The Wasp Factory and The Bridge, has written perhaps his best novel yet with A Song of Stone, already a blockbuster in England. Set in an unnamed country in Europe (but it sure sounds like Bosnia) amidst an unidentified war, a lord and his lady find themselves held hostage in their own castle by a team of sadistic, bloodthirsty guerrillas. Gothic horror, thriller, and morality tale rolled into one, the controversial A Song of Stone is unforgettable.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

'This could be any place or time,' observes the narrator of this near-future fable, summing up the universality of its antiwar sentiments. Although vague in the details of geography and history, Banks's latest U.S. release (after Excession) is sharp and perceptive in its philosophical exploration of the dehumanizing potential of armed conflict. Set in a Brechtian landscape of revolution and depleted resources, it follows the tribulations of Abel, an aristocrat forced to billet Lieutenant Lute and her guerrilla army in his castle. Initially, the two treat each other with a strained civility that allows Abel to gloat secretly at the profane hordes who 'commonise... what should be free from vulgar threat.' As the battle draws threateningly nearer, the pretense of mutual respect dissolves and Abel finds the increasingly barbaric behavior of his captors resonating with a savagery in his own soul. Like J.G. Ballard and Anthony Burgess, Banks is a visionary whose depictions of the strange forms morality, politics and social relationships assume under the pressure of extreme circumstances fall almost by default into the realm of science fiction and horror. His impeccable prose undulates with a poetry and sensuality that transform the most ordinary movements of his tale into resonant images of beauty and terror. In less skilled hands, Abel's reluctant acknowledgment of his class's complicity in the despoliation of the country might have been just another war-is-hell story. Banks makes it the fulcrum of an emotionally intense odyssey of self-revelation.

Library Journal

This millennial thriller features a band of guerrillas who invade a castle in Bosnia-like territory and hold the lord and lady captive. A No. 1 best seller in Britain by an author whose first novel, The Wasp Factory, was chosen by the Independent as one of the best 100 novels of the century.

Library Journal

This millennial thriller features a band of guerrillas who invade a castle in Bosnia-like territory and hold the lord and lady captive. A No. 1 best seller in Britain by an author whose first novel, The Wasp Factory, was chosen by the Independent as one of the best 100 novels of the century.

The Independent

Banks has nudged his world sideways into a dimension just next door to this one.

The Guardian

Eccentrically fascinating.Read all 11 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING