Got this sci-fi recommendation from several friends -- took me a long time to read & get into, though. Finally finished it this weekend, and liked it enough to read more of his books, although not right away. This book is in an interesting context, with an unusual narrative structure that's pretty disorienting to start with, but in hindsight makes a ton of sense. Banks' work is mostly set in the same context -- they're all called "A Culture Novel," where the Culture is a group of, you know, thingys. So not my favorite ever, but I enjoyed this one well enough to try to understand Banks a little bit more.