SFNovelist - Library Page

October 1998: Summer is over. And life returns to normal... so here's an introduction to the fiction of Iain Banks, which is anything but normal.

Iain Banks's first published novel was the bizarre mainstream novel The Wasp Factory, although he cheerfully admits he had been writing sf for a long time. Banks's first sf novel -- published under the "pseudonym" Iain M Banks -- was 1987's Consider Phlebas, a baroque space opera notable for its width of vision and impressive prose.

Of Banks's eight sf novels, four are set in the Culture; as are a number of short stories, such as 'A Gift From The Culture' and 'The State Of The Art'. The Culture is a highly-technological society, based mostly on huge ships and habitats, and "ruled" (albeit loosely) by AIs. The Culture is actually too rich a fictional universe to describe in a short paragraph--you want to know more, then read the books.

(And for those not totally on an undifferentiated diet of sf, Iain Banks's mainstream novels are definitely worth a try. See the link near the bottom of this page for more information.)

Consider Phlebas [1987]
In the middle of a galaxy-spanning war between the Culture and the Idirans, Horza and his mercenaries hunt for a fabled world, where fugitive Mind (AI) has gone to ground. I must have read this book shortly after it was first published, but one scene--Horza approaching a mile-long ship in a sea on a ringworld--still sticks in my mind. Which tells you something about the author's powers of visualisation. Consider Phlebas

Player Of Games The Player Of Games [1988]
Jernau Morat Gurgeh is a superlative games-player, possibly the best in the entire Culture. The Empire of Azad is structured around the game of Azad, the winner of which is crowned as emperor. Gurgeh, bored with life in the Culture, travels to the Empire of Azad to enter the next set of Azad tournaments. The concept of an empire structured around a single game--no matter how complex the game--may be a little difficult to swallow, but the character of Gurgeh is more than strong enough to carry the story.

Use Of Weapons [1990]
Cheradenine Zakalwe is a Special Circumstances operative--if there's one thing that stands out about Banks's sf, it's his characters' names... Banks is not just notable for his superlative prose, but also because he plays around with the forms of narrative. Use Of Weapons is a perfect example of the latter: one narrative strand details Zakalwe's exploits on various worlds; the second recounts Zakalwe's past--running chronologically backwards--and leading up to the Big Secret that made him what he is. Use Of Weapons

Reality The State Of The Art [1991]
A collection of short stories--including the novella, 'The State Of The Art', first published by US independent publisher Zeising, and detailing a secret survey of the Earth by a group of people from the Culture. Also includes 'A Gift From The Culture', one of my personal favourites.

Against A Dark Background [1993]
There's something incredibly silly about Against A Dark Background, but it's a great book all the same. The Lady Sharrow is being hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult, and her only hope lies with the last of the ancient Lazy Guns. But she has to find it first. The story is your basic Quest, with a plot-busting maguffin at the end of it. The route Sharrow takes to the Lazy Gun is, however, anything but basic. I count this book amongst my favourites of Banks's sf novels. Dark Background

Feersum Endjinn Feersum Endjinn [1994]
Of all Banks's sf novels, I think I like this one the least. It's not a Culture novel for a start, and I do like the Culture. The "feersum endjinn" of the title is part of the Fastness, a vast and mysterious building in which the entire story takes place. Something is threatening the Earth, and it is up to an assortment of characters to figure out what, and how to stop it. One of the narratives is written in phonetic Scots, which is a little hard-going at first. But it's worth persevering.

Excession [1996]
The excession of the title is your classic Big Dumb Object. It appears in the Culture's universe, sparks off the plot, and then disappears. The plot of Excession concerns the Culture's Minds plan to retrieve the one person who saw the excession on its first arrival, and who has since been living out her death alone on an eccentric ship. Excession is somewhat different from the other Culture novels in that much of it takes place at the level of the Minds that "rule" the Culture.

Inversions Inversions [1998]
The back cover blurb reads as follows: "Some years ago, rocks and fire fell from the sky and the old Empire fell with them. In the lands released from that crushing hegemony, a new world order is about to emerge. Two people in particular can see all this in a wider context ... This is the story of two stories. Spiralling round a central core of secrecy, deceit, love and betrayal - each climbs to its own devastating climax."

Links:
There's only one website you really need to visit to learn more about Iain Banks's fiction: Robert Keogh's Culture Shock. It has everything: news, a bibliography, articles on the Culture, interviews... As fan websites for authors go, it has to be one of the best.

Having said that, The Excession by Chris Lynas is definitely worth a visit. It's a website of graphics inspired by Banks's Culture novels.

The Culture is the web version of a fanzine dedicated to Banks's sf. It's more an ad for the print version than anything else, but it has some good content.

Consider Phlebas [1987] In the middle of a galaxy-spanning war between the Culture and the Idirans, Horza and his mercenaries hunt for a fabled world, where fugitive Mind (AI) has gone to ground. I must have read this book shortly after it was first published, but one scene--Horza approaching a mile-long ship in a sea on a ringworld--still sticks in my mind. Which tells you something about the author's powers of visualisation.
	The Player Of Games [1988] Jernau Morat Gurgeh is a superlative games-player, possibly the best in the entire Culture. The Empire of Azad is structured around the game of Azad, the winner of which is crowned as emperor. Gurgeh, bored with life in the Culture, travels to the Empire of Azad to enter the next set of Azad tournaments. The concept of an empire structured around a single game--no matter how complex the game--may be a little difficult to swallow, but the character of Gurgeh is more than strong enough to carry the story.
Use Of Weapons [1990] Cheradenine Zakalwe is a Special Circumstances operative--if there's one thing that stands out about Banks's sf, it's his characters' names... Banks is not just notable for his superlative prose, but also because he plays around with the forms of narrative. Use Of Weapons is a perfect example of the latter: one narrative strand details Zakalwe's exploits on various worlds; the second recounts Zakalwe's past--running chronologically backwards--and leading up to the Big Secret that made him what he is.
	The State Of The Art [1991] A collection of short stories--including the novella, 'The State Of The Art', first published by US independent publisher Zeising, and detailing a secret survey of the Earth by a group of people from the Culture. Also includes 'A Gift From The Culture', one of my personal favourites.
Against A Dark Background [1993] There's something incredibly silly about Against A Dark Background, but it's a great book all the same. The Lady Sharrow is being hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult, and her only hope lies with the last of the ancient Lazy Guns. But she has to find it first. The story is your basic Quest, with a plot-busting maguffin at the end of it. The route Sharrow takes to the Lazy Gun is, however, anything but basic. I count this book amongst my favourites of Banks's sf novels.
	Feersum Endjinn [1994] Of all Banks's sf novels, I think I like this one the least. It's not a Culture novel for a start, and I do like the Culture. The "feersum endjinn" of the title is part of the Fastness, a vast and mysterious building in which the entire story takes place. Something is threatening the Earth, and it is up to an assortment of characters to figure out what, and how to stop it. One of the narratives is written in phonetic Scots, which is a little hard-going at first. But it's worth persevering.
Excession [1996] The excession of the title is your classic Big Dumb Object. It appears in the Culture's universe, sparks off the plot, and then disappears. The plot of Excession concerns the Culture's Minds plan to retrieve the one person who saw the excession on its first arrival, and who has since been living out her death alone on an eccentric ship. Excession is somewhat different from the other Culture novels in that much of it takes place at the level of the Minds that "rule" the Culture.
	Inversions [1998] The back cover blurb reads as follows: "Some years ago, rocks and fire fell from the sky and the old Empire fell with them. In the lands released from that crushing hegemony, a new world order is about to emerge. Two people in particular can see all this in a wider context ... This is the story of two stories. Spiralling round a central core of secrecy, deceit, love and betrayal - each climbs to its own devastating climax."