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back to article Scottish SF master Iain M Banks reveals he has less than a year to live

One of Britain's most popular fiction and science fiction authors Iain Banks, or Iain M Banks for lovers of his science fiction, has revealed that he has cancer and is unlikely to live longer than a year. "The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several …

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    1. Anonymous Dutch Coward
      Reply Icon

      Cure for cancer

      Well, some whacko just posted that "cure". Sigh.

      Iain, hope you enjoy however many months come with your wife and loved ones.

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      1. DF118
        Reply Icon
        Pint

        Re: Cure for cancer

        Yeah, seems he/she was typing at the same time as me.

        On a related note, I see that - despite no doubt being well off enough to afford almost any level of private healthcare he desires - Mr Banks has stuck with NHS Scotland and has praised everyone involved. It's all well and good being a principled socialist type who also happens to have made a good living for himself, but I'd guess there are few in that category who wouldn't give in to the temptation to throw all their wealth at an attempt to buy more time in this life.

        And anyway - who wants to go out leaving their loved ones nothing but a cloud of garlicky fart gas?!

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  2. jai

    thoroughly depressed by this news. have loved his sci-fi books ever since i first read one as a young teenager. truely one of the greatest sci-fi writers ever in my opinion. and while i find his fiction books a bit hit and miss, they are always worth reading regardless.

    very sorry that there will be no more Culture novels. i shall be re-reading them all in tribute to the great man.

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  3. Vulch
    Coat

    "We Find Ghoulish Humour Helps"

    Sounds like it should be the name of an ROU.

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    1. Monty Burns
      Reply Icon

      Re: "We Find Ghoulish Humour Helps"

      lol - so true! Sounds to me like you could take up the "Culture" series and continue ;)

      Mr Banks, I'm sure you google yourself and I'm sure you are roughly 1 trillion hits at the moment but, please enjoy the rest of your time. My mum is terminally ill and I get a limited incite to where you are. Do EVERYTHING you thought "yeah we must do that sometime....", get that bucket list going.

      And thank you, for all the books, for all the hours reading them and re-reading them.... and re-reading them again! (Just finished Consider Phelbas for a 3rd time!)

      I've just started "The Hydrogen Sonata" and so far, it's your usual exceptional talent. Thank you.

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  4. Fred M

    A late convert to the M

    I'd read a few of his fiction books but only got into the Culture series as a result of the "best SF films never made" on here. Thoroughly enjoying them.

    It's inspiring to see someone deal with such a tough situation so well. Another example was Steve Evans from Wolverhampton on BBC News this morning.

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  5. Frankee Llonnygog

    An example to us all

    Live well, doing what you love. Accept the end without complaint. Stay true to your beliefs (and lack of them).

    I'm just reading Surface Detail which is all about questions of mortality and afterlife (which, of course, will not exist until we construct it).

    A great mind who, sadly, has lived to early to be uploaded to a Mind.

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  6. Cthonus

    Not only is he an accomplished writer but - speaking as an ex-bookseller - he also has that rare ability to woo a crowd. Too many modern authors are talented on the page but lack the charisma to carry off a reading with aplomb. Mr Banks was always a joy to listen to.

    Long may he be read.

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  7. Winkypop Silver badge
    Unhappy

    A Master

    See title.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There really is no justice in the world. Why couldn't it be Jeffrey Archer?

    1 1
  9. ganymede io device

    crossing The Bridge, imbibing Raw Spirit

    As Gurgeh observes in The Player of Games

    "the future remains malleable, and retains the possibility of change."

    Whether that includes licensing the rights and rules to a games publisher remains to be seen.

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  10. sandman

    He'll be missed

    A great writer - possibly even more so when he uses the M. Apart from the fiction his non-fiction book, Raw Spirit, a trip round all the Scottish malt whisky distilleries, is great fun. Think I'll just go and read Excession for the nth time.

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    1. Spoonsinger
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      Re: Think I'll just go and read Excession for the nth time.

      Or you can get it from Audible, (released last month), and have someone read it to you in bed. Equally good either way.

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  11. Ol'Peculier
    Unhappy

    What is it with the good guys?

    Douglas Adams died too young, and now this. At least Pterry is still writing.

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    1. Conrad Longmore
      Reply Icon

      Re: What is it with the good guys?

      Philip K. Dick springs to mind too, another writer who could take you to places and concepts that you could not have imagined, also taken from us too early. Perhaps they will meet up wherever SF authors go after they are finished here.

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      1. Shannon Jacobs
        Reply Icon
        Holmes

        Re: What is it with the good guys?

        Philip K Dick was good, original, and often thought-provoking, but I think he was pushing it with drugs and his results were never in the same league with Mr Banks. The other post compared Mr Banks to Douglas Adams, and I think that was quite unfair. Again, the books were in a much lower league, and Mr Adams had pretty much faded out long before he passed away. Yes, it was sad and he did die at an unusually young age, and in many ways he was an admirable person and so forth, but I just can't feel the same sense of loss.

        Right now the only one that comes close for me on the grief scale would be Isaac Asimov... Then again, I should probably be discounted because I might put Rex Stout as #3, though a rather distant #3....

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  12. sniperpaddy
    Mushroom

    Cremation ?

    If ghoulish is Iain's theme, then he should get a pacemaker installed.

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  13. Killing Time
    Alien

    A sad day indeed

    Sad, sad news of my favourite author.

    The Culture series are books I return to time and again and will continue to do so till the end of my days.

    My personal homage to Iain is and will remain my 'Handle', a character he created with which I identify completely.

    May his passing be peaceful and to the Sublime.

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  14. Santa from Exeter
    Unhappy

    Bummer!

    Dammit, just had to break a cardinal rule and gland some 'Up' at work to get over this down.

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  15. Solly
    Alien

    When/If the aliens turn up...

    They will be reading his culture series for helpful pointers and advice.

    Though I've never met you, good luck old friend.

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  16. Alex C
    Unhappy

    Very sad news - a great author and a thoroughly decent chap by all accounts.

    May his passing be as painless as possible.

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  17. BioPeek
    Unhappy

    B*gger!

    Am amazing writer and a very funy guy in real life. Once had the pleasure of a couple of hours in his company. Mr Banks has a savant, earthy mode of expression, which makes my own seem quite sponge-like in comparison lol. His writings reflect his tangental thoughts, his punkish sense of fun and the ability to hold contradictory opinions peacefully. Here's hoping that this year isn't his last.

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  18. hamcheeseandonion
    Pint

    Pure Bad Big Boat Man

    You can't name ships better than this man, no Jack Palance, and the joy he gives (nae past tense here mind) with his universe/Mind/Culture books is Pure Bad Big Magic Man...example:

    description of a war droid avatar at his formal debriefing - "...a gorgeously tattooed limping albino dwarf, with a speech impediment and double incontinence.."

    I nearly wet meself when I read that, no bigger compliment in my book.

    All Hail Banks!

    (HEY!!..Aw youse Paisley Buddies fae Figgie Park?....get a grip ya wee nyaffs, because THIS is how a life is lived by the way.)

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  19. DJO Silver badge

    Just not fair

    Eveytime I start liking an author, they drop dead or get a terminal illness or something - Douglas Adams, Harry Harrison, Terry Pratchett and now Iain (M) Banks.

    Does anybody have any suggestion as to who I should like next, perhaps someone who deserves it this time like the jerk who wrote Twilight.

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  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Iain Banks is not yet doomed

    I'm very sorry to hear about Iain Banks' plight, being a great admirer of his writing.

    Iain Banks can expect relatively little from conventional "cut, poison, burn" techniques used without significant success for many decades.

    However, there are serious, respectable clinics in Germany which provide real hope and have good track records reaching back decades.

    You can find many of them just by googling "Greman Cancer Clinics"

    To hear a recent, very balanced view from a real German oncologist (who doesn't even push his own clinic!), just look at this with an open mind - it's the best exposé I've ever seen of these alternative treatments :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKIm-NlOPJI

    (CANCER is curable NOW /Q&A with Dr. Henning Saupe from the Arcadia Clinic in Kassel Germany)

    It's relatively affordable for those with a bit of extra money. Maybe 15,000 EUR for a two-week therapy session, in Iain Bank's case probably needing a nuber of repetitions.

    A further example: if you're diagnosed with initial prostate cancer, the hyperthermia treatments discussed in this video offer a genuine, no-side-effect cure without all the male tragedy of invasive conventional techniques and a lot of these clinics in Germany offer it.

    I just really, really wish someone would tell Iain Banks about this video.

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  21. Andus McCoatover

    Never heard of him before today (sorry).

    But I think I should read at least one of his works. Recommendations/suggestgions?

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