Iain Banks & Peter Capaldi, The Bridge

I note with interest that The Bridge is categorized as Sci-Fi and fantasy. Banks (with the M) is certainly a first rate Sci-Fi author, but I believe this is classed as from his straight fiction inventory, in book or audio form.

I would also like to state that the book itself should be listed as a book in the review centre listings, and not just as an audio tape, as this review can serve both.

I am on record about a couple of Banks' books in various places and I am an undoubted fan of the man. But the Bridge is where he rises head and shoulders above his peers and joins the statesman ranks of genius authors. I read the Bridge a long time ago, and it remains one of the most rewarding reads. Going back to it and listening to it, is like meeting a dear friend again, replaying a favoured old album and reliving fond memories.

But there's nothing easy or superficial about the book itself. It is a wondrously rich, difficult, in place unfathomable dreamscape, entered into by a consciousness that is without a functioning body at the time - having been involved in a car crash. What turns out the be the coma is spent, symbolically, in a bridge state, in many senses. A world invented to house the confined nature of the person's consciousness, but depicting events, characters, scenarios beyond any reasoning or any clear rationale, but all of which fascinate, beguile and, as is Banks' desire I feel, infuriate at times.

The use of the Scottish "patois" linguistics is also very entertaining, and while this phonetically stylized dialogue is used extensively elsewhere, I'd not seen the treatment given to broad Scots before (Cockney, Creole, even Bristolian, yes, but curiously not Scots).

The Bridge works most for me because it is cleverly done, but on many levels. And you can enjoy as few or as many levels as you like. In that sense it does not patronize, but it is not self-indulgent, nor is it ever the same read twice. I like the fact that it is a bridge in many senses. I like the fact that it is an easy pun to understand, and I like the fact that Banks (unwittingly, I imagine) made his own creative ability more accessible by allowing this to be used. I like the fact that the main dreamscape character has odd dream patterns, another simple and effective twist, something to signpost the way.

Finally, I like the fact that the book actually concludes, pretty much. It feels complete (which says more about me than the author, granted).