Iain Banks is a Good Bloke - anyone who still mourns the loss of The Sun from Lamb's Conduit Street in London is most definitely a Good Bloke. He's also a good writer. Whilst I've never managed to get on with his Culture based SF, some of his mainstream novels are classics.

The Business is not one of them.

The eponymous "Business" is an unnamed global multinational with tendrils everywhere. It can trace its roots back a long way. At one time it actually owned Roman Empire - if only for 66 days. Today the most fervent desire of The Business is to get seat on the UN. They are approaching this as any group in their position would - they are planning to buy a small country!

The book starts well enough with an intriguing setup. Protagonist Kate, a high level Business manager, receives a call from one of her staff. He has just woken up after a night on the town to find that half of his teeth have been removed whilst he was asleep. This is especially embarrassing since he is due to fly to Tokyo later that day for an important meeting.

It's a very good start, a fascinating hook. There are also loads of other interesting plotlines - The Business buying its UN seat, high level company politics, eccentric millionaires, etc. Add to this the moral issues about the power of big business and you have a stimulating mix. Unfortunately Banks does very little with these elements.

All those interesting plot hooks turn in to little more than background noise. The novel rapidly degenerates in to a sort of travelogue come soap opera with tedious romantic attachments. The central fifty percent of this book reads like "Dallas - The Next Generation".

Of course, this being Banks it's a very well written high quality soap opera. Yet for all that it remains pap. The real story, the things that made you pick up the book in the first place, get shoved to one side. Banks drops in a few plot points along the way but they really don't come to anything. Once we reach the end of the book he ties up the lose ends in an offhand and - in the case of those teeth - frankly unbelievable manner. You have to suspect that he regretted including the hooks in the first place.

This is one of those books that leaves you with a profound longing for what could have been. It's as if an intelligent, complex book has been lobotomised.

All in all it's perfect material for a TV mini-series.