Espedair StreetThe Crow RoadThe Wasp FactoryThe Bridge
Destroy:
Dead AirComplicityCanal Dreams
― mzui (mzui), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 15:35 (eighteen years ago) link
The Bridge, is something I've lived... (let alone the fact that one of the characters in it is called "Steven Grout"!)
Complicity is fine, mr xposter... Canal Dreams is a book.
― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 15:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― dmun drive-in (dmun), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 16:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― David Merryweather Goes To Far (scarlet), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― David Merryweather Goes To Far (scarlet), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 16:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 16:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― jellybean (jellybean), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link
My favourite non-M books are Crow Road, Espedair Street and Whit, which seems to be a non-typical selection given what other people have said in this thread. The Bridge is fairly good, too. I couldn't get into Song Of Stone. The Business sounded like a promising idea, but turned out to be a bit rubbish in the end.
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 17:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 17:58 (eighteen years ago) link
'Dead Air' may as well have been written by Tony Parsons.
'The Business' is a nothing of a book, leaves you wondering why you bothered.
'Complicity', 'The Wasp Factory', 'Espedair Street' and (in particular) 'The Bridge' are all essential reads.
Of the Sci-Fi stuff I'd recommend, well, all of it that I've read. 'Feersum Endjinn' is a bit of an acquired taste I suppose. 'Consider Phlebas' and 'Player of Games' are both excellent and most of the others aren't far behind.
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 18:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 18:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 18:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― everything, Wednesday, 20 July 2005 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Laurel, Wednesday, 20 July 2005 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― everything, Wednesday, 20 July 2005 18:56 (eighteen years ago) link
M:Start with 'Player of Games', then 'Consider Phlebas', then 'Look to Windward'. 'Feersum Enjinn' is absolutely extrodinary, but takes patience. Ah, fuck it, they're all good.
Non M:Walking on Glass, The Bridge, Song of Stone.The Wasp Factory, Complicity and The Crow Road are all overrated.
― chap who would dare to thwart the revolution (chap), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 22:05 (eighteen years ago) link
I'd love to get into his SF stuff. Consider Phelbas has sat, half-completed, in my bookcase since 1991. I think it might finally be time to have another crack at it.
Yeah, The Bridge is very good. I didn't mention that before.
― David Merryweather Goes To Far (scarlet), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 22:15 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm in the minority who liked Dead Air, but anyone around that time who bagged the shit out of Bush automatically got my vote.
― Hotman Paris Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 22:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 21 July 2005 07:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 21 July 2005 07:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 21 July 2005 07:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 21 July 2005 07:29 (eighteen years ago) link
Espedair Street, The Crow Road, Walking On Glass (if this is the one with the three different stories that kind of connect in a semi-sci-fi way at the end) are pretty good.
The Wasp Factory is overrated, but has a good twist at the end.
Whit was a load of shite.
I haven't read any of the sci-fi ones. I started to read another one about a woman who belonged to a secret one world government (or something) but it was utterly crap - just loads of descriptions of fast cars, and helicopters and stuff. Sometimes he comes across as an ugly, geeky, middle-aged man, with a car obsession, who keeps trying to be down with the kids and getting it painfully wrong.
― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:24 (eighteen years ago) link
I hate that opening line. It's so "Woo! Ha ha crazy first line you've got to read on!"
I don't think Iain Banks is very good.
― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:31 (eighteen years ago) link
"Then Papa deflated and we had to patch him up using a bicycle inner tube repair kit. As if that wasn't enough, Uncle Rampak melted and Aunt Widdle drowned in the resulting puddle."
I like your latest photos, Alba. I have no other way of communicating this fact at the moment, being emailless.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:38 (eighteen years ago) link
This is very true, but he gets away with it because he's funny and usually original.
Forgot to mention: Culture Ship Names! 'Fate Amenable To Change', 'Attitude Adjuster', 'Size Isn't Everything', 'Prosthetic Conscience', 'I Blame Your Mother', 'Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence', etc.
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:42 (eighteen years ago) link
I've never tried his scifi stuff which may be better.
― frankiemachine, Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Yup. The Business
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 21 July 2005 08:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― David A. (Davant), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link
Is it really as bad as stated upthread?
― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:28 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm surprised I didn't write more on this thread first time round. Whit was the first one I read, and I liked it, even though it feels like an easy read without that much content. I loved The Bridge and Espedair Street, but couldn't get into Song Of Stone (despite it being the one where the BDSM leanings I'm sure he has are most visible). The Business is rubbish, but enjoyable nevertheless - when I read the synopsis I thought that a very good book could have been made from it, but The Business isn't it.
As for the sci-fi, the first one I read was Player Of Games, and - as someone who isn't a big sci-fi reader - I thought it was very good indeed. To be honest I can't remember which of the sci-fi books I have and haven't read - Feersum Endjinn, definitely, and the one with the giant flying whale creatures (Use Of Weapons?). Apart from Player Of Games, their names seem to blend into one.
it started a bit like a Belle and Sebastian song in prose
Pointless trivia moment: when Radio 4 adapted Espedair Street, back around 1997-8, the vocalist they used for Frozen Gold's songs was Monica Queen, B&S's guest vocalist on Lazy Line Painter Jane.
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link
> I think he's only publishes The Algebraist (sci-fi) since Dead Air, which is typically full of great crazy ideas, but a little leaden in pace.
have just read the algebraist (and have just restarted ...Dark Background, signed and dated copy, watford 1995). after 4 or so years of thinking that alastair reynolds writes a bit like iain m banks i now think that iain m banks writes a bit like alastair reynolds (AR is big on the acceleration / deceleration required for space travel, huge space travel epics, a lot like the algebraist)
(there's also been a small book on whisky since dead air, but that's it, i think. that, dead air and the business are the only things i haven't read)
first line of wasp factory is about checking the sacrifice poles.
― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― treefell (treefell), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 15:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 15:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 15:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 15:43 (seventeen years ago) link
felt the same about the algebraist tbh.
― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link
dug out my copy of The Bridge and as well as the usual receipt (Tewkesbury Bookshop 13-09-89 £4.99) it contained a postcard of the Forth Bridge and the train tickets my one trip to scotland. haven't read it since 1997, which i must remedy. the SF books get re-read at the rate of about one or two a year, every year.
― koogs, Sunday, 9 June 2013 18:23 (eleven years ago) link
Aw man, he had no time left at all. RIP. And fuck cancer.
― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Sunday, 9 June 2013 18:41 (eleven years ago) link
How sad, and fuck cancer in the teeth.
― on the sidelines dishing out sass (suzy), Sunday, 9 June 2013 18:44 (eleven years ago) link
this looks good - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02xf70k
Iain Banks is one of Scotland's most popular and critically acclaimed novelists. In April 2013, he revealed he has terminal cancer, and is unlikely to live beyond a year. In this exclusive television interview, he talks in depth to Kirsty Wark about his career, life and facing up to death.
(Wednesday 21:00 for an hour)
bbc scotland only... (although iplayer too i guess)
― koogs, Sunday, 9 June 2013 19:19 (eleven years ago) link
RIP :(
― susuwatari teenage riot (a passing spacecadet), Sunday, 9 June 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
RIP
― go cray cray on my lobster soufflé (snoball), Sunday, 9 June 2013 19:52 (eleven years ago) link
fuck
― the Quim of Bendigo (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 9 June 2013 22:50 (eleven years ago) link
probably not the place for this, but i am over seeing tyrannical pieces of shit live well into their 80s/90s and by-all-accounts good people lose their lives so very early
― the Quim of Bendigo (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 9 June 2013 22:54 (eleven years ago) link
Only ever read 'The Crow Road', but what a book it is. Can still recall how I visualised passages of it now, a few years later. I have another of his books waiting to be read ('Aspedaire St'? I'm not by the bookcase just now), struggle to find a reason why I haven't already read it and more other than laziness. I did worry after 'The Crow Road' that I wouldn't like any of his other books as much.
Anyway, it's sad to hear of his passing.
― michaellambert, Sunday, 9 June 2013 23:20 (eleven years ago) link
Read a lot of his stuff during standard grades/highers/csys and loved them, especially The Crow Road and Complicity. He seemed like a really nice, down to earth fella too. RIP.
― sktsh, Sunday, 9 June 2013 23:30 (eleven years ago) link
Was wandering up by the actual real Espedair Street on Friday afternoon and wondered how he was getting on :-(
― ailsa, Monday, 10 June 2013 00:23 (eleven years ago) link
fuck cancer
one of the greatest sf authors of all time
― sean gramophone, Monday, 10 June 2013 00:57 (eleven years ago) link
As somebody said yesterday, all of his books are different ..
Easily my favorite author, and I still have some of his to catch up with.
My new favorite is Transition, previously it was, ooh, probably each time I read a new one..
― Mark G, Monday, 10 June 2013 06:48 (eleven years ago) link
Fuck. RIP banks, RIP the culture.
― nagl dude dude dude (ledge), Monday, 10 June 2013 10:32 (eleven years ago) link
RIP. Loved his stuff as a teen.
― emil.y, Monday, 10 June 2013 11:44 (eleven years ago) link
I hope some other talented SF writers get permission from his estate to write more Culture books, it's a concept that would lend itself very well to a shared universe. Maybe Ken McLeod could give it a bash.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Monday, 10 June 2013 12:05 (eleven years ago) link
One of the constant comforts during my entire adult life has been the knowledge that there was always a new Iain/Iain M. Banks novel underway. RIP. And fuck cancer.
― Vast Halo, Monday, 10 June 2013 16:48 (eleven years ago) link
that scottish bbc2 thing isn't showing up on iplayer. surely it has appeal this side of hadrian's wall.
― koogs, Thursday, 13 June 2013 10:03 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b02xf70k/Iain_Banks_Raw_Spirit/
― no man is an islam (onimo), Thursday, 13 June 2013 10:36 (eleven years ago) link
wasn't there this morning. honest.
ordered the last two M books the other day and they've already arrived. both weighty hardbacks, £18 for the pair.
― koogs, Thursday, 13 June 2013 11:06 (eleven years ago) link
Watched this today, sad to say that the sections from The Quarry sound tiresome and ranty, imo. The ascension of this style is when I got off the bus (Dead Air iirc)
― MaresNest, Thursday, 13 June 2013 12:24 (eleven years ago) link
I read Stonemouth over a weekend last month, and that was breezy fun where you just basically hang out with this character as he reconnects with old friends and gets into scrapes. It's lightweight but it's an enjoyable read.I need to read more M. novels.
― hewing to the status quo with great zealotry (DavidM), Thursday, 13 June 2013 12:48 (eleven years ago) link
M>>>>non-M imo.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Thursday, 13 June 2013 12:50 (eleven years ago) link
Have non-M. novels traditionally outsold M. novels?
― hewing to the status quo with great zealotry (DavidM), Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:27 (eleven years ago) link
yes, he quoted 5 to 1 ratio in a recent post (which it's now, of course, impossible to find)
― koogs, Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:00 (eleven years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_(novel)
On the cusp of "M", some countries had it, some did not.
My favourite one of recent vint.
― Mark G, Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
not impossible
http://friends.banksophilia.com/28-2/
20 May 2013..."I think I’ll only comment on any of the posts if there’s something factually wrong mentioned in them, and so far the only point I can remember is one where an ex-neighbour of ours recalled (in an otherwise entirely kind and welcome comment) me telling him, years ago, that my SF novels effectively subsidised the mainstream works. I think he’s just misremembered, as this has never been the case. Until the last few years or so, when the SF novels started to achieve something approaching parity in sales, the mainstream always out-sold the SF – on average, if my memory isn’t letting me down, by a ratio of about three or four to one. I think a lot of people have assumed that the SF was the trashy but high-selling stuff I had to churn out in order to keep a roof over my head while I wrote the important, serious, non-genre literary novels. Never been the case"...
― koogs, Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
A last interview.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 17 June 2013 04:44 (eleven years ago) link
there's a review show special which appears to be culled from the bbc2 scotland interview but which is only half an hour long.
watched said bbc2 scotland thing and the heart-breaking thing is that he looks fine, a bit whiter than i remember him, beard and hair-wise, but otherwise fine. he also plays some of his music. he makes it for his own amusement and if anyone else likes it then it's a bonus (which, in this case, is fortunate)
― koogs, Monday, 17 June 2013 08:19 (eleven years ago) link
http://minorplanetcenter.net/blog/sci-fi-author-iain-m-banks-gets-asteroid-named-after-him/
close, but no cigar. should've had the m in the name imo.
― koogs, Saturday, 6 July 2013 09:09 (ten years ago) link
also
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074t1q
Crow Road repeats on BBC4 start wednesday.
― koogs, Saturday, 6 July 2013 15:09 (ten years ago) link
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2333693
!!!
― DJI, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 20:33 (six years ago) link
Dennis Kelly could be a good fit for this. Fingers crossed.
― groovypanda, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 21:43 (six years ago) link
much Banks talk lately on the yearly polls. watch this bump die a death...
Feersum Endjinn, i have re-read ever, but i remember being impressed at the level of detail he squeezed into the 'dialect' this race of things lisps, this one thing additionally has a cold and you can hear the difference. fun, but hard work at times.
― koogs, Wednesday, 21 July 2021 17:56 (two years ago) link
I guess now I should check my read/unread list against the recommendations here...
― Mark G, Wednesday, 21 July 2021 18:23 (two years ago) link
Are the final two Culture novels worth reading? I found Matter a bit of a slog.
― chap, Thursday, 22 July 2021 10:37 (two years ago) link
I gave up after Inversions, but The Algebraist is worth a try for a non-Culture SF novel. Shame he never followed up with more books in the same universe.
― a cad, a bounder, a rotter, a really bad sort (Matt #2), Thursday, 22 July 2021 11:07 (two years ago) link
I gave up after Inversions
Just before Look to Windward, which is cracking.
― chap, Thursday, 22 July 2021 11:28 (two years ago) link
I have a grudge against Look to Windward for betraying the ideals of the culture. Only read Matter once I think but I recall it as a cracking read, it's high on my list for a reread.
― At Easter I had a fall. I don't know whether to laugh or cry (ledge), Thursday, 22 July 2021 11:47 (two years ago) link
Hydrogen sonata is, remarkably for a culture novel, a snooze fest.
― At Easter I had a fall. I don't know whether to laugh or cry (ledge), Thursday, 22 July 2021 13:07 (two years ago) link
Crow Road documentary and repeat of the series starts tonight on bbc4
― koogs, Wednesday, 14 December 2022 15:47 (one year ago) link