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Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks
One of my favorite authors died last weeks - Iain Banks.
I’ve read probably half of his books, both mainstream and science fiction. He loved life and politics -- some of his "Culture" novels tried to work out how a liberal society could believably function with real people in the real world; unfortunately, Mr. Banks felt the need to set these works in the far future. He loved the outdoors and Scotland: he talked me into hiking in the Cuillin Hills and the West Highland Way over a pint in a small pub in Edinburgh. I consider his books “Walking on Glass,” “The Player of Games,” and “The Use of Weapons,” three of the best books I have ever read.
Iain was the master of rabbit-out-of-the-hat plots - without ever making you feel cheated. I'd thought "Use of Weapons" a good book, with a few places where the author indulged his light-hearted cleverness a little too much - until I read the last few sentences, when it turned into a fantastic and very serious novel that I recommend to everyone.
There is nothing light about his non-SF, which tends to be dark and gritty and edge-of-the-seat good - I love both Iains. As one Scottish writer put it, "We just lost two of our best authors."
I am about four-fifths of the way through his second-to-last novel. His last novel, out 20th June and which he did not live to see in print even though the publisher tried to rush it out before he died, apparently is about a man dying of cancer and is said to have been started before he himself discovered he had terminal cancer. I will miss having him in this world.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/06/remembering-iain-banks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks
I’ve read probably half of his books, both mainstream and science fiction. He loved life and politics -- some of his "Culture" novels tried to work out how a liberal society could believably function with real people in the real world; unfortunately, Mr. Banks felt the need to set these works in the far future. He loved the outdoors and Scotland: he talked me into hiking in the Cuillin Hills and the West Highland Way over a pint in a small pub in Edinburgh. I consider his books “Walking on Glass,” “The Player of Games,” and “The Use of Weapons,” three of the best books I have ever read.
Iain was the master of rabbit-out-of-the-hat plots - without ever making you feel cheated. I'd thought "Use of Weapons" a good book, with a few places where the author indulged his light-hearted cleverness a little too much - until I read the last few sentences, when it turned into a fantastic and very serious novel that I recommend to everyone.
There is nothing light about his non-SF, which tends to be dark and gritty and edge-of-the-seat good - I love both Iains. As one Scottish writer put it, "We just lost two of our best authors."
I am about four-fifths of the way through his second-to-last novel. His last novel, out 20th June and which he did not live to see in print even though the publisher tried to rush it out before he died, apparently is about a man dying of cancer and is said to have been started before he himself discovered he had terminal cancer. I will miss having him in this world.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/06/remembering-iain-banks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks