I normally really enjoy Iain m banks works but I found this one quite hard to follow. I think a bit more universe building in the early chapters would have gone a long way as it wasn't until the end of the book I really understood what was going on. The phonetic writing style for some chapters takes a bit of getting used to but I didn't really find it too distracting though I would have preferred it without it. I think I actually might like it more a second time through now its clearer but I can't give it more than 2.5 unfortunately.