The best part of this book is the idea of virtual hell. It's one thing to invent such a brutal religious doctrine of eternal suffering, it's another to play the role of god and actually create hell when the technology allows you to do it. Banks' descriptions of virtual hell are gripping, reminiscent of the nightmarish visions he describes in "Feersum Endjinn".

As a Banks fan I gobbled this book up. Unfortunately I needed to read it a bit more closely because the plot is somewhat intricate and a few threads seemed untied in my mind as a result. It will be worth re-reading as I have most of his SF books.