Maybe it's good that it's many years since I read [b:The Crow Road|12021|The Crow Road|Iain Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330063373s/12021.jpg|950451]; even with all this delay I did notice some similarities. Didn't bother me too much, and I did enjoy this meandering family saga of corporate politics and well-kept family secrets. Not Iain Banks' best work, but quite delightful anyway.

It's well done and has its moments, but it's just too much of a retread of The Crow Road for me to enjoy it rather than be frustrated with it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was on the whole well written and it takes the reader back through the past of the main character, Alban, in drips and drabs, which I found immensely enjoyable. I think I connected with this book as a lot of the themes in it I could personally relate too and I felt an affinity with Alban and his somewhat adolescent feelings and approach to life. The only downside was when the character of Tango appeared, he spoke in the first person and it somewhat distracted from the flow of the narrative. Also Bank's political views at the time are reflected into Alban's diatribes, which can become off putting. This is only the second Iain Banks book I have read, so it is hard for me to compare it to his other work but I certainly found it more engaging than the Wasp factory, I would recommend this book to anyone who hasnt sampked that much of Bank's work as a great introduction to atalented writer.

The Steep Approach to Garbadale is my 5th Iain Banks novel and the my first of his newer books.

It is clear to me how Banks’ writing only gets more nuanced and intricate with age. In my opinion Garbadale is similar to a modern equivalent of his best work in ‘The Crow Road’.

A cast of eccentric and compelling Scottish family members, a funny, honest and a truly interesting story completes this novel.

Can’t recommend it highly enough!

Banks is quickly becoming my favourite contemporary fiction writer.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/957189.html[return][return]This was great fun: memories of teenage lust, complex families with long-hidden secrets, games and business connections, and an excuse for the occasional political rant. It reminded me a lot of three of my favourite other Banks books, in particular The Crow Road and The Player of Games, with a certain amount of Whit thrown in as well. I think it's a fair bet that if you liked those ones you will like this as well.

A slight and modest piece with no great stakes, just a lead character finding out the truth of where he's going in his life. Lots of similarities to The Crow Road but not as edgy. There's a wider canvas of characters and locations but a much more personal story with one of the least-flawed protagonists of any Banks novel. Lightweight but not fluffy.

Aaah, what to make of the Steep Approach? After just having read "The Business" it was immediately clear that this story lacked the focus, and the quality of the previous story. PoV characters changed without warning, and large parts of the early story wandered without intent.

The chatacters were not particularly distinct, and the chopping and changing between timelines only seemed to add to the lack of direction in the early parts of the novel.

The finale was not bad, with a good reveal, and some of those classic Banks chapters that ruminate on all the important stuff (life, religion, politics), although this was certainly not enough to redeem the overall story.

Familiar territory for Banks: strong echoes of the Crow Road throughout. In a lot of ways it's a strong novel - it's certainly beautifully crafted, and probably technically as strong as anything he's written - but it's not groundbreaking.