phoenix_indigo
06-11-2007, 12:57 AM
This was an excellent story. Forget Wasp Factory, this is my fave. May even go on my favourite books list. In WHIT, you get to know The Blessed Very Reverend Gaia-Marie Isis Saraswati Minerva Mirza Whit of Luskentyre, Beloved Elect of God III ... better known as Isis, or Is for short. She is a Luskentyrian, a faith which I found to be alot like the Amish in a sense as they don't belive in using anything modern. They tend to use a lot of scented candles, don't use cars, and if necessity dictates and they must be forced to ride in a car they have to bring their sitting board so they don't feel the comfort of the seat. All they know is their little community in Scotland and the faith their founder has given them.
Some of the Luskentyrians do live amongst the "Blands" or basically us non-Luskentyrians; but only some would be considered Apostate or no longer in the Luskentyrian faith. In this book you journey with Isis as she is sent on her first ever trip to Babylondon to try to track down her cousin Morag who has been living there for many years as a Baryton soloist and who everyone has feared has gone Apostate and won't be returning for the Festival of Love.
Iain Banks manages to inject so much symbolism into this story you get lost in the world he's created. I absolutely fell in love with this story, the symbolisms - i'll never look at lard and tea leaves the same ever. There was nothing 'shocking' about this book in comparision to something like The Wasp Factory. I am hoping to pick up another of his books sometime soon as I'd love to see if any of his other books were the quality of this.
Some of the Luskentyrians do live amongst the "Blands" or basically us non-Luskentyrians; but only some would be considered Apostate or no longer in the Luskentyrian faith. In this book you journey with Isis as she is sent on her first ever trip to Babylondon to try to track down her cousin Morag who has been living there for many years as a Baryton soloist and who everyone has feared has gone Apostate and won't be returning for the Festival of Love.
Iain Banks manages to inject so much symbolism into this story you get lost in the world he's created. I absolutely fell in love with this story, the symbolisms - i'll never look at lard and tea leaves the same ever. There was nothing 'shocking' about this book in comparision to something like The Wasp Factory. I am hoping to pick up another of his books sometime soon as I'd love to see if any of his other books were the quality of this.