New Arrival - The Steep Approach to Garbadale

Filed by: Darren on February 26, 2007 at 14:57
Filed In: Books, Gaming

Had a busy couple of weeks on the arrivals front - evidenced by the five hours I spent yesterday putting together the latest Books Received item for UKSFBN - and one item in particular was a real stand-out for me:

The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks

Right then, laddie! Straight to the top of the 'to be read' pile for you... Iain Banks's latest non-sf novel; this time it's about the lives, loves, machinations and manipulations of a family that invents and makes millions from selling a best-selling board/computer game called Empire!.

Let's face it, it's got to be a winner for anyone who has spent as much time as I have staring at a strategy-game-filled monitor; especially as I know - from various things I've both heard in person and read at a later date - that it's not just a love of good malt whisky that I can claim to have in common with the esteemed Mr Banks; it turns out that we're both (hopefully recovering) Civilization addicts as well...

I first had my suspicions when I read about the world-spanning empire-building game that Banks's main character played in Complicity, although I don't think that was called Empire! at the time... Anyhow, I do remember confronting Mr Banks (gently, mind) after a signing session back in my W'Stone's Deansgate days. "Do you play Civ?" I enquired. "No, no, no, no..." he replied, with much head-shaking. But I did rather suspect at the time that the shaggy-bearded one was perhaps protesting just a tad too much, and merely wanted to avoid the inevitable attempt at geek-conversation to follow...

And indeed, my suspicions were confirmed when, at a publisher-funded curry night during Eastercon up in Glasgow a few years later (but still a few years ago), Mr Banks and I actually had that conversation and he admitted that yes, he was partial to a bit of Civ from time to time... although by that time the game was up to version 2 or 3, I forget which. But he did confess, and we chatted, and it wasn't too geeky, honest...

Next thing I hear, the publicity-line for the new book is that for the first time in his career he actually delivered a manuscript horribly late, because he lost a whole three months playing Civ IV and eventually had to wipe the game - and all those pesky save-files - from his machine if he was ever going to get any work done at all, ever. But hey, we've all been there, right? (At this point Jo usually rolls her eyes and adopts the look of the long-suffering Civ-widow...)

So, anyhow, yes. This one will definitely be next, just as soon as I've finished ~~conquering the Mongols~~ reading Richard Morgan's Black Man.

Honourable mentions also for proofs of the new Ian McDonald and Justina Robson novels... if only there was another 12 or 13 hours in the day...

Filed on: February 26, 2007
Filed under: Books, Gaming
Tagged with: civilization-IV | Iain-(M)-Banks |

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2 Responses to 'New Arrival - The Steep Approach to Garbadale'

Ed on February 26th, 2007 9:14 pm

Neal Asher recently admitted to having a similar problem with computer games, saying he even has to delete Patience in order not to be distracted from the bill paying duties.
Ariel on February 27th, 2007 9:00 am

I know of one or two other authors - mentioning no names... - who are probably in a similar boat. It's an affliction that's particularly prevalent in bloggers, too, I reckon...

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