Use of Weapons is by far Banks's best novel, but the competition is really tough this time.
I have to say I am finding myself less interested in these polls as time goes along, as it is very clear that a lot of great novels are losing out because they are not as well known. Which means two things:
A - The books that survive the rounds tend to be very famous, and I probably already have an opinion about them, so it's not that useful to me as a guide.
B - Among the books that have low scores that I have read, there are some I really love and others I can't stand. Therefore, I assume the same is true of the (many) books with low scores I haven't read. As a result, I can't use low scores as a guide for reading either.
So all that's left for me is the frustration of seeing the usual suspects (Orwell, Bradbury, Adams) beat out my favourites again and again. Not that the classic status of those authors isn't well earned, mind you - I have a huge amount of respect for most of the really big names on the list. But the thing about classics is that everyone already knows about them, and therefore the fact that they appear on lists is uninteresting.
Maybe, if I have time, and Ocicat's permission, I will try to run an ancilliary poll based on the books who get middle range scores in this poll. That might give rise to some interesting readings ideas...