So, I just finished The Wasp Factory and...

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I finally found time to finish The Wasp Factory and I have a few questions…

Without spoiling too much, are we supposed to sympathize with Frank?
I could understand and even forgive what Frank did to Blyth, but with the murder of Paul he started down the path of irredeemablity for me—and after what he did to Esmerelda how could anyone not hate him?

Also was there any significance to Eric, or was he just a McGuffin (token plot element) stringing together a character study of Frank?

Banks writes a lot of villain-protagonists and/or anti-heroes, and has a wicked sense of humour. Frank is probably supposed to appear as a charming bastard; possibly he's there as a "ha! you the reader like this guy 'cause he's funny, and he's a monster!" device. The book is just grotesque and unpleasant for the sake of it. I think Banks has changed his style quite a bit since then.

it was like boyhood nostalgia for me, i loved the dam-building etc. except for the sadistic and homicidal bits, which i dissociated from. So i didnt really feel a need to pas judgement on the character as a whole, some bits id identify with, some i wouldnt. As to what emotions the author intends to stimulate in the reader, its not something i ever really think about.

Ive heard Banks does have a 'hey everyone! - look how sick and twisted i can be' thing going on which tends to suddenly pop up here and there in his novels.

Yeah, I think you guys are right in that to a great degree, the book is sick and shocking—because that’s the way it is…

After further digestion, I think what really bothers me is that a bit of me still likes Frank in spite of what he did to Paul and Esmerelda.

When Frank killed Blyth, I thought, ‘well, the little monster had it coming.’ At that point I expected Frank to be the standard anti-hero dealing out grim vengeance… The other two murders completely blew that expectation out of the water. It’s troubling, but I guess that’s part of what makes it such a good book.

Hmm…

The Wasp Factory is kind of like American Psycho for me in that the novel is centered around a particular person but the person is not likable, though for me the novel was still gripping and thought-provoking and that's all I ask. If you demand to be sympathetic to the central character then this is not a novel for you.

Have you read Use of Weapons, GoonSquad?

No, but I have a copy and it's next on my list.

The first Banks Sci-Fi book I read was Consider Phlebas, I liked it a lot. I wasn't wowed but I did like it...

Consider Phlebas has some well-written action scenes but I didn't care for the ending. I recall the next two sci-fi novels he published being better.

Of his SF I'd put Against a Dark Background (non-Culture - probably) at the top of the list, followed by Inversions (the least typical Culture book; though if you know the background, you can recognise things for what they are, which I think is very much the author's intention, so it's probably best read after the others) and The Player of Games (the best introduction to the Culture) and Use of Weapons (the most typical Culture book). I don't like UoW too much, but it's a clever book. Odd narrative structure.

I liked most of CP, the CAT's escape from the GSV, the Damage game and the Homomdans were cool. The Fwi Song bit was utterly pointless nastiness, though.