The Business

Iain Banks

The Business has been around since before the Roman Empire. Once, for a brief time, they owned the Empire. They're still around 2000 years later. Kathryn Telman is a third level executive in The Business. But she knows much of the happenings within the Business on the top two levels as well as her own. The Business has interests and employees around the world.

There is something The Business doesn't have that it wants. So now it is trying to take over Thulan, a small country in the Himalayas. If it buys and owns the country, The Business would be able to gain a seat in the United Nations. Kathryn is aware of the possibility, but hasn't had any dealings with the wheeling and dealing that is occurring with the second and first level executives. Things are about to change.

The Business is a mischievous book about the inner workings of a global company. It is a lot of fun and clever. It pokes fun at powerful people. The country of Thulan is interesting, and a chance for Kathryn, thus us, to learn about a different culture. The Thulanese have been isolated by the mountains so have not changed too much. Their airplane runway doubles as their only football field. It's the only piece of flat land in the country for either to occur.

There are a couple interesting practices with The Business that would be interesting to see in other companies. The first is that in order to be promoted, a person has to be approved by the other employees on their level who would then work for that person who has been promoted. The other is that all employees in the company may be called upon by any other employee to open up their own personal book for scrutiny in an audit. This helps prevent embezzlement or other chicanery within The Business.

This is an enjoyable novel. Have fun and once again have fun with the chance to poke fun at the top brass within a large, profitable company.