Kindle
$9.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$23.98
Paperback
$15.65
Buy new:
-37% $15.65
FREE delivery June 4 - 26 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$15.65 with 37 percent savings
List Price: $24.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery June 4 - 26 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery June 2 - 24
Usually ships within 1 to 2 months
$$15.65 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.65
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$7.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Wear on some edges/corners of cover and some pages; cover has some scuffs, smudges, hairline scratches, etc.; no writing or markings could be found on the pages Wear on some edges/corners of cover and some pages; cover has some scuffs, smudges, hairline scratches, etc.; no writing or markings could be found on the pages See less
FREE delivery May 23 - June 3 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery May 22 - 30
$$15.65 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.65
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Iain M. Banks
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Transition Paperback – September 15, 2010

by Iain M. Banks (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,124 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$15.65","priceAmount":15.65,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"65","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"lpVJoKFEjrMxm9qr9CaexTX%2FgW%2By6NvcZNrYPrKej0Ymsy%2F3YfTItiFz0kFBO58PGrOUGVsGaab88xfqr31Gmsx0TMteJ4XkuvHdf7KlhfsBOdqK0TlxBAs3MZeE7j1yLJn0Bzby%2B9Q%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$7.99","priceAmount":7.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"lpVJoKFEjrMxm9qr9CaexTX%2FgW%2By6NvcAq%2F9%2Bmzr3Y2h0zogrNNN1ajkAVckc1rUTSYUZlOUJHsJ9gi8iiriK%2BfEozs27keXlvc7Y51R4M0K01pD2tiv04Ub3YjtTqnQYG4aE6UDNVM62x1Yqft5LyEXKNYbiXuWUYylH5kd8A2REW8oMOcZ5wEu4aNvVCeq","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?

Among those operatives are Temudjin Oh, of mysterious Mongolian origins, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice under snow; Adrian Cubbish, a restlessly greedy City trader; and a nameless, faceless state-sponsored torturer known only as the Philosopher, who moves between time zones with sinister ease. Then there are those who question the Concern: the bandit queen Mrs. Mulverhill, roaming the worlds recruiting rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, under sedation and feigning madness in a forgotten hospital ward, in hiding from a dirty past.

There is a world that needs help; but whether it needs the Concern is a different matter.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    420 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Orbit
  4. Publication date
    September 15, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.13 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0316071994
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0316071994
  8. See all details
Next page
Books with Buzz
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more

Frequently bought together

Transition
$15.65
Usually ships within 1 to 2 months
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Feersum Endjinn: A Novel
$14.83
Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Against A Dark Background
$15.39
Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15
Only 8 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Iain Banks came to controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. He has since gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orbit; Reprint edition (September 15, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 420 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316071994
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316071994
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.13 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,124 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Iain Banks (1954-2013) came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Consider Phlebas, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987 and began his celebrated ten-book Culture series. He is acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
1,124 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

John M. Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars Unreliable Narrator Smothered by Assassin
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2009
Verified Purchase
Ordinarily this would be a spoiler, but it is offered in the Prologue by one of the book's narrators as an ending for readers too impatient to hear the whole story. Readers are left holding this ending while they absorb enough of the story to give it meaning. And they may make a wrong assumption or two. This is a well-written book; not easy to figure out but worth the effort.

The overall plot is straightforward. A shadowy organization called The Concern monitors activities in a large number of parallel Earths. Their operatives transition between worlds using a drug supplied by The Concern. After each transition, operatives remain "themselves," but take on the physical appearance--and some of the mental characteristics--of the host person they have taken control of. The Concern influences events in these parallel worlds through various means, including selective assassination of key players--or potential players--in world events. All of this is supposedly for the greater good. Some of the book's characters, such as the competent assassin Temudjin Oh, the renegade Mrs. Mulverhill, and the unnamed hospitalized Patient 8262, have their doubts. Each recoils from The Concern in a different way. As the story unfolds, we learn more about who each of them are and what they have learned about The Concern.

Fans of "Iain M. Banks" hard science fiction, such as  Use of Weapons  and  The Algebraist , will not encounter the same high-tech, high-Culture environment in Transitions. It is more similar to his previous "Iain Banks" fiction. The Concern is another version of Banks' many-tentacled corporation in  The Business  and the multinational dysfunctional family business in  The Steep Approach to Garbadale . Fans of Kage Baker's "Company" series (which begins with  In the Garden of Iden ), may enjoy the similar, but more complex machinations of The Concern.

New Banks readers may benefit from some comparisons. The book has something of a Tom Clancy style, perspective-shifting between characters whose stories eventually come together. Banks' characters are different from Clancy's, though. They are darker, of course, and they act based on incomplete understandings of their world. Anne Rice fans ( The Vampire Lestat ) will enjoy Banks' skillful deployment of unreliable narrators and the patterns revealed by their collective errors in perspective. Banks' style contrasts interestingly with Stephen King's. Although both authors take us into the dark, the reader finishes a King book with much of the hidden territory mapped and understood, if at some human cost. Banks leads his readers into the mists, allows them only glimpses, partial revelations, and the hints of patterns. We draw many conclusions for ourselves and find little certainty. Such is his intent.

This book is highly recommended as a rewarding and thought-provoking read. The writing is nuanced, finely textured, and superb.
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Timothy J. Cliffe
4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, with some issues
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2012
Verified Purchase
I enjoy Iain M. Banks' writing very much, but I have issues with this book - there is what appears to be a serious internal inconsistency, plus a surprising moral hole in the story.

The basic premise is that "transitionaries" working for "the Concern" flit their minds from their home world into the bodies of persons in various other Earths of the multiverse. The transitionary takes over the body (shutting down the mind, apparently), and uses it to accomplish whatever task the Concern has set, often including murder. Task done, the transitioner flits back home, leaving the poor sap whose body was used to deal with the consequences.

The transitionaries send only their minds (along with their flit-inducing drug, or, with great talent and effort, a somewhat larger object such as a gun). They cannot send their own bodies; they must find a host-body in the target world. And yet, partway through the book, we find Our Hero (Temudjin Oh) and the cat-eyed Mrs. Mulverhill hot-tubbing on a world on which all life has recently been exterminated. Hello? Whose bodies did they find on a sterile world? Now, Mrs. Mulverhill has many interesting talents, and Oh develops some special tricks of his own, but if their talents included bringing their own original bodies from world to world, I missed it. And in any case, this sterile world is described as "a place where privileged officers of the Concern could holiday," so it's not just Oh and Mrs M. who go there. This is so peculiar and inconsistent that I wonder if Banks is poking us in the eye, although if so I don't get the point. Perhaps we are supposed to remember that Oh (as Patient 8262) describes himself as an unreliable narrator at the beginning of the book. If he's unreliable enough to matter-of-factly describe a lengthy episode that is entirely impossible, it calls into question everything he says in the entire book. But if we're simply supposed to wonder if anything is true, I still don't get the point.

I was also bothered by the book's failure to deal at all with the plight of the hosts whose bodies the transitionaries use. Oh brings up the issue, and then drops it. This is peculiar in a book that includes an extensive and impassioned attack on the morality of those who use and justify torture. Surely using somebody's body to commit a murder, and then leaving that somebody bloody-handed for the local police to find is savagely immoral, if not quite the same as torture -- and such misuse of others happens every single time a transitionary travels. Yet Oh, and by extension the author, seem no more than mildly curious about the damage and fear the hosts must certainly suffer. (I know; it's a story about the transitionaries, not about the hosts -- but a story that explicitly takes strong moral positions, yet ignores this apparently central moral issue.)

To close on a more positive note, I need to mention a subplot - the question why, given an infinite series of Earths, no aliens seem ever to have shown up from anywhere. Perhaps, it is suggested, they might be here as (hidden) tourists watching something unique to Earth; i.e., a total eclipse of the sun, with the sun's corona showing around the edge of the moon. I loved the hints that Mrs. Mulverhill may be an alien, or part alien. I picture her looking for her alien father or grandfather during a total eclipse in Tibet, shortly after she kills Madame D'Ortolan on the train to Lhasa.

Read it, but not if you're a stickler for consistency.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Weird and wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2024
Verified Purchase
Very strange and exciting story. I don't think it's actually culture series related but it's a great read. I recommend.
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

NanukNorth
5.0 out of 5 stars Non-stop Read!
Reviewed in Canada on February 16, 2022
Verified Purchase
Complex plot with well develop characters. A Sequel is necessary and eagerly anticipated. I am, sadly running out of Iain Banks books to read.
One person found this helpful
 Report
D
5.0 out of 5 stars Good SF tour of Parallel Worlds
Reviewed in India on May 20, 2019
Verified Purchase
An assassin with a warped conscience jumping dimensions of a range of parallel worlds and carrying out executions. A Council that tries to regulate life in all dimensions in the confused times after the fall of the Berlin Wall and before the collapse of the twin towers. A state-sponsored torturer called the Philosopher who thinks of himself as a redeemer.

Transition offers an imaginative journey that goes over the shallow pretentiousness of China Mievelle's City and The City or the unnecessary blood and gore tricks of Richard Morgan, if you agree with what I mean...

Disparate threads of the narrative slowly connect to build up an action-packed SF tour of parallel worlds (not connected to the Culture universe though), in the course of which Banks offers a not-so nuanced take on the interconnectedness of events in life, the uses and abuse of power, and the nature of existence itself.
Report
DOM
5.0 out of 5 stars Iain Banks or Iain M Banks?
Reviewed in Australia on February 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
I think this is a Culture novel.....Although I often find Banks’ work challenges my recall skills and to fully enjoy the middle and ends I need to go and read it all again, I enjoyed this story set on Earth but think Special Circumstances are influencing events...
Report
Tom Rhend
5.0 out of 5 stars a white spot light on responsibility
Reviewed in Germany on August 18, 2010
Verified Purchase
Transition is not a typical banksian novel, for its denser and even more attuned writing. The novel is brilliant, with a zest of humour and a white spot light on responsibility. The story is set in a multiverse world.
Report
Gordon Copestake
5.0 out of 5 stars Typical Iain M Banks, untypical Iain Banks
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2009
Verified Purchase
I'm an avid fan of Iain M Bank's sci-fi work (particularly his Culture series) but have dabbled with his non-sci-fi before now and enjoyed The Business and The Bridge greatly. Transition is something of a merger between The Bridge, The Business and Sci-Fi.

How on earth Banks manages to mix these disparate themes I have no idea but it's done expertly and eloquently. Have no doubt though this story requires some effort, with numerous threads and characters (and characters who's names don't remain the same!) along with some multiverse spanning ideas just for good measure. Also the whole thrust of the storyline, the reason for the conspiracy, whilst hinted at is never really fleshed out in detail. It's left to the readers imagination and whilst this may sound disappointing to some, it's actually very well done.

This is a departure from the usual Whit / Complicity style of "drama" and a revisit of the fantastical world of The Bridge complete with hospital patient. However it's obvious that this is a work by a more experienced and sure handed author. The prose is tight, compact and flows well. Some of the transitions between threads is jarring (no pun intended) however even this is obviously intended and well done.

All in all highly recommended to both Iain M Banks fans and Iain Banks fans alike.
2 people found this helpful
 Report