Editing Feersum Endjinn (section)

==Reception==
''Feersum Endjinn'' was generally well-received, and the completeness of the plot and the detailed description of the mega-architecture and the crypt were praised by critics.

Literary critic and historian Ian Duncan has argued that Banks's ‘fearsome engine’, like his ''[[The Bridge (Banks novel)|The Bridge]]'', “is another allegory of the state, except that this apparatus is not just [[Sublime (literary)|sublime]] in its dissociation from human accountability – it is omniscient, providential, and even organic.”<ref>''Culture, Nation, And the New Scottish Parliament'' (Bucknell University Press, 2007) edited by Caroline McCracken-Flesher, p. 51.</ref> ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' described it as an "extraordinary, often brilliantly inventive odyssey," concluding, "Dazzling stuff: a shame it doesn't add up."<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/iain-m-banks/feersum-endjinn/ |journal=[[Kirkus Reviews]] |title=''Feersum Endjinn'' by Iain M. Banks |date=May 1, 1995}}</ref>

Reviewer Edward Terry recommended the book, praising the variety of the [[archetypes]]: "Virtual reality, reincarnation, Hindu, fairy tales, myths, legends, virus programs, reality, nanotech, the four horsemen, necromancy, aeons and microseconds – it's all there woven together."<ref>{{cite web |last=Terry |first=Edward |title=Review: Feersum Endjinn |date=February 22, 2015 |website=edwardterry.co.uk |url=https://www.edwardterry.co.uk/feersum-endjinn/ |access-date=January 11, 2024}}</ref> The Fantasy Literature website awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars and complimented its melding of genres: the "baroque and playful" novel "spends much time flitting in and out of the virtual Crytosphere, which might have given it a [[cyberpunk]] flavor, but since the imagery and events in the Crypt often resemble a fantasy quest, the book feels much more like a far-future [[science fantasy]] along the lines of [[Gene Wolfe]]'s ''[[The Book of the New Sun]]'' and [[Jack Vance]]'s ''[[Dying Earth]]'' novels."<ref>{{cite web |last=Starosta |first=Stuart |title=Feersum Endjinn: An Eclectic Far-Future Science Fantasy |date=April 19, 2016 |publisher=Fantasy Literature |url=https://fantasyliterature.com/reviews/feersum-endjinn/ |access-date=January 11, 2024}}</ref>