Gets off to a cracking start, the opening chapters are as good as anything Banks has written. The middle section, however, turns into an aimless travelogue and the ending seems to have been grafted on from a different draft of the novel altogether - what I thought to be the most interesting sub-plots just died out.
Also, although Banks goes to the trouble of setting up and detailing the history of the seemingly immortal and byzantinely complex 'Business' (a construction in it's way akin to the endless Forth rail bridge in 'The Bridge') at the end it seems more like an ordinary dull multinational. The regular product placement will also ensure that the book dates rapidly.
Well worth a read for the usual Banks wit and sparkling dialogue though.

Release planned for Thursday, June 13, 2002 at Cambridge Kings Cross Train in Cambridge, England United Kingdom.

I'll probably leave this on the 0715 Cambridge to King's Cross train. Hopefully it won't end up in lost property.