In short: a brilliant coming of age story combined with a whodunit in a big family with all of its troubles and intrigues, set in a surrounding so Scottish you can almost smell it.

Two adversaries are forced to live together in a labyrinth-like castle and have to solve puzzles. Their countries are at war, and they are isolated in a place without anything outside of it. How do they cope? What do they achieve? What the hell are they there for? Who is going to help them? Are they ever going to get out? Is this Science Fiction? No. Is this Dungeons and dragons? No. Is this literature? Maybe. You decide. Is it compelling? Yes. Banks is a master in visualising worlds and you just have to go along with these individuals to find out what they themselves find out.

When you know the original children's story by Maurice Sendak, you might have asked yourself what would have been the full story behind his fantastic illustrations and the couple of dozen words Sendak used to perfectly describe a young boy's adventure. First there was a screen adatation, then there came this novelisation, fully endorsed by Maurice Sendak himself. Dave Eggers expanded the premise to an epic story where the monsters all get depth by getting complex personalities and issues with eachother, all bering parts of Max' own inner world. This gives Max a reason to try and become their king. Sometimes dark, sometimes eerie, sometimes touching. It is a very interesting and well-written interpretation of the children's story.