Iain Banks Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Iain Menzies Banks (born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. Banks studied English and Philosophy at the University of Stirling. He lives in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Rail Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

Table of contents

1 Politics 2 Miscellany 3 Bibliography 3.1 Mainstream novels 3.2 Science fiction novels 3.3 Short fiction 3.4 Nonfiction 4 External links

Politics

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable.

Miscellany

Banks tends to write a novel in around three months, working solidly, then take nine months off. In his leisure time, he has had flying lessons and records his own rock music.

He has been the subject of a South Bank Show television programme.

He has written reviews for The Guardian newspaper.

As a young man he appeared as an extra in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Bibliography

Mainstream novels

His mainstream novels are:

• The Wasp Factory (1984)
• Walking on Glass (1985)
• The Bridge (1986)
• Espedair Street (1987) – adapted for BBC radio in 1998 (dir. Dave Batchelor)
• Canal Dreams (1989)
• The Crow Road (1992) – adapted for BBC TV in 1996 (dir. Gavin Millar)
• Complicity (1993) – filmed in 2000 (dir. Gavin Millar), retitled Retribution for its US DVD/video release
• Whit (1995)
• A Song of Stone (1997)
• The Business (1999)
• Dead Air (2002)

Science fiction novels

Much of his science fiction deals with a large pan-galactic civilisation, the Culture, which he describes in intricate detail:

• Consider Phlebas (1987)
• The Player of Games (1988)
• Use of Weapons (1990)
• Excession (1996)
• Inversions (1998) (makes covert references to the protagonists being Culture citizens)
• Look to Windward (2000)

His other, non-Culture, science fiction novels are:

• Against a Dark Background (1993)
• Feersum Endjinn (1994)
• The Algebraist (2004)

Short fiction

Banks does not write much short fiction but has published one collection:

• The State of the Art (1989)

It contains both science fiction and mainstream writing. The title novella deals with the Culture as do two other stories.

Nonfiction

• Raw Spirit (2003) (a travelogue of Scotland and its whisky distilleries)

External links

• Official site
• Internet Movie Database entry
• The Banksoniain - Fanzine
• The Culture Data Repository
• http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?IainBanks

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