Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40585 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 436 pages

Amazon.co.uk
There's no question that the anticipation for each successive Iain Banks novel grows ever greater, and Dead Air is a literary event. The sardonic, inventive prose guarantees a unique reading experience with each new book (the misfires may be counted on one hand), and whatever genre he tackles, Banks is one of the most stimulating writers at work in Britain today.

His protagonist here is Ken Nott, a character as penetratingly realised as ever. He's a committed contrarian, ekeing out a living as a left-wing radio shock-jock in London. He makes his home in a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be demolished in a few days. After a wedding breakfast, people begin to pitch fruit from a balcony on to a deserted car park 10 storeys below; then they begin dispatching other things: a broken TV, a loudspeaker with a ruptured cone, bean bags and other useless furniture. Then the guests enter a kind of frenzy and start dropping things that are still working, at the same time trashing the rest of the apartment. But suddenly mobile phones start to ring urgently and they're told to turn on the TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. And Ken Nott finds his life is to change irrevocably.

Banks's subject here is nothing less than the survival of the individual in the face of a chaotic world. The destruction of personality under the lacerating values of modernity is a subject repeatedly addressed by JG Ballard (and that author's shadow is clearly evident here), and although this is one of the Iain Banks novels in which he pointedly does not use the "M" in his name that marks his science fiction, this nightmare vision of contemporary London has more than a trace of that genre in its sense of fractured reality. But all the caustic humour and dark character development that Banks excels in are fully in place. --Barry Forshaw

Review
* 'The most imaginative British novelist of his generation' - THE TIMES * 'A Buchanesque adventure yarn set in 21st century London' - THE TIMES * 'Banks has pulled off a great double - a deeply satirical and thought-provoking thriller that will make you laugh but will also have you shredding your fingernails.' - SUNDAY EXPRESS * 'A thrilling read, it's a dazzlingly clever, edgy, suspenseful book.' - SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

Mark Lawson, Guardian, 16 August 2002
Banks's clever, tense book ... a delirious new edge to political argument and sexual encounters.

Customer Reviews

Where's the story ?
I've read all of Iain Bank's works, so I guess I'm a fan, but I found this book disappointing. The main character - as in Complicity - is left-wing, works in the media, takes drugs, is sexually active. Unlike Complicity, there is little or no real story, instead the vast majority of the book is spent listening to the narrator's views on what is wrong - and right - with the world.
Now, I'm a Guardian-reading liberal who would agree with over 80% of the polemic in this book, but listening to the main character's diatribes becomes tiring. I was turning the pages looking for a story, a twist, a revelation, and ultimately I was not rewarded.
Iain, if you read this, I think you are a wonderful writer and I share your viewpoints but please next time bring more of your story-telling arts and capacity for drama and humour to the party, and leave the rants at the state of the world behind.
Finally, why do I appear to be the first person reviewing this book ?

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I have a strange relationship with the books of Iain Banks. Some of them I love, others I really dislike. "The Bridge" is one of my favorite books by any author, and "A song of stone" I couldn't even finish reading.

I was pleasantly surprised to read "Dead Air". I had seen some reviews being rather lukewarm to the book, but I found myself really liking it. The dialogue is as sharp as ever, and the plot twists nicely and keeps you guessing what's going to happen next.

If you like books like "The Bridge", "The Crow Road", "Complicity" and "Whit", my guess is you'll also like this one. I highly recommend it.

Gripping at the end
The plot of this book is actually very tricky to sumarise because for the vast majority of the novel it doesn't actually have one. Instead we are invited to sit back and enjoy the ride as shock-jock DJ Ken Knott freefalls through his life. Actually, it is a reflection the quality of Iain Banks' writing that you imediately do, enjoying yourself every step of the way. He slips in and out of situations and predicaments, often funny, often deadly serious, often both at the same time. It is only in the last two chapters or so (out of ten) that the book suddenly aquires the momentum of an express train, bombing along to a teeth clenching, nerve jangling conclusion that will have you literally unable to tear your eyes away from the book.
The book isn't perfect; it occasionally meanders a little too much and some themes aren't really explored properly, but by the end you won't careone iota. A great book, flawed, but brilliant.