# Iain (M) Banks has terminal cancer



## treefrog (Apr 3, 2013)

Announced today on his website:




> The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it’s extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.




Gutted aye. I remember The Wasp Factory being the first novel that shook me to my core


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## Pickman's model (Apr 3, 2013)

sorry to hear this.


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## Crispy (Apr 3, 2013)

Bummer


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## cesare (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh


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## Fuchs66 (Apr 3, 2013)

Shit, Wasp Factory is one of my all time favourites.


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## butchersapron (Apr 3, 2013)

Terrible news


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## DotCommunist (Apr 3, 2013)

shit news


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## Blagsta (Apr 3, 2013)




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## BoxRoom (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh no


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## Idris2002 (Apr 3, 2013)

Not good news to hear, no.


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## prunus (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh no   This is truly sad news.  One of my favourite authors.  The idea of no more Culture novels makes me feel a little sick


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## TruXta (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh jeez.


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## sleaterkinney (Apr 3, 2013)

Damn.


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## tommers (Apr 3, 2013)

Fuck.  How horrible.  Probably my favourite author.  He's only young, isn't he?


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## cemertyone (Apr 3, 2013)

prunus said:


> Oh no  This is truly sad news. One of my favourite authors. The idea of no more Culture novels makes me feel a little sick


 
yeah me two....when i was really down in the dumps i used to head off to the park
with one of the culture novels and forget about me troubles and be taken to another
place..


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## ericjarvis (Apr 3, 2013)

Amongst the nicest people I have ever met. A smashing bloke to share a pint or two with, as well as being the author of several of my all time favourite books.

<insert litany of obscenities here>


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## prunus (Apr 3, 2013)

Why is his website down now?  (all 404)


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## QueenOfGoths (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh no, that is such sad news


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## redsquirrel (Apr 3, 2013)

Fuck, that's dreadful.


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## Crispy (Apr 3, 2013)

prunus said:


> Why is his website down now? (all 404)


Overloaded by visitors I suspect


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## cemertyone (Apr 3, 2013)

ericjarvis said:


> Amongst the nicest people I have ever met. A smashing bloke to share a pint or two with, as well as being the author of several of my all time favourite books.
> 
> <insert litany of obscenities here>


 
Tell me ericjarvis... how you got to know him?...im a busy body with things like that/


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## treefrog (Apr 3, 2013)

He's 59, a little smidge older than my dad 

Too fucking young, aye.


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## ebonics (Apr 3, 2013)

Fuck... really gutted to learn this. One of my very favorite authors.


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## Virtual Blue (Apr 3, 2013)

Great writer...'unlikely to live another year.'

Yes, too damn young.


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## Old Gergl (Apr 3, 2013)

ericjarvis said:


> <insert litany of obscenities here>


 
Shitty-cunting-buggery-bollocks-_fuck _


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## ericjarvis (Apr 3, 2013)

cemertyone said:


> Tell me ericjarvis... how you got to know him?...im a busy body with things like that/


 
I was a guest at an SF convention back when I was working on the stage version of Halo Jones. Geoff Ryman was given the job of showing me around as I'd never been to a con before. He basically handed me off to Neil Gaiman. Within an hour I was in a bar getting psychoenlarged in the company of Neil, Iain Banks, Mary Gentle, Lisa Tuttle and Storm Constantine. The following day I had lunch with John Brunner, followed by a satisfying minor spat with Harry Harrison on a panel discussion. Finishing with a game of sardines organised by the teenage daughters of a couple of book dealers, that Banksy and I played by hiding for a minute then heading straight for the bar.


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## ericjarvis (Apr 3, 2013)

Old Gergl said:


> Shitty-cunting-buggery-bollocks-_fuck _


 
Close, but I'm sure somebody can do better.


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## ringo (Apr 3, 2013)

Sad news


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## TruXta (Apr 3, 2013)

ericjarvis said:


> I was a guest at an SF convention back when I was working on the stage version of Halo Jones. Geoff Ryman was given the job of showing me around as I'd never been to a con before. He basically handed me off to Neil Gaiman. Within an hour I was in a bar getting psychoenlarged in the company of Neil, Iain Banks, Mary Gentle, Lisa Tuttle and Storm Constantine. The following day I had lunch with John Brunner, followed by a satisfying minor spat with Harry Harrison on a panel discussion. Finishing with a game of sardines organised by the teenage daughters of a couple of book dealers, that Banksy and I played by hiding for a minute then heading straight for the bar.


Bastard


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## Old Gergl (Apr 3, 2013)

ericjarvis said:


> Close, but I'm sure somebody can do better.


Me too, but try saying it out loud quickly.

eta: and loudly. That's what I did when I saw the OP.


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## likesfish (Apr 3, 2013)

Well that sucks


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## pogofish (Apr 3, 2013)

ericjarvis said:


> Amongst the nicest people I have ever met. A smashing bloke to share a pint or two with, as well as being the author of several of my all time favourite books.
> 
> <insert litany of obscenities here>


 
Seconded!

Very sad to see this.


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## machine cat (Apr 3, 2013)

Just seen this 

How horrible.


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## butchersapron (Apr 3, 2013)

The full personal statement has been moved to here due to traffic crashing Mr banks site.


> As a result, I've withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry - but we find ghoulish humour helps).


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## el-ahrairah (Apr 3, 2013)

that's really sad.  he's one of my favourite authors and seems like a genuinely good bloke.


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## butchersapron (Apr 3, 2013)

He signed the Peoples Assembly statement last month in a letter to the guardian.


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## frogwoman (Apr 3, 2013)

oh no!


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## Steel Icarus (Apr 3, 2013)

I've just re-read his first 3 novels. On occasion a quite brilliant writer, and seemingly an all-round good egg.


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## BoatieBird (Apr 3, 2013)

Sad news 
One of my favourite authors, and I'm sure he had many more great books in him


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## xenon (Apr 3, 2013)

Heard this about half hour ago. As above. Read most of his stuff. Has always seemed a top bloke in interviews and at the book launch I went to. He's only in his 50's too AFAIK


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## butchersapron (Apr 3, 2013)

1996, Wired:




> The author's shirt says a lot. Unlike most of the chestware gracing the annual British science fiction convention, it looks quite at home in the plush surroundings of the Radisson Edwardian hotel's poshest bar - which is surprisingly posh. It is by any standards a nice shirt: rich cotton, well tailored, expensive. And it is monogrammed. The initials are not a plain "IB" for Iain Banks, the mainstream novelist whose short, sharp, shock of a debut, The Wasp Factory, has led to more than a decade of success and critical acclaim. Nor are they a more flowery "IMB" for Iain M. Banks, the name under which he publishes his opulent, galaxy-spanning science fiction.
> 
> Instead, the letters on Banks's pocket are "FTT". I ask him who he stole the shirt from, and he laughs with perhaps a touch of embarrassment. "It stands for 'Fuck the Tories'.


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## Belushi (Apr 3, 2013)

Sad news.


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## machine cat (Apr 3, 2013)

Didn't he once write a letter to Blair threatening to drive through the gates of Downing St?


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## maomao (Apr 3, 2013)

Was just wondering how many more culture novels we could get out of him the other day. Gutted (for him, not just my lack of readable SF).


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## debaser (Apr 3, 2013)

got me into sci-fi proper he did


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## danny la rouge (Apr 3, 2013)

treefrog said:
			
		

> Announced today on his website


Sorry to hear this. He always seemed a genuine guy.


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## D'wards (Apr 3, 2013)

Very sad, like James Herbert its a true loss because they were both still very much active and publishing new novels.


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## trabuquera (Apr 3, 2013)

NOOOOOOOOOooooo... this is awful awful news. And at the historical moment when we most NEED gimlet-eyed, sharp, left, intelligent, satirical, forward-thinking writers who are also real human beings (and hate Tories with fiery passion). I'm gutted about this (and most "celebrity arts figure XXX has died/ is dying" stories really don't move me much - death comes to us all etc etc etc). So fucking unfair.

I could go on and on and on but it would just be an incoherent obscenity-splattered rant. Perhaps a blue dot is more appropriate.


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## Threshers_Flail (Apr 3, 2013)

Very sad news.


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## Roadkill (Apr 3, 2013)

I love a lot of Banks's novels, and he's a good bloke too.  Very sorry to hear this.


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## Gingerman (Apr 3, 2013)

Buggering bastard,another one of the good guys


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## Cloo (Apr 3, 2013)

Shitty news, really gutted to hear this. Just hope he and his loved ones don't  have to endure too much


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## Ceej (Apr 3, 2013)

This is such sad news.  We shall not see his like again.


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## Idris2002 (Apr 3, 2013)

butchersapron said:


> 1996, Wired:


 
That shirt has a charming cameo role in _The Crow Road, _where the three initials are translated as "Enjoy Sexual Congress With the Conservative and Unionist Party".


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## SpookyFrank (Apr 3, 2013)

Fuck


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## no-no (Apr 3, 2013)

gutted


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## EastEnder (Apr 3, 2013)




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## 8den (Apr 3, 2013)

I met him at least once at a Sci Fi con, and he was a absolute gent.


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## RedDragon (Apr 3, 2013)

Sad news.

I liked Raw Spirt


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## camouflage (Apr 3, 2013)

ffs.


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## Fozzie Bear (Apr 3, 2013)

Turns out he was at the huge anti-NF protest in Lewisham in 1977:
http://transpont.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/iain-banks-and-battle-of-lewisham.html

Respect - loved Wasp Factory et al also...


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## marty21 (Apr 3, 2013)

that's awful news - only read a couple of his - Wasp Factory and another couple that I can't remember the titles of - haven't read any of the sci fi stuff.


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## machine cat (Apr 3, 2013)

marty21 said:


> that's awful news - only read a couple of his - Wasp Factory and another couple that I can't remember the titles of - haven't read any of the sci fi stuff.



You really should


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## marty21 (Apr 3, 2013)

machine cat said:


> You really should


 I will - any suggestions where to start - ?


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## oryx (Apr 3, 2013)

Fozzie Bear said:


> Turns out he was at the huge anti-NF protest in Lewisham in 1977:
> http://transpont.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/iain-banks-and-battle-of-lewisham.html


 
Good link.

Such sad news. My favourite of his is _The Crow Road._ Somehow you can tell from reading his books that he'd be good company.


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## TruXta (Apr 3, 2013)

marty21 said:


> I will - any suggestions where to start - ?


They're not really linked so it doesn't matter which one you read first. Consider Phlebas is very good, as is Excession.


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## tendril (Apr 3, 2013)

prunus said:


> Why is his website down now? (all 404)


seems ok now (his website, not him )

http://www.iain-banks.net/category/from-the-author/


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## tendril (Apr 3, 2013)

Douglas Adams, Gone
Terry Pratchett, _just_ with us
Iain Banks, likely to go


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## TheHoodedClaw (Apr 3, 2013)

TruXta said:


> They're not really linked so it doesn't matter which one you read first. Consider Phlebas is very good, as is Excession.


 
I'd read Surface Detail after Use of Weapons, and Look to Windward after Consider Phlebas, but after that it doesn't matter too much. Player of Games is probably the best intro, I think.


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## DotCommunist (Apr 3, 2013)

The State of The Art would be my choice of intro.


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## Crispy (Apr 3, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> The State of The Art would be my choice of intro.


no no no. You have to get used to what the Culture is and what Contact do before you read SotA. It makes the punchline so much better.


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## machine cat (Apr 3, 2013)

marty21 said:


> I will - any suggestions where to start - ?


Player of Games or Use of Weapons would be my choice of intro. Exession and Inversions need some background imo. The non-culture books are good too. My personal favourite being Feersum Endjin.


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## cyberfairy (Apr 3, 2013)

Met him once and he made a joke about my name that only I only 'got' several hours later
Brilliant writer. What a shame.


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## Cloo (Apr 3, 2013)

He also has the distiction of being one of the few male writers who actually writes women as proper people.


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## Mr Smin (Apr 3, 2013)

Really enjoyed his books over the years. mostly the Culture ones but I read some of his non sci fi too. very sad news.


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## Fedayn (Apr 3, 2013)

I'm not a sci-fan but met him years ago when he did a few things for the SSP. He was a lovely fella.


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## Yossarian (Apr 3, 2013)

Very sad news. 

He went off the boil many years ago and wrote some terrible books - "The Business"  - but I thought he would be with us for many years more and come out with a masterpiece.


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## DotCommunist (Apr 3, 2013)

Hydrogen Sonata while not a return to the glory days is certainly the best Culture novel in a while. The Business was good as well, I read it twice. Mind you I liked Espedair Street and no one else seems to.


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## May Kasahara (Apr 3, 2013)

Shitty news  A horrible fate for a good man.


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## purenarcotic (Apr 3, 2013)

So sad.


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## 19sixtysix (Apr 3, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> Hydrogen Sonata while not a return to the glory days is certainly the best Culture novel in a while. The Business was good as well, I read it twice. Mind you I liked Espedair Street and no one else seems to.


 
No, I liked Espidair St. My pal lives round the corner from it.
Very Sad news indeed :-(


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## SpookyFrank (Apr 3, 2013)

There have been a few of his books I didn't particularly like, Walking on Glass in particular, but I've yet to pick one up and not finish it. He's always compelling and he takes his stories to places nobody else would.

I could easily carry on rambling about how great he is for quite a while, but for now let's just say I'm gutted for him and his family.


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## TheHoodedClaw (Apr 3, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> Mind you I liked Espedair Street and no one else seems to.


 
I like Espedair Street. I like the way it goes from adolescent fantasy about being in a band with hot posh chicks, and ends up with a (idealised, obviously) renewed middle-aged love. I suspect it was something he wrote quite young and polished up later for publishing.


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## kittyP (Apr 3, 2013)

Oh no. Far too young. Very sad news


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## kittyP (Apr 3, 2013)

oryx said:


> Good link.
> 
> Such sad news. My favourite of his is _The Crow Road._ Somehow you can tell from reading his books that he'd be good company.


 
Oh yes that is the other one than the Wasp Factory I have read.
It was made in to a pretty good TV programme (from what I can remember) in the 90's.


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## 19sixtysix (Apr 3, 2013)

Crow Road still one of the best first lines ever "It was the day my grandmother exploded"


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## machine cat (Apr 3, 2013)

People don't seem to have much time for Song of Stone, but I find it utterly haunting. Probably my favourite non 'M' book.


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## kittyP (Apr 3, 2013)

machine cat said:


> People don't seem to have much time for Song of Stone, but I find it utterly haunting. Probably my favourite non 'M' book.


 
I had not for heard of it. Looks like I would really enjoy it. Will have to seek it out. 

I am really not a Sci Fi fan books wise, in general anyway, so never read any of his 'M' stuff.


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## machine cat (Apr 3, 2013)

kittyP said:


> I had not for heard of it. Looks like I would really enjoy it. Will have to seek it out.
> 
> 
> I am really not a Sci Fi fan books wise, in general anyway, so never read any of his 'M' stuff.



I really liked the prose in ASOS. Will have to have a reread.

I was never really a fan of sci-fi fiction either until I picked up a copy of Banks. Now 70% of what I read is sci-fi.


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## clicker (Apr 3, 2013)

really sad to read the news 



SpookyFrank said:


> There have been a few of his books I didn't particularly like, Walking on Glass in particular, but I've yet to pick one up and not finish it. He's always compelling and he takes his stories to places nobody else would.


 
Walking on glass was maybe my favourite, loved the way the different strands ran along seperate but linked...but then the Wasp Factory and  Espedair St lobby for top spot too, never read his sci fi. Looking at the Business unread on the book shelf at the moment....is it a good read?


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## Maurice Picarda (Apr 3, 2013)

clicker said:


> Looking at the Business unread on the book shelf at the moment....is it a good read?


 
No. He always comes unstuck when he tries to write about commerce. _The Business_ is the most egregious example but _Garbadale_ is pretty bad when it veers away from incest and focuses on the board game industry.

This isn't speaking ill of the dead yet, is it? Is there still time to complain about _Dead Air_?


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## EastEnder (Apr 3, 2013)

He's had his literary ups & downs, imho. Even a few of the usually excellent culture series have been a big disappointment. But more than any other author I've known of, when he's bad he's disappointing, but when he's good he's utterly _awesome._ Like many people, I've intermittently harboured the dream of being an author, but people like Banks have simultaneously inspired & dissuaded me from ever trying - I just know I could never be that good.


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## starfish (Apr 3, 2013)

Sad news to hear. Ive read a few of his books but have often regretted not reading The Wasp Factory when my sister got me it back in the mid 80s. Im sure i would have read more if i had.


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## xenon (Apr 3, 2013)

marty21 said:


> I will - any suggestions where to start - ?



I'd read them in order of publication. So start with Consider Phlebas. They're not linked but they are roughly in cronological order in the Culture Universe.

Mind you I started with Inversions with out realising it was part of that story. I think, Use of Weapons is possibly my favourite SF one. Complicity or Wasp Factory of the non SF.


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## Frances Lengel (Apr 3, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> Hydrogen Sonata while not a return to the glory days is certainly the best Culture novel in a while. The Business was good as well, I read it twice. Mind you I liked Espedair Street and no one else seems to.


 
I liked Espedair Street - I never got that into his Iain M Banks stuff - A bit _too_ sci fi for me. I liked Feersum Endjinn though, the assassin and his familiar were mint.

A shame anyway, in any interview I've read he's never come across as anything other than a decent guy.

E2a - What was the one with Stephen Grout in it, and that couple in a castle and the blokes called Quiss? Was it called The Castle? I liked that one anyway.


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## SpookyFrank (Apr 3, 2013)

Of his more recent books, Transition is great fun. He takes a fundamentally daft idea and plays it totally straight, always staying within the boundaries of his own universe, something most writers would struggle to do.


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## SpookyFrank (Apr 3, 2013)

Frances Lengel said:


> E2a - What was the one with Stephen Grout in it, and that couple in a castle and the blokes called Quiss? Was it called The Castle? I liked that one anyway.


 
Walking on Glass I think.


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## Frances Lengel (Apr 3, 2013)

SpookyFrank said:


> Walking on Glass I think.


 
That's the one - Cheers, mate.


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## EastEnder (Apr 3, 2013)

marty21 said:


> I will - any suggestions where to start - ?


For sci-fi, I would recommend The Algebraist. It's not part of the Culture series, so doesn't really need to be read in any kind of sequence (not that the Culture novels really do, but once you get started in a sequence of books set in the same universe, spanning a defined chronology, it's more entertaining to follow them in order). It's a superb book, it's standalone, & captures the essence of Banks sci-fi style. It's not as dark as some of his work, but still replete with Banks' characteristic attention to scientific detail combined with a guilty pleasure streak of the macabre.


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## oryx (Apr 3, 2013)

kittyP said:


> Oh yes that is the other one than the Wasp Factory I have read.
> It was made in to a pretty good TV programme (from what I can remember) in the 90's.


 
Yes it was good - very 90s, complete with Underworld soundtrack IIRC!


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## TruXta (Apr 3, 2013)

SpookyFrank said:


> Of his more recent books, Transition is great fun. He takes a fundamentally daft idea and plays it totally straight, always staying within the boundaries of his own universe, something most writers would struggle to do.


Yeah, it was good fun that, didn't always make sense but felt like Banks doing a Bond or Bourne. ROLLICKING.


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## jakethesnake (Apr 3, 2013)

This is sad. A fucking good guy - it shines through in his writing. I enjoyed all the books i've read (but i havn't read them all) - i gained a greater appreciation of his stuff after living in Scotland for a couple of years - he is a very _Scottish _writer iykwim.


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## Badgers (Apr 3, 2013)

Sad  

I loved his marriage proposal though. Good to see a great man retaining his sense of humour in the face of adversity


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## junglevip (Apr 3, 2013)

Sad news, got into his stuff via a Will Self review with Mark Riley on Radio 1.  Sad news


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## Gramsci (Apr 4, 2013)

marty21 said:


> that's awful news - only read a couple of his - Wasp Factory and another couple that I can't remember the titles of - haven't read any of the sci fi stuff.


 
 He has written some great sci fi novels and saw himself as sci fi writer first:



> "MacLeod said Banks thought of himself as principally a science fiction writer who happened to have published a literary novel first. "He wrote several of the Culture novels in first drafts before The Wasp Factory and he got many rejections. He was almost embarrassed when he wrote a mainstream novel in The Wasp Factory and wondered if his friends would think he was selling out."


 
from here

Consider Phlebas was the first of his I read.

I find it funny that  in literary circles his "proper" writing is reviewed but his sci fi was not really given recognition outside of sci fi . But then sci fi is not taken seriously in the literary world.

I always liked his Culture novels. He was one of the best sci fi writers around imo. I think at least some of his culture novels will last. 

No more Culture novels.

He will be missed.


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## Gramsci (Apr 4, 2013)

EastEnder said:


> For sci-fi, I would recommend The Algebraist. It's not part of the Culture series, so doesn't really need to be read in any kind of sequence (not that the Culture novels really do, but once you get started in a sequence of books set in the same universe, spanning a defined chronology, it's more entertaining to follow them in order). It's a superb book, it's standalone, & captures the essence of Banks sci-fi style. It's not as dark as some of his work, but still replete with Banks' characteristic attention to scientific detail combined with a guilty pleasure streak of the macabre.


 
I think its a good novel to start reading his sci fi.


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## Old Gergl (Apr 4, 2013)

marty21 said:
			
		

> I will - any suggestions where to start - ?


 
Hmm...



Old Gergl said:


> I got a few people into the Culture with Look to Windward when I was rereading it a couple of years back (Bluestreak, Dairy, meems; zora didn't really take to it but it was never going to be her thing tbf).


 
Best Iain M Banks to start off with (2010 thread)

Look to Windward


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## ymu (Apr 4, 2013)

machine cat said:


> People don't seem to have much time for Song of Stone, but I find it utterly haunting. Probably my favourite non 'M' book.


The only one I struggled to read. He has an extraordinary range. I love Canal Dreams, and Whit. Complicity too.

I have his sci-fi still to look forward to, and no memory for plots so I can happily reread him and remember why I loved the book the first time.

Such a loss. Thank fuck he was so prolific.


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## Idris2002 (Apr 4, 2013)

What do you lot think of Banks' _The Bridge_? I'd say it has a good claim to being the best of his books, and interestingly enough it merges the "mainstream lit" with sci-fi tropes. . .


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## mentalchik (Apr 4, 2013)

one of my all time favs sci-fi


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## DotCommunist (Apr 4, 2013)

Idris2002 said:


> What do you lot think of Banks' _The Bridge_? I'd say it has a good claim to being the best of his books, and interestingly enough it merges the "mainstream lit" with sci-fi tropes. . .


 

I really enjoyed it as an extended nightmare, it really did manage that dream feeling.

Am I misremembering or is there a passage in that in scots vernacular which includes a knife missile?


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## Idris2002 (Apr 4, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> I really enjoyed it as an extended nightmare, it really did manage that dream feeling.
> 
> Am I misremembering or is there a passage in that in scots vernacular which includes a knife missile?


 
Well the barbarian bits are in scots, and I suppose the "familiar" that sits on the barbarian warrior's shoulder is a bit knife missile-esque. . .


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## Fruitloop (Apr 4, 2013)

Yeah there is a crazy culture tinge to the fantasy-esque scenes. Proper mental some of that...


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## Stigmata (Apr 4, 2013)

My dad (who actually died of something very similar to this a couple of years ago) had all of the Iain M Banks and some of the Iain Banks novels, which to my shame i've never read (with the exception of The Algebraist). I suppose i'm obliged to remedy that now.


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## SpookyFrank (Apr 4, 2013)

Idris2002 said:


> What do you lot think of Banks' _The Bridge_? I'd say it has a good claim to being the best of his books, and interestingly enough it merges the "mainstream lit" with sci-fi tropes. . .


 
That was the first one of his I read IIRC, it fair blew my mind as I recall.


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## DexterTCN (Apr 4, 2013)

*Ian Rankin* ‏@*Beathhigh*7m​E-mail from Iain Banks this morning. Enjoying life to the max with partner Adele in Italy, and aware of everyone's good wishes and support.


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## SpookyFrank (Apr 4, 2013)

Italy, good choice. That's probably where I'd fuck off to for my last few months as well.


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## Crispy (Apr 4, 2013)

I also trust him to "enjoy life to the max" in all possible ways


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## camouflage (Apr 4, 2013)

Idris2002 said:


> What do you lot think of Banks' _The Bridge_? I'd say it has a good claim to being the best of his books, and interestingly enough it merges the "mainstream lit" with sci-fi tropes. . .



 My favourite of the iain banks books, visually I made it look a bit like the film Brazil.


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## Libertad (Apr 4, 2013)

Bardic shittery


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## teqniq (Apr 4, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> He has written some great sci fi novels and saw himself as sci fi writer first:
> 
> Consider Phlebas was the first of his I read.
> 
> ...


 
This, essentially. I too first read consider Phlebas, he will be missed indeed.


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## Kuso (Apr 5, 2013)

sad, think I'll take special care of my signed copy of one of the culture novels, consider phlebas I think it is, or xcession


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## Kuso (Apr 5, 2013)

I always found his non-M stuff a bit more hit and miss, but loved the wasp factory, the bridge, complicity and whit

even his sci-fi that wasn't as good as usual I still loved- absolutely adore the whole Culture universe


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## Spanky Longhorn (Apr 5, 2013)

Kuso said:


> even his sci-fi that wasn't as good as usual I still loved- absolutely adore the whole Culture universe


 
Me too, even like Matter...

I've only read the Steep Climb and The Bridge of his other work and really enjoyed both, I should try a few more.


----------



## Kuso (Apr 5, 2013)

Spanky Longhorn said:


> Me too, even like Matter...
> 
> I've only read the Steep Climb and The Bridge of his other work and really enjoyed both, I should try a few more.


 
I'm actually re-reading Matter at the minute, they all just seem to grow on me


----------



## TruXta (Apr 5, 2013)

Picked up Excession last night, third time I read it.


----------



## EastEnder (Apr 5, 2013)

TruXta said:


> Picked up Excession last night, third time I read it.


OCP FTW.


----------



## TruXta (Apr 5, 2013)




----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 6, 2013)

Just bought The Wasp Factory last week, coincidentally.


----------



## fogbat (Apr 6, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> I really enjoyed it as an extended nightmare, it really did manage that dream feeling.
> 
> Am I misremembering or is there a passage in that in scots vernacular which includes a knife missile?


You are not. There's a magic knife that speaks in broken riddles. The familiar later refers to it as a knife missile and wonders what it was doing there.


----------



## fogbat (Apr 6, 2013)

butchersapron said:


> 1996, Wired:


I read an interview with him which mentioned FTT. Post-97 he said he'd considered changing it to TDF -Tories Duly Fucked.  Bit optimistic, in retrospect.


----------



## cemertyone (Apr 8, 2013)

ericjarvis said:


> I was a guest at an SF convention back when I was working on the stage version of Halo Jones. Geoff Ryman was given the job of showing me around as I'd never been to a con before. He basically handed me off to Neil Gaiman. Within an hour I was in a bar getting psychoenlarged in the company of Neil, Iain Banks, Mary Gentle, Lisa Tuttle and Storm Constantine. The following day I had lunch with John Brunner, followed by a satisfying minor spat with Harry Harrison on a panel discussion. Finishing with a game of sardines organised by the teenage daughters of a couple of book dealers, that Banksy and I played by hiding for a minute then heading straight for the bar.


 
Its little moments like (above) that you treasure for ever....im well jealous...i guess the moto is that ..
No one every went to there death bed thinking...you know what.."Jesus christ i wished i`d spent more time in the office""..so tomorrow peeps just phone in sick and take the day off...
Perhaps we should have an "im taking the day of to read a Bansky novel day"....and turn it into an internet meltdown...
Photos of every one on park benches..on the tube..at the beach..having sex..with a Banks book in hand...
Bet you he would laugh his tits off at that....
A National " im with Banks" day before he passes away....


----------



## prunus (Apr 8, 2013)

I'm soooooooooooo glad Thatcher died in time for Iain Banks to see her go


----------



## cemertyone (Apr 9, 2013)

prunus said:


> I'm soooooooooooo glad Thatcher died in time for Iain Banks to see her go


 Me to..and il bet ya if he`s in Bali or some where with his wife...he will see the humour of him out lasting that old cunt....


----------



## DotCommunist (Apr 9, 2013)

prunus said:


> I'm soooooooooooo glad Thatcher died in time for Iain Banks to see her go


 

small mercies


----------



## tommers (Jun 9, 2013)

BBC reporting that he's died.


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

tommers said:


> BBC reporting that he's died.


 
Yep, many sources saying so. Thanks Iain.


----------



## marty21 (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP ​


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 9, 2013)

ah thats shit. So long and thanks for the stories.


----------



## Spanky Longhorn (Jun 9, 2013)

Cheers Iain


----------



## Balbi (Jun 9, 2013)

I'm going to curl up on the sofa with Excession


----------



## maya (Jun 9, 2013)

tommers said:


> BBC reporting that he's died.


Breaking news at the Guardian aswell.  ...R.I.P.


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

Iain banks helped make my life better. He was still funding those people who got farage the other week. It's massively presumptuous to say anything beyond that..


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 9, 2013)

Balbi said:


> I'm going to curl up on the sofa with Excession


 

theres a very 'non M' short story about islam and lockerbie in the collection ' The State of the Art'

Think I'll revisit that tonight. Given recent things it seems.....fitting.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Jun 9, 2013)

The Bridge tonight, then. RIP.


----------



## sleaterkinney (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP


----------



## Voley (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP Iain. Some cracking books. Wasp Factory, Complicity and The Crow Road were my favourites.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 9, 2013)

worth recalling his wicked sense of humour. In Espedair Street he has a dog with its own beer-budget that gets pissed and has a curry then rides out who knows where.
The man was perhaps the finest sci fi author of the last 20 years. I never did love his mainstream stuff that much but when he had a new Culture novel out I would be hounding a copy.
Part of a handful of modern sci fi authors who I would consider to be truly innovative. It's trite to give it 'we shall not see his like again' but he was damned unique in a field which is dominated by hard science types and swashbucklers


----------



## protesticals (Jun 9, 2013)

This is really terrible news  .


----------



## TruXta (Jun 9, 2013)

Oh crap. RIP Iain, you were a fine author and gentleman to the last.


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> worth recalling his wicked sense of humour. In Espedair Street he has a dog with its own beer-budget that gets pissed and has a curry then rides out who knows where.
> The man was perhaps the finest sci fi author of the last 20 years. I never did love his mainstream stuff that much but when he had a new Culture novel out I would be hounding a copy.
> Part of a handful of modern sci fi authors who I would consider to be truly innovative. It's trite to give it 'we shall not see his like again' but he was damned unique in a field which is dominated by hard science types and swashbucklers


 
More stuff like this please


----------



## EastEnder (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP


----------



## Fedayn (Jun 9, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> worth recalling his wicked sense of humour. In Espedair Street he has a dog with its own beer-budget that gets pissed and has a curry then rides out who knows where.
> The man was perhaps the finest sci fi author of the last 20 years. I never did love his mainstream stuff that much but when he had a new Culture novel out I would be hounding a copy.
> Part of a handful of modern sci fi authors who I would consider to be truly innovative. It's trite to give it 'we shall not see his like again' but he was damned unique in a field which is dominated by hard science types and swashbucklers


 

A mate of mine is name checked in Espedair Street, he's the dj in it.


----------



## Fedayn (Jun 9, 2013)

butchersapron said:


> Iain banks helped make my life better. He was still funding those people who got farage the other week. It's massively presumptuous to say anything beyond that..


 

He gave a fair wedge of cash to the SSP in its early days.


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

Fedayn said:


> He gave a fair wedge of cash to the SSP in its early days.


 
Totally one of ours.


----------



## 19sixtysix (Jun 9, 2013)

Bugger! Thanks Iain!

Think I'll take Espidair St on holiday next week.


----------



## Fedayn (Jun 9, 2013)

butchersapron said:


> Totally one of ours.


 

very much so.


----------



## oryx (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP, reading The Crow Road and The Wasp Factory made my life a little bit richer......


----------



## kittyP (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP


----------



## kittyP (Jun 9, 2013)

Might have to dig out The Crow Road again.


----------



## oryx (Jun 9, 2013)

kittyP said:


> Might have to dig out The Crow Road again.


 
Same here - going on holiday quite soon so might get it on the Kindle. Excellent book.


----------



## xenon (Jun 9, 2013)

I probably said this earlier in thread. Only seen him once IRL, talking about the Hydrogen Sinata. Heard interviews with him before of course but nice to say he came across as a thurroughly decent and funny guy IRL. 

RIP Ian.


----------



## danny la rouge (Jun 9, 2013)

Sad news. He was a good bloke.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 9, 2013)

cheap to say it but at least he saw _her_ buried first


I can recall the first Culture novel I read, Consider Phlebas. When describing a Mind he took you through a skyscraper filled with filing cabinet, on a planet where every inch of ground is covered by skyscrapers full of information laden skyscrapers. Then imagine ten planets filled so. And you are still nowhere near understanding how much a Culture Mind held in its memory.

I've described the Culture universe to people before, the drug-glands, the gender swapping, the optional lifespan and so on. Not many people can portray a utopia without failing to make it real. He made that world sing. An anarcho-paradise where we conquered...everything. No more threats. His works struggled with the concept of intervention- in one of his novels a particular rogue Mind had taken to destroying the dreams of those who committed genocide and got away with it. But he made it clear that this was a shunned being whose vengeance on behalf of others was a personal obsession. Not to be accepted as Culture-wide policy.

State of the Art is still one of my favourite stories from him. This solve-all-do-all Culture came to have an intense look* and decided there is hope for us yet and despite our atrocities we may well one day come to harmony. So it would be wrong to force it with a full Special Circumstances led intervention.

it's available in a half decent radio play available on your normal torrent sites




* the Mind involved spends time collecting fucking snowflakes, and never gives the lead character a reasonable explanation as to why it won't come in.

gnight iain.


----------



## xenon (Jun 9, 2013)

Credit to a friend who tweets. GSV Fuck You Cancer.


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

Comrade banks: _presente_.


----------



## discokermit (Jun 9, 2013)

rip. i loved some of his stuff.


----------



## mentalchik (Jun 9, 2013)




----------



## frogwoman (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 9, 2013)

i suppose i will have to read ''the wasp factory" now

rip


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

Pickman's model said:


> i suppose i will have to read ''the wasp factory" now
> 
> rip


 
You should. It's a great angry book.


----------



## frogwoman (Jun 9, 2013)

I loved the wasp factory.


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

frogwoman said:


> I loved the wasp factory.


 
He was really young when he wrote that.  I still find it an astonishing read.


----------



## RedDragon (Jun 9, 2013)




----------



## teqniq (Jun 9, 2013)

Definitely one of the best Scifi authors of recent times, a great shame that he's gone. 

RIP


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 9, 2013)

frogwoman said:


> I loved the wasp factory.


 


always thought it'd be ripe ground for a compare/contrast essay with Catcher in the Rye

never did get round to it...


----------



## Gingerman (Jun 9, 2013)

RIP to one of the good guys


----------



## Balbi (Jun 9, 2013)

Let's all agree now that if Kevin J. Anderson ever goes near the Culture, we call S.C and Knife Missile the fucker


----------



## BoatieBird (Jun 9, 2013)

Sad news  RIP.

I'm going to read Complicity now


----------



## TheHoodedClaw (Jun 9, 2013)

Balbi said:


> Let's all agree now that if Kevin J. Anderson ever goes near the Culture, we call S.C and Knife Missile the fucker


 
Nah, an extended period of _Meatfucker_ invading his dreams.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Jun 9, 2013)

butchersapron said:


> You should. It's a great angry book.


 
It's not angry at all. Dead Air, Complicity, Garbadale - there's lots of the peevish chippiness in there that your kind would recognise as anger. The Wasp Factory is playful black comedy, nothing more.


----------



## butchersapron (Jun 9, 2013)

Silas Loom said:


> It's not angry at all. Dead Air, Complicity, Garbadale - there's lots of the peevish chippiness in there that your kind would recognise as anger. The Wasp Factory is playful black comedy, nothing more.


The family as safe house, destroyed.


----------



## maomao (Jun 9, 2013)

Bollocks. I'm 80% through Against a Dark Background which was my last one of his SF novels. Had it on the go since the news about the cancer and didn't want to finish it because I was sure I'd finish it before he died IYSWIM.


----------



## Crispy (Jun 9, 2013)

It's really really gutting. There's no scifi like his. What dotty said.


----------



## thedockerslad (Jun 9, 2013)

I wasn't a big fan of his style of writing but I do appreciate his contribution to scifi.


----------



## Wilf (Jun 9, 2013)

I often went years without reading any of his books, but still must have racked up about 10 of them.  Lots of them were top drawer and even the weaker ones tried out new ideas.  Last one I read was Transition which I really liked, even if the critics weren't keen. Really hoped he'd do a sequel.   More importantly though, he kept his principles and seemed to have both an easy grace and a political anger. One of the good guys indeed. RIP.


----------



## Crispy (Jun 9, 2013)

> "The author's shirt says a lot. Unlike most of the chestware gracing the annual British science fiction convention, it looks quite at home in the plush surroundings of the Radisson Edwardian hotel's poshest bar - which is surprisingly posh. It is by any standards a nice shirt: rich cotton, well tailored, expensive. And it is monogrammed. The initials are not a plain "IB" for Iain Banks, the mainstream novelist whose short, sharp, shock of a debut, The Wasp Factory, has led to more than a decade of success and critical acclaim. Nor are they a more flowery "IMB" for Iain M. Banks, the name under which he publishes his opulent, galaxy-spanning science fiction.
> 
> Instead, the letters on Banks's pocket are "FTT". I ask him who he stole the shirt from, and he laughs with perhaps a touch of embarrassment. "It stands for 'Fuck the Tories'. I used to have t-shirts made that said the same thing, but now....".


worth posting again. one of the good guys/


----------



## machine cat (Jun 9, 2013)

Thank you Iain.


----------



## Libertad (Jun 9, 2013)

Cheers Iain.


----------



## redsquirrel (Jun 10, 2013)

RIP Iain, good author and good politics.


----------



## gabi (Jun 10, 2013)

Tried to read one of his books (the wasp factory) once but didnt get into it. A lot of my friends really respect him though and from what i know of him he was a very cool dude. RIP.


----------



## Johnny Vodka (Jun 12, 2013)

If no-one's mentioned it, last interview on BBC2 tonight 9pm - at least in Scotland.


----------



## BoatieBird (Jun 12, 2013)

Johnny Vodka said:


> If no-one's mentioned it, last interview on BBC2 tonight 9pm - at least in Scotland.


 
Looks like it's just Scotland 
Maybe it'll be available on iPlayer?


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 12, 2013)

it will be, you'll just have to look on bbc alba tab


----------



## machine cat (Jun 12, 2013)

Left a tribute in Waterstone's earlier today:


----------



## Johnny Vodka (Jun 12, 2013)

What a lovely interview! Top bloke and much respect for the way he faced his imminent death. Raised him a wee whisky (or 5  ) .


----------



## sleaterkinney (Jun 12, 2013)

Reading Surface Detail now.


----------



## machine cat (Jun 12, 2013)

Johnny Vodka said:


> What a lovely interview! Top bloke and much respect for the way he faced his imminent death. Raised him a wee whisky (or 5  ) .


 
I enjoyed it too.

Tears appeared when he mentioned another Culture novel and "well someone will have to finish it for me"


----------



## TheHoodedClaw (Jun 12, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> it will be, you'll just have to look on bbc alba tab


 
It was on BBC Two (Scotland). This page will have have it when it appears on iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02xf70k


----------



## Johnny Vodka (Jun 12, 2013)

machine cat said:


> I enjoyed it too.
> 
> Tears appeared when he mentioned another Culture novel and "well someone will have to finish it for me"


 
At least someone else 'enjoyed' it.  Posted on Facebook 'Can't believe none of my (Scottish) FB friends care about this!!! Not going to give anyone a lambasting, but such an important Scottish writer and no likes?? This interview should be shown to kids studying 'English' at school, college and uni, even if the language is 'fruity'.  If not, there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with the education system oop north!'

Haven't read anything by him in ages - I'm a crap reader these days -, but plan to read or re-read some more of his stuff soon.  I have a lot of family history over in the Dunfermline area. Parents come from there, though mother's parents from england.


----------



## TheHoodedClaw (Jun 12, 2013)

Johnny Vodka said:


> At least someone else 'enjoyed' it. Posted on Facebook 'Can't believe none of my (Scottish) FB friends care about this!!! Not going to give anyone a lambasting, but such an important Scottish writer and no likes?? This interview should be shown to kids studying 'English' at school, college and uni, even if the language is 'fruity'.  If not, there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with the education system oop north!'


 
If it helps, many of my Scottish FB friends have been posting about it. We are all old enough to have read The Wasp Factory at a suitably impressionable age though  It was a bit of a "thing" when it came out for my peer-group.


----------



## machine cat (Jun 12, 2013)

Johnny Vodka said:


> At least someone else 'enjoyed' it. Posted on Facebook 'Can't believe none of my (Scottish) FB friends care about this!!! Not going to give anyone a lambasting, but such an important Scottish writer and no likes?? This interview should be shown to kids studying 'English' at school, college and uni, even if the language is 'fruity'.  If not, there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with the education system oop north!'
> 
> Haven't read anything by him in ages - I'm a crap reader these days -, but plan to read or re-read some more of his stuff soon. I have a lot of family history over in the Dunfermline area. Parents come from there, though mother's parents from england.


 

It was a very unique and moving interview for those who loved his work and those in the future who will come to love his work.

I remember a former family member reading The Wasp Factory at school and I read it as part of my degree 10 years ago so he is certainly not ignored academically!


----------



## Fedayn (Jun 12, 2013)

I'm no a massive Sci-fi or Banks fan but I watched it because of his public comments and the fact he was one of the few writers, currently, who seemed to be so utterly on 'our side'. I'm glad I did it was a rather great bit of television..... Literature, politics and our class are that little bit less well off for his passing...


----------



## Johnny Vodka (Jun 12, 2013)

Fedayn said:


> I'm no a massive Sci-fi or Banks fan but I watched it because of his public comments and the fact he was one of the few writers, currently, who seemed to be so utterly on 'our side'. I'm glad I did it was a rather great bit of television..... Literature, politics and our class are that little bit less well off for his passing...


 
Yes, really amazed that that was him 3 weeks before he died.  I would love to have his courage and humour when the time comes.


----------



## Balbi (Jun 15, 2013)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/15/iain-banks-the-final-interview

Good interview


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Jun 15, 2013)

In WHSmiths, today: assistant is putting the finishing touches to a ziggurat of Ian Rankin books. Her colleague hurries over. "No, that's not the one who passed away, it's the other one".


----------



## mentalchik (Jun 16, 2013)

Balbi said:


> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/15/iain-banks-the-final-interview
> 
> Good interview


 
Yup...*sniff*


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 16, 2013)

Silas Loom said:


> In WHSmiths, today: assistant is putting the finishing touches to a ziggurat of Ian Rankin books. Her colleague hurries over. "No, that's not the one who passed away, it's the other one".


 

Rebus is the worlds dullest detective


----------



## treefrog (Jun 16, 2013)

Balbi said:


> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/15/iain-banks-the-final-interview
> 
> Good interview


 
Read that on a dark and stormy night here at the end of the world, listening to Mogwai. Got something in my eye when I read this bit:



> The catchment of these cultured lives / Was not in flesh, / And what we only knew, / You felt, / With all the marrow of your twisted cells


 
And then again at the end.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Jun 16, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> Rebus is the worlds dullest detective



Apart from real ones, of course.


----------



## Superdupastupor (Jun 16, 2013)

my ma my step-pa and I  said some words last time i was round . not many authors you could say that about.


----------



## teqniq (Jun 16, 2013)




----------



## SpookyFrank (Jun 16, 2013)

Balbi said:


> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/15/iain-banks-the-final-interview
> 
> Good interview


 
Somehow inspiring but also very very sad, as it shows just how wise and witty a man the world has since lost.

I love the cosmic ray though, even in a very personal interview he still manages to swing your mind's eye out into the universe and contrast the infinite with the infinitesimal. That mix of imaginative grandeur, attention to detail and simple humanity is not something we'll soon see again


----------



## Bernie Gunther (Jun 16, 2013)

> "I think there will be a political rebalancing and we'll stop swinging round to the right. In the unlikely event that I'm around for the referendum on Scottish independence I'm definitely voting 'yes'. I was saying last year that if we don't get it in 2014 we'll get it in my lifetime and now it turns out my lifetime might not extend as far as the first referendum and that just seems wrong – a Scotland still shackled to a rightwing England, especially with the rise of the bizarrely named Ukip (I think they'll find their acronym should be EIP actually) – I won't be sorry to be missing that.
> 
> I won't miss waiting for the next financial disaster because we haven't dealt with the underlying causes of the last one. Nor will I be disappointed not to experience the results of the proto-fascism that's rearing its grisly head right now. It's the utter idiocy, the sheer wrong-headedness of the response that beggars belief. I mean, your society's broken, so who should we blame? Should we blame the rich, powerful people who caused it? No let's blame the people with no power and no money and these immigrants who don't even have the vote, yeah it must be their fucking fault. So I might escape having to witness even greater catastrophe.


 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/15/iain-banks-the-final-interview


----------



## sleaterkinney (Jun 18, 2013)

There's an interview on BBC2 at 10.


----------



## TheHoodedClaw (Jun 18, 2013)

sleaterkinney said:


> There's an interview on BBC2 at 10.


 
That's edited down from the one-hour interview that BBC 2 Scotland had on last week. The longer version is still on iPlayer. Not so easy to find through channel selection mind you, but a search on "iain" finds it.


----------



## yield (Jun 18, 2013)

TheHoodedClaw said:


> That's edited down from the one-hour interview that BBC 2 Scotland had on last week. The longer version is still on iPlayer. Not so easy to find through channel selection mind you, but a search on "iain" finds it.





TheHoodedClaw said:


> It was on BBC Two (Scotland). This page will have have it when it appears on iPlayer:
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02xf70k


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b02xf70k/Iain_Banks_Raw_Spirit/
Available until 9:59PM Wed, 19 Jun 2013

A genuinely decent bloke. He did two signings at the shop in the nineties and patiently answered my fanboy questions. 

The chairmaker in Use of Weapons. I think I'll reread Excession next. RIP.


----------



## Idris2002 (Jun 27, 2013)




----------



## Balbi (Jun 27, 2013)

No way a drone would be that clunky


----------



## oryx (Jul 10, 2013)

The Crow Road is on BBC4 at 10.30pm tonight.

Looking forward to seeing it again - really enjoyed it the first time around and have just re-read the book.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 27, 2014)

I keep doing my bi-yearly 'oh must be a new Culture novel out soon, have a google' thought and then remembering that there won't be.


----------



## teqniq (Jun 27, 2014)




----------



## xenon (Jun 27, 2014)

I recently read the quarry. Given that one the main characters is dying of cancer. He wrote that before he was diagnosed. It might be linked to on this thread but there was a very good interview on front row with him about April last year. I saw him doing a book signing talk when the hydrogen Sonata was about to be released. He was saying then how he had so much more material for the culture series.  

You live on big guy riding GCU fuck you cancer. Trademark a poster on here I forget who sorry.


----------



## Whagwan (Feb 6, 2017)

I still really miss him.

30 years of Culture: what are the top five Iain M Banks novels?


----------



## weltweit (Feb 6, 2017)

Whagwan said:


> I still really miss him.
> 
> 30 years of Culture: what are the top five Iain M Banks novels?


Glad you posted that as it shows a few of his culture books I am yet to read.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 6, 2017)

agree with every pick except Hydrogen Sonata. Yes it was a return to form after some merely interesting offerings but it wasn't what I'd stick in top five. Replace it with Inversions imo


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 6, 2017)

he's missed a trick (the reviewr) that Banks showed you with 'look to windward'. Its good because the afterlife for the chelgrians is objectively real. Their sublimed portion answer back. How do you do away with a caste system when the gods still speak? Why did they fall silent to us and yet the chelgrians still know them?


----------



## sleaterkinney (Feb 6, 2017)

Look to Windward was shite imo, Surface Detail should be on that list instead.


----------



## Whagwan (Feb 6, 2017)

weltweit said:


> Glad you posted that as it shows a few of his culture books I am yet to read.



You lucky person.  After reading that list again I realised that I still haven't read Raw Spirit despite having read every M and non M fiction book several times over.  (I know a couple of people who have the Quarry but can't bring themselves to read it.)

I got as far as the end of the intro where he tells how he cut his passport in half at the start of the (2nd) gulf war and posted it to Downing Street and the tears came.


----------



## weltweit (Feb 6, 2017)

I have read Consider Phlebas, Inversions, Look To Windwards, Matter, Surface Detail, The State of the Art, Use Of Weapons, and The Player of Games.

Which by my reckoning leaves: The Algebraist, Excession, The Hydrogen Sonata and Feersum Endjinn. Which do you think I should read first?


----------



## Whagwan (Feb 6, 2017)

Excession.  Definitely one of the best but also the one I recommend to people least as you need a bit of a Culture background to follow the ships.  

It's amazing.


----------



## maomao (Feb 6, 2017)

I really really like the Algebraist. I read it twice and I never read books twice. But it's not set in the Culture.


----------



## TheHoodedClaw (Feb 6, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> How do you do away with a caste system when the gods still speak? Why did they fall silent to us and yet the chelgrians still know them?



There's hints that the Sublimed and the wider Culture do have some sort of contact, not just the Chelgrians. And there's the Dra'Azan who take a more direct interest in the normal universe.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 6, 2017)

maomao said:


> I really really like the Algebraist. I read it twice and I never read books twice. But it's not set in the Culture.


sort of is though, like feersum ednjinn- the world running in infinite funspace by a Mind?


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 6, 2017)

Whagwan said:


> Excession.  Definitely one of the best but also the one I recommend to people least as you need a bit of a Culture background to follow the ships.
> 
> It's amazing.


its the Mind suicide in that that really works imo. This super intelligence realised what it had done and killed itself out of shame. Hubris is a terrible thing


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## snadge (Feb 6, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> sort of is though, like feersum ednjinn- the world running in infinite funspace by a Mind?



feersum endjinn is my No1 followed by Excession.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Feb 6, 2017)

I've recently read Against A Dark Background having read all the culture books. It's was quite good, but my issue with Banks is that he doesn't really develop human characters I care about. In the culture that matters less as the rest of the universe holds it together, but yet in Against a Dark Background it shows more. 

I will work through his other non culture stuff, but it's put me off slightly. Is Feersum Endjinn better?


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## Whagwan (Feb 6, 2017)

I hold a special place for TSOTA, as I feel it goes well deep into Humanity.  The bit with the ship and Sma discussing the monument to the deportation...

Anyone who ever wants to borrow a single one of his books I have them all for permanently lending to spread the love.

The four signed first editions I've managed to get my hands on since his death will not leave me till my dying days(and will hopefully be joined with many more.)


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## snadge (Feb 6, 2017)

UnderAnOpenSky said:


> I've recently read Against A Dark Background having read all the culture books. It's was quite good, but my issue with Banks is that he doesn't really develop human characters I care about. In the culture that matters less as the rest of the universe holds it together, but yet in Against a Dark Background it shows more.
> 
> I will work through his other non culture stuff, but it's put me off slightly. Is Feersum Endjinn better?



It's not contact Banks and is very different from all his other scifi, a lot of the book is written phonetically.

As for character development, it does seem to have more.


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## maomao (Feb 7, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> sort of is though, like feersum ednjinn- the world running in infinite funspace by a Mind?


Is that actually stated in the book? You'd think I'd have noticed having read it twice. It is of course a deliberate juxtaposition to the Culture because two of the things that define the Culture books, FTL travel and superintelligent AIs aren't possible in the Algebraist's universe.



snadge said:


> a lot of the book is written phonetically.



It's in Eye dialect rather than 'written phonetically'. I found it gimmicky.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 7, 2017)

weltweit said:


> Which by my reckoning leaves: The Algebraist, Excession, The Hydrogen Sonata and Feersum Endjinn. Which do you think I should read first?


Just in case you weren't aware of it The Algebraist and Feersum Endjinn aren't Culture novels.


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## weltweit (Feb 7, 2017)

redsquirrel said:


> Just in case you weren't aware of it The Algebraist and Feersum Endjinn aren't Culture novels.


Oh, I wasn't aware, so thanks for that.


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## camouflage (Feb 7, 2017)

redsquirrel said:


> Just in case you weren't aware of it The Algebraist and Feersum Endjinn aren't Culture novels.



Um... I think the Algerbraist is actually.

If I'm wrong it means I probably should read it again.


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## Whagwan (Feb 7, 2017)

The Algebraeist is definitely not a Culture book, enjoy the re read...


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## The Octagon (Feb 7, 2017)

Against a Dark Background has the 'Lazy Gun', which alone makes it worth a read -



Spoiler



There had been eight Lazy Guns. A Lazy Gun was a little over half a meter in length, about thirty centimeters in width and twenty centimeters in height. Its front was made up of two stubby cylinders which protruded from the smooth, matte-silver main body. The cylinders ended in slightly bulged black-glass lenses. A couple of hand controls sitting on stalks, an eyesight curving up on an other extension, and a broad, adjustable metal strap all indicated that the weapons had been designed to be fired from the waist.

There were two controls, one on each hand grip; a zoom wheel and a trigger.

You looked through the sight, zoomed in until the target you had selected just filled your vision, then you pressed the trigger. The Lazy Gun did the rest instantaneously.

But you had no idea whatsoever exactly what was going to happen next.

If you had aimed at a person, a spear might suddenly materialize and pierce them through the chest, or some snake's spit fang might graze their neck, or a ship's anchor might appear falling above them, crushing them, or two enormous switch-electrodes would leap briefly into being on either side of the hapless target and vaporize him or her.

If you had aimed the gun at something larger, like a tank or a house, then it might implode, explode, collapse in a pile of dust, be struck by a section of a tidal wave or a lava flow, be turned inside out or just disappear entirely, with or without a bang.

Increasing scale seemed to rob a Lazy Gun of its eccentric poesy; turn it on a city or a mountain and it tended simply to drop an appropriately sized nuclear or thermonuclear fireball onto it. The only known exception had been when what was believed to have been a comet nucleus had destroyed a city-sized berg-barge on the water world of Trontsephori.

Rumor had it that some of the earlier Lazy Guns, at least, had shown what looked suspiciously like humor when they had been used; criminals saved from firing squads so that they could be the subjects of experiments had died under a hail of bullets, all hitting their hearts at the same time; an obsolete submarine had been straddled by depth charges; a mad king obsessed with metals had been smothered under a deluge of mercury.

The braver physicists--those who didn't try to deny the existence of Lazy Guns altogether--ventured that the weapons somehow accessed different dimensions; they monitored other continua and dipped into one to pluck out their chosen method of destruction and transfer it to this universe, where it carried out its destructive task then promptly disappeared, only its effects remaining. Or they created whatever they desired to create from the ground-state of quantum fluctuation that invested the fabric of space. Or they were time machines.

Any one of these possibilities was so mind-boggling in its implications and ramifications--provided that one could understand or ever harness the technology involved--that the fact a Lazy Gun was light but massy, and weighed exactly three times as much turned upside down as it did the right way up, was almost trivial by comparison.



The book would make for a relatively straightforward film too (compared to the more abstract and tricky Culture-based novels), the train heist in particular would translate well.


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## maomao (Feb 7, 2017)

Whagwan said:


> The Algebraeist is definitely not a Culture book, enjoy the re read...



As DotCommunist pointed out, the non-Culture books may well be set inside the minds' minds, so in an indirect way they are.


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## DotCommunist (Feb 7, 2017)

maomao said:


> As DotCommunist pointed out, the non-Culture books may well be set inside the minds' minds, so in an indirect way they are.


yeah I don't recall any of them being specifically said as being in infinite funspace but thats what I've always taken as given Can't remember where I read the idea tho!). Some of his non M even fits imo, the bridge certainly


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## maomao (Feb 7, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> yeah I don't recall any of them being specifically said as being in infinite funspace but thats what I've always taken as given. Some of his non M even fits imo, the bridge certainly


Well the main religion in The Algebraist is centred around the belief that the entire universe is a computer simulation so that's kind of a big clue.


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## DotCommunist (Feb 7, 2017)

maomao said:


> Well the main religion in The Algebraist is centred around the belief that the entire universe is a computer simulation so that's kind of a big clue.


people with lots of letters after their names and comfortable jobs out of the rain said they can't prove reality _isn't_ a simulation  its the kind of theory that makes you think maybe jesus just had the cheat codes


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## The Octagon (Feb 7, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> people with lots of letters after their names and comfortable jobs out of the rain said they can't prove reality _isn't_ a simulation  its the kind of theory that makes you think maybe jesus just had the cheat codes



Got done by that developer patch at the end tho.


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## Libertad (Feb 7, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> people with lots of letters after their names and comfortable jobs out of the rain said they can't prove reality _isn't_ a simulation  its the kind of theory that makes you think maybe jesus just had the cheat codes



I can't like this post enough. Poetic genius, again.


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## DotCommunist (Feb 7, 2017)

The Octagon said:


> Got done by that developer patch at the end tho.


Or did he? Rome 2.1 has kept the Jesus patch running for centuries, even when debilitated by a massive DDOS attack by protestanism, they still used the cruci-fix. Ascension wedneday is basically him pinging god for an update. In this parable Doubting Thomas is AVG software


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## Shippou-Sensei (Feb 7, 2017)

The Octagon said:


> Against a Dark Background has the 'Lazy Gun', which alone makes it worth a read -
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The lazy gun to me  always felt  like one night IMB  got really drunk while  reading HHGTTG and decided to find replace all his generic super weapon  entries  with  the new material.

It certainly  does  add a certain weight  to it all being  a simulated reality   being  run by a culture mind  with an odd sense of humour.  

The notice their game of  Civ is going downhill so turn on the cheat codes to liven things up a bit.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> Or did he? Rome 2.1 has kept the Jesus patch running for centuries, even when debilitated by a massive DDOS attack by protestanism, they still used the cruci-fix. Ascension wedneday is basically him pinging god for an update. In this parable Doubting Thomas is AVG software



If you don't already write, you should write.

(Not on here, like. Stories, and stuff.)


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## DotCommunist (Feb 8, 2017)

Vintage Paw said:


> If you don't already write, you should write.
> 
> (Not on here, like. Stories, and stuff.)


I do, but I am shy. Idea has been knocking around my head for ages- Eden pnt1 one, serpent glitch, viral cascade etc. 'Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters ...'
thats DOS isn't it. And when he used the command line interface to create light it was the first GUI


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## NoXion (Feb 8, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> I do, but I am shy. Idea has been knocking around my head for ages- Eden pnt1 one, serpent glitch, viral cascade etc. 'Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters ...'
> thats DOS isn't it. And when he used the command line interface to create light it was the first GUI



Do it. I've been worldbuilding my own crappy science fiction universe for years, mainly because I can do that sort of thing in dribs and drabs. Even if like me you can't even finish a proper short story, it's good to have a project to work on.


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## SpookyFrank (Feb 8, 2017)

maomao said:


> Well the main religion in The Algebraist is centred around the belief that the entire universe is a computer simulation so that's kind of a big clue.



I never picked up on this, even despite the fact that Banks deals with the 'simulation problem' explicitly in other books.


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