Iain Banks

[tianup]

Just curious if there are any Iain Banks fans out there....there must be. I've only read The Wasp Factory, Complicity and The Crow Road, but all were excellent, twisted, fun reads. I've been meaning to check some of his other stuff out for ages, so I searched and found his web site - not only does he have at least 7 more works of fiction, but he has at least 9 Sci-fi books out as well, and they sound great. Anyone?

http://www.iainbanks.net/fiction.htm

[sArA]

Hi,

Yep, another Ian Banks fan here, his sci-fi is pretty good too

They centre around a future society called the culture....

Consider Phlebas is good....

If you like him...try David Brin....he has an interesting take on future society and has lots of books out.....



....didnt you think the twist in the wasp factory was great?

[tianup]

Originally posted by sara5564@13 May 2003 - 05:55

....didnt you think the twist in the wasp factory was great?

OMG - I think I stopped breathing for several minutes.


Thanks for the tip. I will check out Brin. Can you recommend any of his stuff specifically?

[sArA]

I recently read 'Clay People'......corny title...but a good read....particularly interesting observation about pseudonymity. The gist being that people buy and imprint blanks of varying quality to do their more mundane tasks whilst they do the more interesting things in life....but it is a bit of a murder mystery thrown in...good characterisation.

I have only recently started to read his stuff...oh another good un is 'The Postman' about a post apocalyptic America...none of your Mad Max stuff. Quite short, I read it in a couple of sittings...think it was made into a movie with Kevin Costner...but I've not seen it...its probably not as good as the book anyway.

Another author I recommend if you are interested in social commentry with a future technological slant is Neil Stephenson...Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon.
This guy is very knowledgeable about privacy and cryptography.

[tianup]

Cool, I will check out Clay People - DO NOT watch The Postman - I had no idea that was based on an Iain Banks novel - ouch.

I checked out Neil Stephenson on the web - seems interesting - did you read his article "In the Beginning was the Command Line" ? It's quite a long but interesting article on the evolution of computer technology.

http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html

Which title of his do you recommend checking out first? I'm developing a rather long list from this forum on top of the one I already had!

[ezyryder]

I myself am a Iain Banks fan. I have read:

The Wasp Factory
Whit
Canal Dreams
Espedair Street
The Bridge
Crow Road

[Skweeky]

god yes, The Wasp Factory, I almost forgot about that book! It was fantastic, just pure genious. Really freaky as well

/me slaps herself for forgetting this book

[ezyryder]

I loved the suprise at the end! That was, for me, rather unexpected. As morbid as this may sound, but his chapter "the bomb circle" when the leading character killed thier brother by telling him to hit a bomb, which he called "a bell", was marvelous. Iain Banks strange mind really filled the paper with word to word entertainment.

[Skweeky]

Yeah, that's true ezyryder. The thing I liked the most about it, was that you knew the guy was crazy, but you still had some sympathy for him.....Great writer, that Iain Banks. I'll have to read some of his others books too. Are they the same style?

[ezyryder]

Mostly, I would say so. Books titled Iain M Banks are those of which take a more sci-fi appraoch to fiction. Otherwise, the rest take the more plausable look at how the human mind would cope in surreal circumstances; for example, Canal Dreams follows a young female musician on a boat who is confronted by terrorists. This book shows how the human mind - on the most sane of us - could lead to the character in the wasp factory. His other books which don't contain the "m" in his name all follow the strange journey of the human mind, some follow cults such as the Whit etc. The best way to find what to read would be to go to find some online reviews of his books, but yes, read more they are worth it.