Kate Telman, aged 38 and contentedly unmarried and enjoying the single life is also a senior exec. Level Three in the Business. The Business you ask? The Business is a clandestine global organisation that has been around since around the Roman times, yes the Ancient Roman times! Kate's specialist role of keeping abreast of technological developments sees her beginning to see some worrying signs of a conspiracy... within The Business!

This is a pretty interesting reality and a top drawer business conspiracy thriller, but I can't but help wish that Banks focused more on the Business itself; it feels that there should have been a prequel, say a conspiracy thriller primarily about The Business; as this book although well constructed has so many supporting characters and multiple locations, it sometimes felt I was reading a guide book for The Business reality! 7 out of 12.

2022 readcontemporary127 s MannyAuthor 33 books14.8k

As every conspiracy theorist knows, They control everything. When something unexpected happens, it's because They arranged it. And, needless to say, you don't want to find out too much about Them. It could be bad for your health. Which makes you even more curious - so it's surprising that this is one of the few novels I know that's firmly set in Their world. It turns out that They are actually called The Business, and were already well-established at the time of the Roman Empire.

I see some other reviewers complaining that it's all quite impossible. No such organisation could ever have survived into the present day, even if it had existed in the first place. Well, how naive can you get? Obviously, that's exactly what They want you to think...
older-women-younger-men too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts17 s Bettie9,989 10


Barbara Rosenblat 11.7 hours.

Description: Kate is a senior executive officer in a powerful and massively discreet transglobal organization. The character of The Business seems, even to her, to be vague to the point of invisibility. Her job is to keep abreast of technological developments, but she must let go the assumptions of a lifetime.



BLURB: From Publishers Weekly: Ever since The Wasp Factory first bent readers' minds in 1984, prolific Scottish author Banks has tantalized and terrified with his eerily accurate representations of humanity at its twisted best and worst.

Lighter in mood than some of his previous novels, The Business, a bestseller in Great Britain, is still shot through with sinister undertones.

In a recognizable but slightly tilted 1998, Kathryn Telman works for the Business, a mysterious corporation that predates the Christian church and at one point owned the Roman Empire. Plucked from poverty in West Scotland at the age of eight, she has been groomed for the fast track ever since.

Thirty years later, despite her power, money and success, she is finally beginning to wonder just what the Business is all about. Why was she pulled out of Scotland just as she noticed something amiss at a subsidiary chip factory? Why has she been summoned by a munitions-collecting higher-up to talk his nephew out of writing an incendiary anti-Islamic screenplay? Why has the Business's sinister head of security sent her a dirty DVD showing the wife of Kathryn's colleague and secret love in an illicit tryst? And why suddenly appoint her "ambassador" to Thulahn, a remote Himalayan principality the Business is buying in order to gain its own seat in the U.N.?

Banks offers a hilarious look at international corporate culture and the insatiable avarice that drives it, but he suggests the positive potential of globalization, too. Less overtly eccentric and sensationalistic than favorites The Wasp Factory and A Song of Stone, the novel is a clever, genre-bending pleasure.

Am not a fan of that ending - I can't believe Banks went for the fairytale and this lost a star because of it.

4* The Wasp Factory
3* The Business
1* The Deep Approach to Garbadale (aka The Dire Descent into Garbage)
2* Stonemouth

As Iain M Banks:

TR Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)
TR The Player of Games (Culture, #2)
TR Use of Weapons (Culture, #3)
3* Matter (Culture, #8)
TR Surface Detail (Culture, #9)
4* Look to Windward (Culture, #7)
4* The Algebraist
3* The State of the Art (Culture, #4)corporate-ladder cults-societies-brotherhoods dec-2015-free-for-all ...more15 s Robert DunbarAuthor 29 books710

Imagine if Evelyn Waugh had written “The Firm.” Remember that book? A by-the-numbers thriller from John Grisham, it was effective enough, especially if the reader's expectations weren’t high. But imagine if Waugh had written it. The plot would retain that edge-of-the-seat construction, yet be augmented by a real – and quite dark – artistic sensibility, replete with vicious humor and enhanced by a flair for characterization.

Iain Banks’ THE BUSINESS concerns an insidious secret organization (and the lone woman with nerve enough to challenge it). The Business turns out to be an unimaginably powerful enterprise, ancient and ubiquitous, with origins that predate both the Catholic Church and the Roman Empire, the latter of which it briefly owned. Not so much a clandestine institution as a clandestine empire, it makes extraordinary demands on its staff. Management personnel must renounce religious and national allegiances, even family connections. Enter Kate Telman, a sort of executive-in-waiting, groomed since childhood to ascend to the organization’s upper echelon. After years of concentrated preparation, Kate is about to take her place within the inner circle… when things get messy. After all, in the world of commerce, personal morality can be an insuperable handicap. Though Kate dallies with both a handsome chauffeur and a prince in peril, the real romance here concerns the seductiveness of power. As THE BUSINESS demonstrates, even Banks’ mainstream thrillers retain a speculative edge: a sharply observed play of ideas provides the author’s major focus, and fans of his macabre brand of satiric vision will not be disappointed.
13 s Anna1,818 813

I've had extremely mixed experiences with Iain Banks novels. Some I loved (Transition, The Player of Games), one I absolutely hated (The Wasp Factory), others had clever elements but failed to engage me (Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons). ‘The Business’ was a different experience again - I enjoyed it and was engaged, but there were certain flaws that prevented me from wholly adoring it. The greatest strength was the narrator, Kate Telman. She is an excellent character: a clever, reticent, ambitious woman dealing adroitly with annoying men on a daily basis. In fact, I’m impressed that Banks got me to sympathise and identify with such a jet-setting 0.1% hyper-capitalist. He managed it, I think, by demonstrating that all her money and power do not prevent Kate from being hit on by drunk arseholes. Not that she didn’t also interact with a variety of interesting women, but I did appreciate her running conversational rings around level one men. She has a great turn of phrase: ‘I did my impression of the Roman Empire, and declined.’ Moreover, I d the emphasis on how the power of money can be brittle. It can’t protect you from car accidents, or the FBI confiscating your weapons, or your grand gestures falling flat. If anything, the overconfidence it brings makes such events more ly.

The characters and dialogue were, to my mind, stronger than the plot. I would happily have followed Kate about her typical work days. As it was the plot seemed to raise more questions in my mind than it actually answered. What did Kate’s actual day job at the Business involve? Why did she feel compelled to uncover the conspiracy? What was so bad about it? Concealed trading seemed so mundane and apparently only the secrecy made it inappropriate. Is Banks making a point about the utter arbitrariness of ‘responsible’ capitalism? After all, the Business is repeatedly stated to obey no laws but its own. I bet this kind of corruption is totally typical at Goldman Sachs. Indeed, the rules that the Business operates by and its long-termism make it seem fantastical. I d the conceit of the Business wanting a seat at the UN, but these days why would they need something so crude? Neoliberal ideology predominates such that international business interests are constantly placed above those of electorates, as economic growth is the only means by which the world can exist.

Returning to the novel’s plot, presumably the implication is that Kate was uncovering the embezzlement for her own satisfaction and ambition, yet that doesn’t really chime with her decision to marry Suvinder. It was obvious that, a) he would ask her marry him (I actually commented on this out loud while reading: “He’s about to propose, you fool!”) and, b) at the end she would return to Thulahn. However I don’t understand why she accepts his proposal and do not see the marriage ending well. Suvinder’s latter polite behaviour should not somehow erase his previous drunken harassment. Surely Kate could work with him and shape the whole Thulahn project without marrying Suvinder? Thus I was ambivalent about the ending overall.

That said, I am willing to forgive a lot for the scene in which Kate tortures a Ferrari, which is a thing of beauty and a joy forever:

The car quaked, the engine screamed, wailing something in the utmost extremity of agony. It would have been a hard thing to do for anyone with the slightest amount of mechanical sympathy, and I wasn’t enjoying it, but, then, it was a means to an end, and in the end our Adrian was right: it was just metal. No matter what it sounded , the only real suffering was being done by him. Poudenhaut shook as he heard the noise, then he spun round and came charging back. He beat on the hood with his fists. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”

“Can you smell that, Adrian? Smells burning oil or something, don’t you think? Oh, look, there’s a red light on in here. Can’t imagine that bodes too well.” I blipped the throttle again. The engine caterwauled, metallic and harsh. “That sound different to you? I thought it sounded different that time. More of a metallic edge, seemed to me. What do you think? Here, have another listen…”

“Stop it! Stop it!”

“You’d better answer my questions, Adrian, or soon I’m going to get bored and then I’ll just keep my foot planted pedal to the metal until the fucker seizes.”

In summary, a smart and nuanced depiction of how privileged people justify their wealth and power to themselves under globalised capitalism. The plot doesn’t explain itself as well as it might and I take issue with certain aspects of the ending, however the main character is excellent and there are some truly wonderful scenes and fantastic bits of dialogue. economics fiction13 s ScottAuthor 21 books51

First read it five or six years ago in a single afternoon and was wholly underwhelmed by the experience. Coming after Song of Stone – the only Banks book I genuinely dis – I felt at the time that maybe his powers were beginning to wane.

But a friend urged me to give it a second chance and told me to read it as a prequel to the Culture books, whereupon it makes much more sense.

And do you know, he’s right. It’s a bloody Culture book in disguise. Or at least, it takes as its premise – how could something the Culture come about, and what kind of choices and moral framework could inspire it?

It lacks the grand guignol of his more gruesome tales, the broad comedy of Espedair Street, or the emotional power of The Crow Road. It’s a minor Banks. But it’s still a damn good read, with a able and well realised central character, a few of Banks’ trademark eccentrics, some interesting ideas well explored, and moments that made me smile or think.

The thriller plot is underused – too tenuous to follow initially, and then too poorly explained at the end. He should have made more of that, it could have given the book a sense of urgency which it would have benefitted from greatly.

But Banks is a safe pair of hands, and even a less than stellar performance from him is well worth the time.literary-fiction7 s Nicky Neko223 5

I feel bad giving this 2 stars -- especially because of how much I love Iain Banks, but this book was pretty poor compared to his other work.

Well, as the Japanese say: even a monkey falls from a tree.7 s Florin PiteaAuthor 40 books196

Jane Austen meets Thomas Pynchon - or, rather, 21st-century William Gibson. A nice read, but light by Iain M. Banks standards.7 s Matthew Devereux ? 67 56

I really rather enjoyed this novel about a clandestine international commercial organisation called the Business for about 150 pages as I was interested to see how the main protagonist Kathryn Tellman's story developed but I found that in the final 50 pages the story concluded in a way that left me a little disappointed to be honest.6 s Kevin134 41

Well not one of Iain Banks' best pieces of contemporary fiction by a long way and coming next in line to A Song of Stone, then it does fade quite spectacularly into insignificance. Why so? It is overlong, and about three-quarters of the way through we get a very lyrically description section on a Himalayan village called Thulan, which 'The Business' wants to modernise the country and end up having control over for 'The Business' to gain a seat on the UN. 'The Business' is this, almost shady organisation that has wheeled and dealed going back centuries, during Roman times, and also apparently controlled the Catholic Church at one point. Great book if you are into conspiracy theories and some high powered Capitalist Elite having control over the Stock Market and so on. Then we have conspiracies within conspiracies which only seem to become unraveled towards the last 100 pages or so (the book come in at near 400 pages long).

It is focused around a 38 year Woman called Kate Telman, who grew up in a Glasgow slum and became 'adopted' by The Business. I guess her Feminism shines out throughout most of the book (she being the main focus and narrative), and she is the envoy to Thulan, whith most of The Business having ulterior motives for her to marry the Prince of Thulan to properly cement the 'deal'. However Kate becomes suspicious of what exactly is going on behind the scenes of The Business, and starts doing a bit of undercover sleuthing to uncover some quite nasty schemes going on, etc. I am not going to write a massive review because, whilst there is a good plot going on (although the narrative and her love life seem to be the most prominent aspect here), it fails quite short, and I was wanting some history of this shady background organisation. Kate uncovers the background machinations, and disappears back to Thulan to eventually marry her Prince. Sweet ending, but ultimately a bit of a let down. 3 stars mainly because if came from the wild imagination of the late Iain Banks. contemporary-fiction-modern-ish4 s Sally MeliaAuthor 26 books120

I have read all of Iain Banks novels and this one is one of my favourites.

The Business from where the book gets its name is a centuries old concern, at one point in the novel it is suggested that its history stretches back as far as the Roman Empire, but the story postulates the compelling conceit that over centuries The Business has been built up with assets and resources that go beyond countries and national powers to influence every part of the world.

Unexpectedly, at the top of The Business is a strictly meritocratic management structure, and here we come to the main story which is that of Kate who by a chance encounter on a housing estate outside Coatbridge, Glasgow, was lifted out of dire poverty to become Kathryn Telman, a senior executive officer, third level (counting from the top).

I won't say much about the story, except to say it had me hooked from the very start. It keeps the reader interested by using a variety of styles, phone conversations, emails, interview extracts; but also by a globe spanning selection of locals from Texas to Tibet, Yorkshire to Geneva. When it comes to describing how the very wealthy and eccentric spend their money, Iain Banks is as ever witty and entertaining.

I think what I find compelling about this book is the character of Kate Telman, as always Iain Banks female heroines are excellent, and the overall story of not necessarily good vs evil, but greed vs the greater good. Also some interesting reflections on what makes a happy life.

Recommended.5 s Simon McleishAuthor 3 books129

Originally published on my blog here in July 2000.

The Business is a shadowy commercial operation which has been in existence for thousands of years, and which now aims to buy itself a country, so its senior executives can gain the privileges which go with a diplomatic passport. Kate Telman, the narrator, is not quite up to that level, but is one of the rising stars in the Business, and it is not particularly surprising when she is asked to become an ambassador of sorts to the Himalayan kingdom of Thulahn to arrange the purchase of the country from the reigning prince, particularly as he is known to have a strong fancy for her.

The Business is, of course, designed by Banks to be the kind of organisation which attracts conspiracy theories, even if Kate is quite vehement in denying them ("We're not a cover for the CIA. They're the Company, not the Business."). This aspect of the novel is entertaining and unusual: most conspiracy theory novels are written from the point of view of an external investigator, rather than someone closely involved in what could clearly appear sinister to an outsider even if considered relatively innocent by herself. Kate has strong reasons to be grateful to the Business, which lifted her out of the deprived background in which she was born, but she is not entirely naive about the organisation and some of its senior members. She is one of several female point of view characters used by Banks (Canal Dreams, Whit, and Against a Dark Background provide other examples), and is reasonably convincing if a little bland.

The star of The Business is Thulahn, which is an exaggerated version of Bhutan or Nepal, content to remain one of the remotest parts of the world. The people may be poor, but at least they're happy. The questionable benefits of Business sponsored development programmes begin to make Kate think twice about the whole deal, but in the end the country's portrayal is too idyllic for the issues to have real meaning.

If The Business has a message, it is one it shares with Whit. This is that it is possible - and maybe easier - to be happy without the distractions of modern Western culture, without the consumer luxuries with which we are surrounded. (Whit makes this point more effectively, as its narrator is one of those on the outside of consumer culture, while Kate lives a life of corporate luxury.) Banks is surely trying to say that we should look at our own lives to see what in the material world is really important, what really brings us happiness.

This is one of the reasons why The Business lacks the significance of Banks' earlier novels - or other novels about the third world. Compared to, say, The God of Small Things, it has nothing to say; it lacks the brilliance of The Bridge or the immense shock value of The Wasp Factory. Banks seems to have become a bit too comfortable, but is still a good writer and extremely entertaining.owned4 s Laura3,867 93

The more I read Iain Banks' work, the more I appreciate it. His way with words aside, it's the fact that no two books are exactly a in tone or style, but they share a common quality that makes me go "yummm".

In The Business, Banks introduces us to Kathryn, a Level Three in The Business, but who knows from personal experience what the hard life actually is - she's from the "schemes" (Scots for "projects") and only by dint of natural cunning and adoption by Mrs. Telman does she get out. The Business is one of those shadowy, semi-secret, incredibly long-lived organizations, predating the Roman Empire and essentially running the world in whatever era it is. Kathryn's a computer/IT geek, but she's also intelligent and has caught the attention of several Level Twos and Level Ones because she's also caught the eye of the Prince of Thulahn. The Business, it appears Has Plans.

The other characters in the book are well-drawn, but definitely secondary to Kathryn (a trait that many of Banks' books share). The plotting and counter-plotting, the games and tricks are interesting, and while I guessed what the Big Plan was, it's never explicitly stated, even at the end. I also loved how Kathryn could go from mushy about her "pillow children" (especially Dulsung) to quite, well, frightening in her last encounter with Adrian.

Any of Banks' books makes for a great adult read.mt-bookpile-pre-20103 s JessicaAuthor 4 books40

The premise of this book sounds great - a business that has been running for thousands of years, and now want to own a country so they can have a UN seat. It starts great and pulls you in to the story but then it starts to go down hill - the ending is rushed, way too many characters - yes a novel can have a cast of thousands but we don't want to know all of their names, too much talking and not enough showing. More could have been done with the first person narrative. There were parts that were repeating as if the reader might forget.

But I d the writing style - I read it all the way to the end and the premise was intriguing. The start of the novel is great but there is alot of build-up - either the novel needed to have been longer or the beginning need to be sliced and diced. I really enjoyed the background about the 'Business.'

3 s Neil Fulwood759 11

Functioning as a pastiche of the airport novel, while still delivering everything you’d expect of a glitzy globe-trotting thriller, ‘The Business’ is almost a light-hearted bit of fluff compared to much of Banks’s other work. Almost. Because threaded through the fun, frothiness and big self-indulgent set pieces, there’s a discourse on family, belonging and the soullessness of success that gives the novel a depth you don’t quite realise it has while you’re happily turning the pages and enjoying the genre tropes.3 s Lysergius3,075

Iain Banks has a most wonderful felicity for plucking ideas out of nowhere and developing them into the magical creations. He would probably object to such a characterisation because I am sure he has to work hard on some of them. This particular idea of a company, a business going back to the beginning of time is superb. Surviving all vicissitudes it survives by plucking management talent from wherever it can find it, developing it and then letting run. Rather Ian Bank's ideas. Read on.contemporary-british-fiction3 s Aylya107 1 follower

Giving this book 5 stars because of the last 30 pages. Be patient, read to the end, it's worth it!2 s Simon LeeAuthor 1 book7

I should first point out that this is a solid 3.5, but I can't give that!

The more of Banks' works I read, the more I realise what an imaginative, talented and versatile writer he was. The Business sees him at his satirical and observational best, but holds back on the abstraction, experimental weirdness and shock of some of his other work. To this end, it's a tad underwhelming but nevertheless an enjoyable read.2 s Luke534 30

You know those books that you read and enjoy while you're reading them, but when you're finished you struggle - even when it's only days later - to recall much about them?

The Business is one of those books.

I've put off reviewing this for a while largely because I wanted to write something worthwhile, but was finding it difficult to think of anything to say about the work. So now: let's get to it.

It's an airport novel. Let's be frank. It's designed to be inhaled and forgotten, I think, so it's fitting I bought and read it while on holiday. The writing isn't bad, by any means, and the story is so-so - it's just that it fails to leave much of an impact, which is a shame given the setup Banks provides.

The book is told from the perspective of Kate Telman, an executive in a shadowy, eons-old corporation known only as The Business. The Business is keen to own a nation state, so that it can have access to the workings of the United Nations, so there's a geopolitical slant to what could otherwise be just a fairly standard shadowy-cabal-rules-world-secretly-until-this-character-rises-up kind of work.

Unfortunately, the blurb (or the imaginings you're having based on the blurb) is probably more ultimately satisfying than what we're given. There's plenty of memorable scenes (almost crashing in a tiny mountain state, SCUD-collecting stories) and characters (though they tend towards the stereotypical: inscrutable businessmen, faintly daft avuncular types, sleazy Princes who have a heart of gold, really) but I just wasn't too sold on the story, or on Telman's character.

The lead's background is well drawn, but some of the day-to-day descriptions seem a bit forced. She's someone I really d, and wanted to learn more about, but I couldn't escape the feeling that it was a dude writing a woman without really asking any what it's .

Essentially, the story seems to boil down to a kind of factional contest within The Business, which was a disappointment. It seems a waste to have an all-powerful conglomerate (and an undeniably interesting stolen-tooth opening) and then to have the bulk of the story focus on territorial pissings. The ending sort of stumbled along, and I was left with the distinct impression that Banks had a great idea for a story, but then phoned it in when he had to actually write the fucking thing.

It sounds I'm pretty down on this. I am, I guess - not because it was bad, but because it could be so much better. It's still enjoyable in a holiday/waiting room kind of mode, but so is candyfloss: it doesn't bear much reflection afterwards, and you probably wouldn't want to have to chew through it every day. 2 s Mitchell SafewayAuthor 6 books8

For years I thought Iain Banks could do no wrong. 'The Wasp Factory', 'The Bridge', 'Complicity' and all the rest, every time I read an Iain Banks book I felt as though my mind had been blown by the guy's genius. And then I ran out to WH Smith and bought 'The Business' as soon as it was released. Ack.

It sounds interesting enough, the whole history of the Business, this huge, shadowy organisation and this woman who works for them. But the book is what I never ever thought Banks could be. Dull. I kept throwing the book to one side and then picking it up again, thinking it's Banks right? It has to be awesome and genius. But no, it was about this woman I couldn't begin to care about who works for this organization that's so shadowy that I couldn't care less about it. And on this journey the woman meets people who I remember being just as dull as she is.

In his earlier novels Banks always had the brilliance of his writing to carry the day, but in this one there wasn't even that to fall back on.

A massive let down after his earlier books.

2 s Jonfaith1,944 1,564

A delightful satire on international finance and investment, rife with high-grade one-liners and a morlaity axis which one hopes could be possible. Not a great effort from Iain but one worth one's time.

I've read that could be considered a proto-Culture novel, that such a qualification adds to the novel. I honestly don't know. 2 s Ian Caithness19 5

An incredible novel on the human condition and the temptation of capitalism in business. Iain Banks writes with a free-flowing and captivating prose that allows people to sink into his books and come out at the end feeling refreshed. 2 s Tor Gar419 44

Libro de ritmo constante aunque no muy alto. Salvo cerca del final nunca decae. Vive y respira por su protagonista que hace una curiosa evolución personal. Deber ser de los libros más accesibles del autor y también de los menos ambiciosos. Sin embargo a mi me vale, me ha llevado de la manita desde el principio y no me arrepiento. Seguramente es considerada un trabajo menor pero como hay tanto del autor y a mi me empieza a caer “de puta madre” y creo que debía ser un tipo muy interesante, divertido y curioso. Me sirve.

Encuentro en GR Un comentario de Carmelo que dice ”Claro ejemplo de que aunque Iain Banks ha hecho joyas como la serie de La cultura, no siempre está uno inspirado o más bien le obligan a escribir por contrato. La novela empieza muy bien, con varias tramas de intriga empresarial y muchos personajes ambiciosos e interesantes, con varios hilos argumentales. Conforme avanza la novela va tirando erráticamente de los hilos y se centra en el menos interesante. De repente la novela se convierte en una recopilación de la filosofía de vida del autor dónde expresa su opinión sobre distintos temas. El final es apresurado y no especialmente inspirado.” https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Todo, absolutamente todo, cierto y acertado; pero la frase “De repente la novela se convierte en una recopilación de la filosofía de vida del autor dónde expresa su opinión sobre distintos tema” tiene significados opuestos para nosotros de ahí la distinta valoración que hacemos del libro. (ojo, para ponerle bien tres estrellas, no cuatro o cinco)1 Matilda Burn51 2

Great start, great middle, very boring (almost terrible) ending that for some reason turns a brilliant illuminati-adjacent thriller-esque novel into a feminist manifesto? Why?

This also is probably very trite of me, but I just cannot stand male authors writing """"feminism"""", especially when said """feminism""" is in a book that used the word "bimbo" as many times as Banks does, and the female protagonist (Kate) is described as being hot for a THIRTY EIGHT YEAR OLD(!) at least 20 times by various different men, ranging from 19-70.

Banks really hammers it home, daring to suggest that un other 38 yr olds our Kate manages to bypass looking "mutton dressed as lamb". Of course she does, she's 38! But don't worry, we get a weirdly in-depth section about her fertility, so it's ok to for men to fancy her because this 38 yr old is still juicy and fecund, not dried up and gross other 38 yr olds.

Worth mentioning I'll be 38 in 8 years. Just by the by.

Kate also describes herself as a "body fascist", so forgive me if this passage:

"Just in the last few generations, finally able to control our own fertility, have we been able to act more men [sorry, what] and contribute more with our brains than our bodies [Ew]. I loved being part of that"

I'd find that a bad way to end a book at the best of times, let alone with this one, but it was written in '99 so at least he's trying and I will begrudgingly give props for that...

Also there weren't any boobs boobily boobing, as they often do in his other books (cough Dead Air cough) even when they were attached to our Moschino-wearing protagonist!

Three stars!1 1 comment Roman89 2

A good language and a sufficiently interesting description of the life of an executive of a powerful corporation.1 R. D. "Bob" Mathison46 8

With The Business, Iain Banks has once again cemented his position as a master storyteller, as well as one of my absolute favorites. Though the narrative begins as a slow burn, it's the intricacy and depth that Banks infuses into his storytelling that truly grips the reader. The erudite prose and intelligent dialogues are both captivating and intellectually stimulating, making the journey worth every page.

Kate, our formidable protagonist, is a triumph of character development. Despite her immense wealth, she is both relatable and aspirational, navigating the complex world of the titular Business with grace and acumen. It's refreshing to encounter a character as vivid and compelling as Kate, who stands out not just for her corporate achievements but for her personal resilience and adaptability.

The Business itself, as an entity, is a testament to Banks' exceptional world-building capabilities. Its lore is deep, multi-layered, and reflects the underbelly of global commerce and power in ways that are both enlightening and at times, chilling.

What truly stands out in this novel, however, is its unexpected culmination. After a methodical setup that takes its time, the climax is startlingly different from what one might predict, proving Banks' prowess in subverting expectations.

In conclusion, The Business is a masterclass in sophisticated storytelling. It not only entertains but also challenges the reader, prompting deep thought and reflection on the interplay of power, commerce, and ambition.literary-fiction owned2 s AmyAuthor 2 books156

My response to hearing of the passing of Iain Banks was to go out and get another book of his to read. This one lacks the "M." in the author name, so technically, it's not science fiction, though it does dive into alternate history/universe territory.

So, what if there was a powerful multinational corporation that had been in existence since before the Roman Empire (which it actually owned for a brief period of time), which was now interested in acquiring a country in order to have a seat in the UN? That's the underlying supposition in The Business (decidedly NOT "The Firm".)

I listened to this on audio, with one of my favorite voice actors, and the first bit was simply marvelous. It's a voice conversation between the main character, Kate, and a colleague Mike, who has just awakened after being drugged, to find about half his teeth randomly pulled. All this on the morning before he was to fly out for a high profile meeting with a powerful executive The Business has been been wooing.

The story that follows was quite compelling. Banks wrote from a woman's point of view and did it without embarrassing himself or women in general.

An author to be missed, to be sure, but luckily, he left us a legacy of reading.audio thank-you-charleston-county-library1 Lydia Conwell17

Some of my worst experiences as a reader come from reading the work of best-selling authors; a banal subsistance of writers whose qualifying attributes arise from their ability to blandly appeal to a wide variety of consumers. Being mostly into the Avant-Garde, it is not surprising I find acute tedium in the realms of the best-sellers, but I do occasionally subject myself to their creative renderings out of intrigue and perhaps from a kind of self torture.
Four chapters in on The Business by Iain Banks
I am struck by how trite the characters are, how banal and wooden they are, how they are basically cliches ranging from posh toffs who cars to Americans who guns. They are rejects from a BBC drama characters from a BBC drama; characters one has seen before, not new, original, interesting characters, just recycled archetypes: mediocre characters; the type you'd expect to find in a best-selling novel who are just bland enough (and I am assuming supposedly able enough) for the average person to say 'Hey, I him/her, he/she's just me!'

The main character, Kate, is basically a male character with a woman's name. She is some high-up corporate woman who is a little too self-aware of her corporate ruthlessness to be a credible ruthless corporate employee. It would not surprise me to discover most corporate workers are apathetic and money obsessed but it would surprise me to discover them to be conscious of these qualities. As well as unrealistic this self-awareness for the main character comes across a lazy cliché, almost an ironic acknowledgement of how the business person is supposed to be, a kind of joke character, and it leaves me in a psychic limbo, unable to know if the author is pro-corporations or savagely critiquing them. If I were to read on, I might have a better understanding of this, but this far in it feels the former option, or at least the author is non-committal in his stance on excessively powerful companies who encroach upon what little democracy we have.

Most of the characters feel clichés and much of the language used feels he is addressing a simpleton. An English toff – who I assume is supposed to be one of the more able characters – is described as 'waving a shepherd's crook with the thoughtless abandon of one brought up all his life under extravagantly high ceilings,' and as far as I'm concerned it might as well read 'he grew up rich in a big house.' It surprises me just how amateurish the writing style is since Banks is a real, best-selling, proper-type of professional author. The novel is too mainstream and too simplistic, forfeiting realism for the sake of easy comprehension for the average idiot.

There is a section in a plant that makes microchips, which I know to be also called integrated circuits although the main character refers to them as 'chips', and it's this use of the word chip that again feels simpleton language used primarily for the everyday reader. For all I know, people in that industry might call them chips all the time but it feels a writer writing about a subject they have researched rather than something you might think was experienced first hand. This feeling is enhanced by the clean room suits being described as 'not far off a spacesuit', and because the main character is pretending to be a woman she does not take kindly to wearing this spacesuit, being deeply averse to looking unstylish for half an hour or so next to people dressed the same way. However the sadness she feels having to remove her expensive designer suit is soon assuaged when she realises the clean room suit is much more expensive than the suit she just took off.

Unsurprisingly for a best seller, the book is crammed full of banal back story; the kind of prose written in generalised tones which serve only the desire to make the book look thicker on the bookshelf rather than for any narrative, creative or structural value. It is a style of writing I loathe: boring, unnecessary, unpleasingly written, just quick cheap and easy. It comes across to me a detailed synopsis rather than a demonstration of skilled creative writing. I picked up this book interested in the corporation central to the story, interested in how it operated; but much of the sections about the corporation are so generalised, they do not demonstrate the nuances I was looking for.

Four chapters in, so bored of waiting for the story to begin proper, I found myself skipping paragraphs – which is a sign I will not finish the book. There was some dialogue where the main character expresses quasi-socialist attitudes and I do wander if the author genuinely wanted to create a kind, compassionate corporate employee with more charitable leanings rather than ruthless corporate vampirism; but being too fed up of the tedious characters – who are just plain banal more than anything – I could not follow the words well enough to understand the author's true intentions. There was also a section about the corporation being particularly democratic in its workings and again I am not sure if this is a deluded fantasy of a corporation or nasty propaganda to make corporations seem mostly nice. I will never find out because I have stopped reading the book.

Someone on the book's cover alludes to Banks' supposed great story telling, yet being one third into the book with no sign of a story beginning, I fail to see this greatness. The book starts very well with a phone call from a man explaining how someone has stolen half of his teeth, but this plot line is instantly dropped (I predict to be picked up later at some dramatic surprise moment). From then on the book merely introduces non-characters and describes what they get up to in their work which isn't actually work at all and isn't really all that interesting. It is just a tedious book that I could not see improving the more I read, a BBC drama of a book

Over and out for now, guys!

xxx Lee Osborne323 4

Rating is a little harsh. Probably more 2.5, but certainly not a 3.

I found this surprisingly bad for a Banks novel. It had many of the elements that make his writing so good - eccentric characters, punchy dialogue, great descriptions, a huge crazy country house, good locations, shadowy interactions in the business world - but somehow everything felt very flat, and I spent the whole novel waiting for something dramatic to happen...and it didn't really, besides the main character almost trashing someone's Ferrari. Many of the scenes in the novel were well written, but they all seemed isolated from each other and didn't fit together properly. It was a good premise, I think, but badly executed.

I suppose even the best authors have a couple of turkeys to their name, and I think this is one of them for Banks. Far better accounts of business world shenanigans can be found in The Steep Approach to Garbadale and Dead Air.1 Morgan558 21

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