Feersum Endjinn is a science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks; unlike most of his science fiction, it does not feature the Culture. One of the most notable characteristics of the book is that one part in four (and the title) is written in the voice of a character who spells phonetically (eg "I 1/2 2" for "I have to"). Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... Iain Menzies Banks (born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. ... This article is about the fictional universe. ...

The book is set on a far future Earth where the uploading of mindstates into a world-spanning computer network (known as "the Crypt") is commonplace, allowing the dead to be easily reincarnated (though by custom, only a limited number of reincarnations are allowed). Humanity has lost much of its technological background, due partly to an exodus by much of the species, which left behind only those unwilling to leave Earth, and partly to the fact that those who remained (or at least their rulers) are fighting against the more advanced technology, like Artificial Intelligence. Meanwhile, the Solar System is drifting into an interstellar molecular cloud ("the Encroachment"), which will eventually dim the Sun's light sufficiently to end life on Earth. However, the Ancients have left behind a device (the "Fearsome Engine" of the title) to deal with the problem; the book follows four characters who become involved in the attempt to activate it, with the narrative moving between the four (who do not meet until very near the end) in a strict rotation. In Transhumanism and science fiction, mind transfer (also referred to as mind uploading or mind downloading, depending on ones perspective) refers to the hypothetical transfer of a human mind either into a computer or other non-human receptacle, or from one human body to another. ... A computer network is a system for communication among two or more computers. ... Reincarnation, also called transmigration of souls, is the rebirth in another body (after physical death), of some critical part of a persons personality or spirit. ... Artificial intelligence (also known as machine intelligence and often abbreviated as AI) is intelligence exhibited by any manufactured (i. ... Mosaic of Solar System planets except Pluto, including Earths Moon (not to scale). ... A Molecular cloud is a type of interstellar clouds whose density and size permits the formation of molecular hydrogen, H2. ...