Feersum Endjinn   by Iain M. Banks

Experimental in the extreme. In places the unorthodox style of writing makes this a difficult book to chew, but the rewards for perservering to the end are upmost satisfaction. The book introduces four very diverse storylines, and brings them together at the end which resolves the whole work brilliantly.

My only quibble is that the book errs a little towards the fantastic. At one point it describes a dwelling inside a chandelier hundreds of metres across, hanging from a ceiling in a room built on the scale of kilometres. Yeah, right.

Occasional sillyness aside, though, this is a very intelligent book which needs to be read with a clear head and amply rewards the persistent reader.