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.