Recent fiction -- Banks, Ancestor, Ariel, Company

* “Against a Dark Background”:amazon by Iain M. Banks. Banks has a unique and entertaining voice, in his universe advanced technology is just a little perverse and contrary and darkly witty. Fun read although a little long. Amazon says 4.5 stars, Goodreads 3.8, I would definitely comtimnue to read more Banks. * “Ancestor”:amazon by Scott Sigler. 4.5 stars on Amazon, 4.1 on Goodreads, but utter crap. Derivative Crichtonesque garbage with 1D cartoon characters. Not finishable. * “Ariel”:amazon by Steven R. Boyett. Terribly inconsistent tale of a young man and a unicorn in a post-apocalyptic world, but something endearing about the protagonist and his trials. 4 stars on Amazon, 3.53 on Goodreads. 3-3.5 seems about right, a good tale wrapped up in a kind of a sloppy book. * “The Company”:amazon by K. J. Parker. Odd parable of a group of veterans in a vaguely Nordic country who come together years after a war. Their lives have come to be defined by their wartime experiences and their personal forms of cowardice and betrayal. Amazon says 3.5 stars, Goodreads says 3.2. I can’t highly recommend the book but it was interesting enough to finish.

Wow this is an underwhelming list to end the summer on.