As previously suggested, I picked up one of Iain Bank’s non-science fiction novels. Also quite good and wisely relies on technology to enable him to focus on the thrills and laughs. The Business features Kate Telman, a rising globetrotting executive, as she reaches a new level of understanding of the organization for which she works. I quite enjoyed her story though most of the humor, except for some really good one-liners, passed me by.
Kate works for a global group of capitalists known, internally, as The Business. The similarity to the CIA’s nickname of The Company is not unintentional but perhaps more to throw readers off the scent in the early going. The group has existed in essentially the same form since the days of the Roman Empire, where it originated and which it still rues owning for 66 days. Though not unknown to the public (Banks has her list several recent media exposures) the normal operating process of its widely disparate components keeps it under the general radar. Telman joined after catching the eye of childless female executive at the age of eight and being adopted, first informally and then formally after her real mother’s death, by the older woman though nepotism is not generally the way things are done; The Business is a meritocracy and even democratic internally with promotions mooted by one’s peers and subordinates.
In fact Banks (definitely a member of the Scottish Socialist SF authors brigade) claims the organization tends to be less infected with the kind of corporate malfesance so often in the papers these days because its long history has shown that straightdealing generates a better return on investment; people still being people, there are machinations and underhanded dealings or otherwise we wouldn’t have much of a story.
The leadership has decided that membership in the United Nations is necessary and The Business should acquire a seat by purchasing control of a small nation. Telman, the youngest Level Three in recent years, is assured that taking the local leadership and sacrificing certain comforts and amenities to which she’s accustomed is the best path to setting a similar age record for Level Twos.
Yesterday another member of a messageboard I frequent suggested my sense of humor is deficient, albeit not in such polite terms so the sysadmins deleted first the comments and then the thread. While his characterization of the story being discussed was distasteful I will agree my ability to recognize a joke is below average. This is relevant because to me The Business was more a consideration of globalization and its relationship to politics than particularly funny. Though I think some of the humor will stay with me for a long time, like this response by Kate to one man’s attempt to pick her up: “I did my impression of the Roman Empire, and declined.”
recommended
BillSaysThis 