Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59

Sincerely missed

El Reg seems to be an appropriate place to express my sincere sadness at his passing :(

RIP indeed

'twas the summer of 2008 and my son lent me "The Wasp Factory" and gave me "Player of Games", and I thought, "Wow, that's two new serious writing talents whose work I'll be happy to explore for some time to come", and then I realised it was One Premier League writing talent ... happily, there's plenty of his work I haven't read, unhappily, there won't be any new books now. Thank you I (M) B, for bringing me back to serious reading ...

He'll be sorely missed

I hope he's using his eight Feersum Endjinn style backup lives well.

RIP

I have read most of the M books but not yet any of the others, but the Culture novels are excellent

Will be sadly missed.

BTW I was also a fan of Tom Sharpe

Sublimed

[Broadcast Eclear, sent 201306100858.5

x GOU The Nameless Mist

oGSV Slightly Perturbed

&BOFH Reg Readers

Prefer to consider the esteemed is now Sublimed ?

∞

An absolute shame

The only author who could consistently blow my mind.

Bye -- and thanks to both of you

Was told about the Wasp Factory and got a copy eventually -- flicked through it, left it, picked it up another day.

Put it down after I'd read the whole thing in one go and just went 'fuck!'.

Then came the Culture books and left me giggling.

One of the few writers who could really keep the readers hooked despite sometimes not quite knowing when you are. Algebraist -- just awesome, bastard kept making me think I knew what was coming and then changed direction.

RIP

Probably my favourite writer of all time, especially with the M but read a few of the non SF titles too - some more successfully than others TBH. Looking at my bookshelf, there are probably more Banks titles than any other author, my copies of Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas and Against a Dark Background are somewhat battered after many readings, he will be sadly missed by me and I am sure many others.

RIP Iain and thank you for the many hours that I have spent lost in the other worlds you created.

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,

Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell

And the profit and loss.

A current under sea

Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell

He passes the stages of his age and youth

Entering the whirlpool.

Gentile or Jew

O you who turn the wheel and look windward,

Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

TS Elliot.

If you are a fan of Iain. M. Banks, may I recommend...

...Alastair Reynolds' SF to you, especially the "Revelation Space" books. Definitely in the same vein.

Hollywood

I went to a Q&A session with him nearly twenty years ago. He was great fun. One thing he said was that he'd love to see a film of "Consider Phlebas": that, if they filmed the break-out from the GSV, the fight under the hovercraft, the iceberg collision, and the train crash, he wouldn't even care if they gave it a happy ending.

If he was happy to have his plots messed with in the cause of big-screen spectacle, then so am I.

I regret the lack of the books he'll never write.

Little-known fact: he was in "Monty Python And The Holy Grail" when he was a student. He's one of the extras charging the castle at the end.

Fucksticks, that is a shame

While not a huge fan of the "M" stuff, I was very fond of his brand of "Scottish people, sex and death". A far nicer chap than most of his characters. He'll always be memorable to me for one of the all time great opening lines... I don't think I even need to specify, do I?

I shall be raising a glass of single malt in his memory at the earliest opportunity.

RIP

Meet him once and he seemed like a really nice guy. Love his books and the kind of hope that the culture personified. Also he seemed to walk the walk and gave and got involved in some Cinderella charities (seemed to remember it was about domestic abuse and he wasn't just giving them cash and then making a big deal of it, but actually involved and not making a big deal of it). Earth is just that little bit smaller without him.

Reading his books, knowing that such a superb mind is there, still coming up with new stories, gave me sort of a... peace of mind. I knew there would be more of what I liked, and liked a lot. News of his cancer was like a very rude awakening. Yet, despite the knowledge how it "works" (my whole family, and I'm probably next for the exit sign), I was hoping he'd survive. Extremely unlikely, but such things do happen, so...I must admit, it was mostly for selfish reasons, as I was hoping for new glimpses of his utopia.

Hell, I never felt such a loss about any writer. Maybe, a little, about Frank Herbert, who'd died a couple of months before I came across that book I'd never heard about, Dune...

Banks was a great writer. Superb language, superb mind.

I wonder if anyone else will step up

To write Culture books... it really is such a great SF universe. I can't decide if it would be a good or a bad thing but amongst SF writers, it is not unknown for great writers to write in homage to other writers they are fans of, especially where an author knows they are dying.

Putting aside the question of if this should happen, are there any authors who you reckon could write stories in a Culture universe?

Ah, Iain we will miss you son...

far too soon

Shall be thoroughly missed. Reading his books felt like a formative part of my teenage years, and ever since. I'd always assumed he'd always have a new book every year or two. I always say Use Of Weapons is my favourite book (he said at a book signing that he wrote it as a coherent story, but when he showed the first draft to a friend they suggested he fold the story in two), but when i think about it, it's hard to really pick one above the other.

Canal Dreams is the one i really didn't get into. I asked him what went wrong with it at another book signing and he agreed it wasn't his best. He said of all the other books, there's at least an element of himself in them. But when he wrote it, he'd not been to that part of the world, didn't play the chello and wasn't a woman, so that might explain it.

I guess just thankful we've had such great books to enjoy all these years, and can enjoy them all again in the future. And sad there won't be any more like them :(

The true player of games succombs to his final obstacle.

Gan doon the craw road.

Very Sad

I'll miss him hugely- space Opera on a grand scale. Funny, clever and mind expanding, I loved his SF work primarily - and really enjoyed what I've read of his no SF work. Terrific handling of such a huge variety of vast concepts, I reckon the Player of Games remains my favourite, but so many others are up there.

I lent a friend

my copy of Consider Phlebas, he never used to read books couldn't get into them, but I persuaded him to try it. That one book turned him into an avid reader. I can't think of any better example of the talent of Iain Banks than that.

Somnabsolute

"Sweet dreams, Genar-Hofoen," the Grey Area said.

The circuit clicked ostentatiously off.

He lay awake in the darkness for a while, before falling asleep again.

From "Excession", by Iain M. Banks.