Transition

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Transition is a novel by Iain Banks, first published in 2009.

It is based on the premise that a virtually infinite number of parallel dimensions do indeed exist. Set between the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the destruction of the Twin Towers, Transition centres on a shadowy organisation called 'The Concern' whose members can transport their consciousness into the bodies of unsuspecting people in other dimensions by ingesting a drug called Septus and thus meddle with the socio-political development of other Earths.


Tropes used in Transition include:

The Philosopher: I do draw the line at children. Some of my colleagues will happily obligue when a child must be tortured to force a parent to talk, but I think this is both morally objectionable and suspect in principle.

The Philosopher: I do not enjoy what I do, though I am not ashamed of it, and it would be no exaggeration to say that I am proud of it. It is something that has to be done, and somebody has to do it.

"Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator, though of course if you believe everything you're told you deserve whatever you get."

The Transitioner: I look up, hoping for airships. I always like when there are airships, but I can't see any. (later, on another world:) Into the street. Still no airships. Dommage!