Alban McGill is a member of the wealthy Scottish Wopuld family, who have built a fortune on a game called Empire! (which resembles Risk, and involves taking over the world). Alban has abdicated his place in the family, and has been slumming for the past few years, working as a forester, hanging out with decidedly non-upper-class friends, and slowly building a relationship with a commitment-phobic math-genius outdoorswoman/professor. However, a big family reunion is calling him back into the fold. An American corporation wants to buy out the Wopulds, and they need to vote on whether or not to go through with the deal. Alban is reluctant to go - not least because it will mean seeing his cousin Sophie again - the girl who was his first love, and who still stirs up all kinds of nasty whirlpools of emotion whenever Alban encounters her.
As the novel progresses, we gradually learn more about Alban, his relationship with Sophie, the complexities, oddities, and dark secrets of the Wopuld family - and not least, the repercussions involved with the possibility of giving up Empire! (With some quite blatant but rather wonderful political metaphors and outright rants.)
Banks is one of my favorite authors, so my expectations for one of his books are always high - but this novel did not disappoint. I do think he should have gone with its working title (Empire!), though.
As the novel progresses, we gradually learn more about Alban, his relationship with Sophie, the complexities, oddities, and dark secrets of the Wopuld family - and not least, the repercussions involved with the possibility of giving up Empire! (With some quite blatant but rather wonderful political metaphors and outright rants.)
Banks is one of my favorite authors, so my expectations for one of his books are always high - but this novel did not disappoint. I do think he should have gone with its working title (Empire!), though.
