Ian Banks Transition opens with our narrator informing us he’s not exactly reliable. It makes sense as the book features an organization where characters leap from one body to another across the multiverse. The Concern may or may not be an organization that influences a multitude of worlds for good or for ill. We never find out but I think that’s kind of the point.
Lead character, Temudjin Oh, a self described multiversal ninja, begins to question his leaders orders as he flits back and forth. Sometimes he’s merely pushing someone out of the way. Other times he’s getting bloody. He’s pulled in opposite directions from Madam D’Orlotan and former teacher Mrs. Mulverhill as a prize piece of the puzzle.
Banks is hit or miss for me and this one is a hit out of the park. It’s about politics, torture, body jumping assassins and how much interfering is ok to move a world in a particular direction. I don’t think it;s for everyone though if you like challenging books, both in content and in execution this may be for you.
[...] originally published in Rescued By Nerds on 2009-09-21 [...]