>
> Ah. Ken MacLeod. There's also one called _Cosmonaut Keep_, that I
> have not read.
I'm 1/3 through it now. A different timeline in many respects, but similar "root" origins. Actually I'm getting slightly bored by the Trotech cyberguerpunkiness of the story start off points, even if the basic concept of marketmadness is one I largely subscribe to..
> He's buddies with the excellent
Indeed, most talented, and though I am not a sf fan type, picked up from an intro by Banks to one of the books that they went to secondary school together (pre university). Don't forget Scotland is a small country (5m or so) with most of the population in the central belt cities. When I used to be up there regularly Edinburgh and Glasgow were the sorts of large towns where one often just bumped into acquaintances on the street, in pubs etc. at a frequency I don't find occurs even in a town like Oxford with a population of just over 100,000!
> (but unbalanced) Iain M. Banks,
What on earth makes you say that about Banks? Not being a "trekkie", so to speak, I've no "social" knowledge of the SF world.