Iain Banks - WikiHQ

Iain Menzies Banks (; 16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. The novel was named one of the 100 best books of the 20th century in a 1997 poll; His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas (1987), marked the start of the Culture series, consisting of ten novels.

In April 2013, Banks revealed he had inoperable cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year.

Early life

Banks was born in Dunfermline, Fife, to a mother who was a professional ice skater and a father who was an officer in the Admiralty. An only child, he lived in North Queensferry until the age of nine, near the naval dockyards in Rosyth, where his father was based. Banks attended Gourock and Greenock High Schools. From 1972 to 1975, Banks studied English, philosophy, and psychology at the University of Stirling. Though he saw himself mainly as a science fiction author, his publishing problems led him to pursue mainstream fiction. His first published novel The Wasp Factory, appeared in 1984, when he was thirty. After the success of The Wasp Factory, Banks began to write full time. His editor at Macmillan, James Hale, advised him to write a book a year, which he agreed to do.

Banks published work under two names. His parents had named him "Iain Menzies Banks", but his father mistakenly omitted the middle name when registering his son. Banks still used the middle name and submitted The Wasp Factory for publication as "Iain M. Banks". Banks's editor inquired about the possibility of omitting the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy" and the potential existed for confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a romantic novelist in the Jeeves novels by P. G. Wodehouse; Banks agreed to the omission. After three mainstream novels, Banks's publishers agreed to publish his first science fiction novel Consider Phlebas. To create a distinction between the mainstream and the science fiction, Banks suggested returning the 'M' to his name, which was then used in all of his science fiction works.

thumb|right|upright|Banks book signing at the [[63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005]]

By his death in June 2013, Banks had published 26 novels. His final novel The Quarry appeared in June 2013, the month of his death published posthumously as his 27th novel. In an interview in January 2013, he also mentioned he had the plot idea for another novel in the Culture series, which would most likely have been his next book and was planned for publication in 2014. Banks wrote in various categories, but had said that he enjoyed science fiction most.

In February 2018, a project to publish Banks's unseen early drawings, maps and sketches from the Culture universe alongs with his writings and notes on the setting was underway. In 2021, the delayed single volume of The Culture: Notes and Drawings was cancelled and replaced with two separate volumes: a landscape artbook of The Culture: The Drawings and a companion volume containing notes, excerpts and new text from Ken MacLeod. The Culture: The Drawings was released on 7 November 2023, while the still-untitled companion volume was scheduled for late 2024.

Radio and television

Banks was the subject of The Strange Worlds of Iain Banks South Bank Show (1997), a TV documentary that examined his mainstream writing, and was an in-studio guest for the final episode of Marc Riley's Rocket Science radio show, broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music.

BBC One Scotland and BBC Two broadcast an adaptation of his novel Stonemouth in June 2015.

Theatre

Banks was involved in the stage production The Curse of Iain Banks, written by Maxton Walker and in 2002 he endorsed the Scottish Socialist Party.

He was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society Scotland. As a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill,

In late 2004, Banks joined a group of UK politicians and media figures campaigning to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest, he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In a Socialist Review interview, Banks explained that his passport protest occurred after he had "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns."

From 1991 Banks lived in North Queensferry on the north side of the Firth of Forth, in later years he was joined by girlfriend Adele Hartley, a horror writer who founded an Edinburgh festival called Dead by Dawn. after he asked her to "do me the honour of becoming my widow."

Illness and death

On 3 April 2013, Banks revealed that he had been diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year. to 20 June 2013 in the UK and 25 June 2013 in the US and Canada. He died in Kirkcaldy on 9 June 2013, at the age of 59. Other authors including Neil Gaiman, Ian Rankin, Alastair Reynolds and David Brin also paid tribute in blogs and elsewhere.

The asteroid 5099 Iainbanks was named after him shortly after his death. On 23 January 2015, SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk named two of the firm's autonomous spaceport drone ships Just Read The Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You, after ships in Banks's novel The Player of Games. Another, A Shortfall of Gravitas, began construction in 2018. This refers to the ship Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall, first mentioned in Look to Windward.

The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia, the 2016 graphic biography of Louise Michel by Mary M. Talbot and Bryan Talbot, is "Dedicated to the memory of Iain (M) Banks, friend and sorely missed creator of socialist utopias."

Empire Games, the seventh book in The Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross published in 2017, is dedicated "For Iain M. Banks, who painted a picture of a better way."

On 13 May 2019, the Five Deeps Expedition broke the deepest ocean dive record in the DSV Limiting Factor. The support ship was named DSSV Pressure Drop. Both vessels were named after ships in the Culture series, which is much admired by the explorer Victor Vescovo, also the financial sponsor behind Limiting Factors design and construction. They also have landers named "Flere," "Skaff," and "Closp," named after Culture drones.

Awards and nominations

Iain Banks received the following literary awards and nominations:

Publications

Non-SF works

Banks's non-SF work comprises fourteen novels and one non-fiction book. Many of his novels contain elements of autobiography, and feature various locations in his native Scotland.

Fiction

The Wasp Factory (1984). London: Macmillan. .
Walking on Glass (1985). London: Macmillan. .
The Bridge (1986). London: Macmillan. .
Espedair Street (1987). London: Macmillan. . Adapted for BBC radio in 1998 (directed by Dave Batchelor).
Canal Dreams (1989). London: Macmillan. .
The Crow Road (1992). London: Scribners. . Adapted for BBC TV in 1996 (directed by Gavin Millar).
Complicity (1993). London: Little, Brown Book Group. . Filmed in 2000 (directed by Gavin Millar); retitled Retribution for its US DVD/video release.
Whit (1995). London: Little, Brown Book Group. .
A Song of Stone (1997). London: Abacus. .
The Business (1999). London: Little, Brown Book Group. .
Dead Air (2002). London: Little, Brown Book Group. .
The Steep Approach to Garbadale (2007). London: Little, Brown Book Group. .
Stonemouth (2012). London: Little, Brown Book Group. . Adapted for BBC TV for broadcast in 2015 (directed by Charles Martin).
The Quarry (2013). London: Little, Brown Book Group. .

Non-fiction

Raw Spirit (2003). London: Century. – a travelogue of Scotland and its whisky distilleries.
Poems (with Ken MacLeod) (2015). London: Little, Brown Group. .

Science fiction

Banks wrote thirteen SF novels, nine of which were part of the Culture series, and a short story collection called The State of the Art (1991), which includes some stories set in the same universe. These works focus upon characters that are usually on the margins of the Culture, a post-scarcity anarchist utopia. In the same universe are other civilizations, which the Culture sometimes attempts to influence or "contact", occasionally resulting in conflict. The culture has achieved utopia by handing control of all of their worlds and ships over to sentient artificial intelligences referred to as "Minds".

Use of Weapons (1990). London: Orbit.
Excession (1996). London: Orbit.
Inversions (1998). London: Orbit.
Look to Windward (2000). London: Orbit.
Matter (2008). London: Orbit.
Surface Detail (2010). London: Orbit.
The Hydrogen Sonata (2012). London: Orbit.

The Culture reference books

The Culture: The Drawings (2023). London: Orbit.

Other novels

Against a Dark Background (1993). London: Orbit.
Feersum Endjinn (1994). London: Orbit.
The Algebraist (2004). London: Orbit.
Transition (2009). London: Little, Brown Book Group. . (Published in the United States as Iain M. Banks.)

Short fiction collections

The State of the Art (1991). London: Orbit.
Includes three short works set in the Culture universe. It also includes works of fiction more characteristic of Banks's writing published as Iain Banks. A radio version of the title story was transmitted by Radio 4 in 2009.
The Spheres (Birmingham Science Fiction Group, 2010)
Includes 'The Spheres', excised from the original draft of Transition; and 'The Secret Courtyard', excised from Matter. Limited edition of 500, to mark Novacon 40.

Introductions

Banks wrote introductions for works by other writers including:

Viriconium (1988) by M. John Harrison, the Unwin edition, .
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright: Book 3, Götterdämmerung (1989) by Bryan Talbot from Proutt Publishing, .
The Orbit Science Fiction Yearbook Three (1990) edited by David S. Garnett, .
The Human Front (2001) by Ken MacLeod, the PS Publishing edition, (hbk) and (pbk).

References

External links

AZAD the Game—The Boardgame development website