Iain M Banks

Iain M. Banks

I have been a regular reader of science fiction for 45 years and, when I discovered Iain M. Banks for the first time, I realized he was among the most prominent SF writers of the century. His novels are complex action-filled stories taking place in sophisticated environments of extraordinary breadth. Reading a new novel from Banks, each hugely different from the other ones he already wrote, is enchanting.

Works

Science fiction

Culture novels

  Consider Phlebas (1987)

  The Player of Games (1988)

  Use of Weapons (1990)

  Excession (1996)

  Inversions (1998)

  Look to Windward (2000)

  Matter (2008)

  Surface Detail (2010)

Other novels

  Against a Dark Background (1993)

  Feersum Endjinn (1994)

  The Algebraist (2004)

Short stories collections

The State of the Art (1991)


Consider Phlebas

Cover of the 2008 Orbit Books edition
by Blacksheep 

In this first novel, Banks grounds the Culture novels series with vistas as large as the galaxy and events unfolding upon eons. Here, the story take place during the Idiran War, between what is called the Culture, a loose group of humanoid species and machines governed by Minds, and the Idirans, three-footed monsters, nearly immortal, who have been making war for millenia . This war rages across the entire galaxy and the death toll is numbered by the billions. The hero – or anti-hero, as you like – is Horza, a Changer, a humanoid having the ability to transform himself into the appearance of another person, whose mission is to retrieve a fugitive Mind who took refuge in a labyrinth deep inside a forbidden Planet of the Dead. Events unfold down to a hard ending I won’t unveil here. Banks shows in his first SF novel a very creative and energetic style that will confirm in his next ones.

The Player of Games

Cover design of the 2010 Orbit Books ed. 

by Blacksheep - figure: Getty images

I really enjoyed this piece of work, one of the first science-fiction novels written by Iain M. Banks, which already contains all the ingredients his tremendous talent is able to provide the reader. The setting takes place in the Culture universe, which is something like a galactic-wide enhanced western 20th century society with some sophisticated refinements in it, the most prominent one being the symbiotic link between biologic individuals and machines.

The hero, Jernau Morat Gurgeh, one of the greatest game players who ever lived, will meet a real challenge when faced to a frightfully complex game played in the far off Empire of Azad, through which he would risk his very life but also become himself Emperor. The style is fluid and easy to read. Vivid descriptions of alien vistas and life, dives into the cruel mores of the alien culture, action and surprise are some of the condiments the story is spiced with. Read it and enjoy! 

Use of Weapons

First edition in 1990.

After having read thousands of books in my life, I love yet being surprised by a new one, and it was the case with Use of Weapons.

Cover design of the 1992 Orbit edition
by Blacksheep 

The story is rather hard and the end is surprising. I found the reading difficult, but the fault is mainly mine, since I have the habit of reading two or three books at the same time, so I read each one piece by piece, usually without any problem. In the case of that book, you have to be rather concentrated on the matter because the structure of the story is intrinsically complicated: as in a number of modern books, the successive chapters deal with different place and times, but here the author doesn’t give you many clues to know which character you are dealing with when you enter a new chapter. Besides, the actions are not arranged in a chronological order, due to reminiscences from the characters. When I opened a new chapter I often found myself confused, unable to say who was who, where the action was happening, and if it took place after or before what was described in the previous chapter. Thus, Iain M. Banks kept me in some state of confusion during a large part of the book and I was already deep into the second half of the story when I understood something: the confusion in my mind was prearranged by the author, it reflected the confusion in the main character’s one. In that, I consider this book as a masterstroke: the reader is manipulated as well as the hero manipulates other people and the Culture manipulates him… Once more in one of Banks’ stories, you have the impression the hero has nothing to do with a hero, after all.