To me
he comes across as trying too hard to be clever and funny to actually pull it off. I get the feeling his work is popular because he makes the reader feel clever by 'getting' his allusions and little in-jokes - everyone likes to have their egos bolstered I suppose.

I've been told his books improved as he wrote more but I am such a judgemental tosser I haven't given him a second chance.

The best modern books I've read are CJ Sansom's Shardlake books, set in the Tudor period. He's far and away the best 'new' writer I've read in recent years.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 9 Oct 2009, 10:03, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

what AA says below is true
and I've found it when rereading the first few books. They are straight up parodies, whereas as his stuff goes on there is much more character development, and the whole thing comes into its own more.

It's worth trying some of his later stuff.

That's the second time recently that someone has said one of my favourite authors tries too hard to be clever. As was the case with Iain M Banks, I think the case is that they are actually very clever, and write accordingly.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 9 Oct 2009, 10:06, Reply)

^this^
i've read all of iain banks and iain m banks apart from his most recent 2.
i find the "cleverness" a bit irritating at times but generally once i come back to it i find it less self-conscious.
cos that's what gets us, yeah?
we all hate self-conscious writing?
i do.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Sat 10 Oct 2009, 0:20, Reply)