Latest News
Video of Iain Banks at the Prague Writers Festival
June 28th, 2010 in Appearances & Events, Global
David H, of Banksoniain fanzine fame, has just posted the following to the Iain Banks Forum:
The readings and conversations at the Prague Writers' Festival were recorded and are now online via www.pwf.cz.
Iain participates in the Tuesday evening conversation about Heresy, and the Wednesday evening readings.
More details on the forum.
Surface Detail Cover Launch
June 23rd, 2010 in Book News, Global
Iain M. Banks' global publisher, Orbit Books, have revealed the cover image that will grace the brand new Culture novel - Surface Detail - when it is published worldwide in print and e-book editions in October 2010.
From the Orbit announcement post: "The title is Surface Detail, which refers to a number of things, not least one of the principal characters, who is covered, externally and internally, with congenitally administered tattoos."
Here's the cover in all its glory:
And here's the back cover blurb:
It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.
It begins with a murder.
And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.
Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching – is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.
It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the centre of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.
October 2010, folks. Don't miss it.
Edit 24.06.10
Here's the US cover variant with alternate font / logo:
SFX Magazine Wants Your Questions for Iain Banks
June 11th, 2010 in Global, Interviews
SFX Magazine will be conducting a fan-interview with Iain Banks and are requesting questions to put to the author.
The deadline for submitting a question is Tuesday, June 15th. Details of how to submit can be found at www.sfx.co.uk.
Iain Banks on BBC Radio Scotland's Stark Talk, 19.05.10
May 13th, 2010 in Global, Interviews, TV, Radio & Film
Iain Banks will be the special guest of BBC Radio Scotland's Edi Stark as she talks to Iain at his home in Fife for her regular Stark Talk series.
The show will be broadcast next Wednesday, 19th May, at 11.30 GMT BST and repeated the following Sunday at 10.30 BST. More info at the BBC Radio Scotland website. The show should also be available post-broadcast, via the BBC's iPlayer service.
Thanks to David H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up.
Forthcoming Iain Banks appearances and events
May 6th, 2010 in Appearances & Events, Global
The Appearances page of the site has been updated with information on three events that Iain has been booked for later this year:
- Prague Writers' Festival 2010 from June 6th-10th 2010
- Literary Dundee 2010 on Saturday June 26th, 2010
- Novacon 40 from November 12th-14th 2010
See the Appearances page for a bit more information on these and other events that Iain will be attending.
Thanks (as always!) to Dave H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up on these events.
Quick Reminder: Iain Banks at Eastercon this weekend
March 31st, 2010 in Appearances & Events, Global
Just a reminder that Iain Banks is a Guest of Honour at this year's Eastercon - Odyssey 2010 - which takes place in Heathrow this Easter weekend.
David H, editor of the Bansksoniain fanzine, has been in touch to let us know about some of the Banks-related events taking place at the convention:
- David himself will be giving a talk called "Iain Banks: Before The Wasp Factory" on Friday at 13:00
- Iain is on a panel called "Utopia - How the Concept Has Developed in Philosophy and SF" on Friday at 16:00
- Iain is being interviewed by Jane Killick on Saturday at 11:00 (and in an autograph session afterwards)
- Iain is hosting a whisky tasting on Saturday at 16:00
- Iain is on a panel called "Language and Dialect in Writing" on Monday at 11:00
Full details are available in the Eastercon events programme. David has also suggested that we remind everyone that you can pay for a full weekend Convention membership on the door, and day-memberships are also available. See the Odyssey 2010 website for full details.
And if you're going to be at Eastercon and end up taking any photos of Iain, or manage to capture any decent audio or video footage (assuming that it's allowed under Convention rules, of course) then do feel free to upload your stuff to a suitable online sharing service and then send in a link (to webguy [at] iain-banks.net) and I'll post a selection of the best examples to the site next week.
Banksoniain Fanzine issue #15 out now
March 26th, 2010 in Global, Resources
David H, editor of the Banksoniain Fanzine has been in touch to let us know that the new issue is available now.
David tells us: "Banksoniain #15 looks back at 2009, the publication of Transition and Iain's appearances during the year, including his My Planet Rocks musical choices and interview. It also assess the 2008 theatre production of The Wasp Factory and talks to director Ed Robson. Looking forward there is news of his next book's working title, and some movement of the film front."
Download a pdf copy of Banksonian #15 from the Banksoniain website.
'A Gift From the Culture' Set for the Big Screen?
October 28th, 2009 in Global, TV, Radio & Film
Last week's big Banks buzz (which broke while I was away on holiday, hence the late posting here - apologies for that to everyone who came looking for a timely update and didn't find one...) is about the prospect of a film adaptation of the short story 'A Gift From the Culture', which was first published in issue #20 of Interzone, the UK's longest-running science fiction magazine, and is more readily available in the Iain M collection The State of the Art.
Various websites carry versions of the news: www.slashfilm.com, screendaily.com and hollywoodreporter.com included. At the moment there really isn't anything to add to those announcements. I'll certainly try to post fresh updates as and when they become available (hopefully with a little more alacrity...) and in the meantime, do feel free to join in the discussion of the project over at the Iain Banks Fan Forum (you'll need to be a forum member in order to post replies to the thread).
Testing … testing … and we're back!
September 29th, 2009 in Global, Website Updates
You may have noticed that www.iain-banks.net has been offline for the past few days. That's because we've been re-decorating and have given the place a bit of a brush-up and dusting-down, courtesy of the fine folks at Kino Creative, who've I'm sure you'll agree have done a marvellous job.
The site is back in action now, as you'll have noticed if you're reading this article on the Latest News page. On the other hand, if you're reading on RSS, do click on over to the website, take a quick look around, maybe let us know what you think of the new look.
We've added a bit more functionality to the news items. If you regulalry use one of the major bookmark and / or link-sharing apps or online services then you'll hopefully find an appropriate shortcut button at the end of each item to help you post and share a link. There's also a link on each news item to a suitable section of the Iain Banks Forum, to make it quicker and easier for you to talk things over with your fellow Banks fans and readers (although you'll still need to register as a forum member before you'll be able to join or start a conversation thread).
Alternatively, if you have something useful and relevant to add to a news item, then you can do so via the Comments form on the article in question. We are going to be quite strict with the comments submitted to the site to make sure that irritations from spammers (zero-tolerance there) and time-wasters are kept to an absolute minimum. So: all comments will be moderated (for the time being, anyhow) and anything non-relevant will be politely declined.
We've also improved the main bibliography section, merging Iain's SF and non-SF titles into a single list and then providing chronological listings of his SF, non-sf and Culture books, as well as his entire output to-date.
Anyhow, do have a look around, and if you feel like letting us know what you think of the new site, please do so over on the Forum or via the contact page.
Hopefully everything will be working smoothly, although it's fairly inevitable that gremlins will have messed with something during the switch-over. If you spot a problem, please do let us know and we'll fix it as soon as we can. One thing we do already know about is that the extracts are temporarily missing from the site. That's because we had a bit of an issue with a database backup a while ago and some of the content was unfortunately truncated. We'll get the extracts back up and properly linked in before too long, all being well.
Cheers!
Darren Turpin, Site Admin
pp the Iain Banks website team
Transition by Iain [M] Banks – reviews round-up
September 29th, 2009 in Global, Reviews
A new Iain [M] Banks book is always going to generate plenty of review coverage and conversation around the blogosphere and Transition, with its blend of literary and sf-nal tropes and themes, has certainly carried on that trend.
Here's a round-up of some of the pieces of online coverage that have caught our eye in the past few weeks:
John O'Connell, in a lead review in The Times, hailed Transition as "a reminder of how intelligent and imaginative [Banks] is ... Baroque, digressive, kinetic, teeming with big ideas and grand theories, it's a novel to get lost in ... a gripping, thought-provoking experiment."
Michael Marshall, reviewing for The New Scientist commented on Transition high-quality construction: "Banks deploys his usual complex structure, using multiple narrators, variously in the first and third person, and intricately nested flashbacks. In some of his books these structural gymnastics seem precious, but here they heighten the alien mood and help build the tension, leading to a nail-biting finale."
Liviu Suciu said, in the course of a review for fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com: "As core sf, its subtlety will be appreciated only on the reread when much more will make sense, though the novel raises more questions than brings answers and offers a great opportunity for a Culture-like cycle of novels in this extraordinary milieu."
Aaron Lavery's review for metro.co.uk concludes that the genre-crossover works well: "Fans of Banks's more conventional work might be initially put off, but they shouldn't be; it's an engrossing, futuristic fable with plenty to say about the here and now."
'ZS' covered Transition in a review column for business website cityam.com, saying "what this book offers is a disturbing, sweeping and customarily imaginative foray into the most sinister reaches of possibility" whilst also lamenting an apparent randomness and incoherency to the plot (you have to wonder at this point whether 'ZS' has encountered much of Iain's fiction before..?)
Brian J. Robb, reviewing for totalscifionline.com found a few parallels with recent TV sci-fi tropes, but still appreciated the mental gymnastics involved: "Banks presents an imagined series of worlds and puts his characters through the wringer. There are some nice games with chronology and point-of-view, which would certainly reward a sustained reading of the book in as few sessions as possible."
Nat Smith, writing for theskinny.co.uk gives Transition four stars, saying "initially a complicated book, [it] quickly becomes a fascinating one."
The Ex-Communicator, writing on LiveJournal said: "It's the best SF novel I have read (listened to) this year."
Patrick Ness reviewing for The Guardian on 26th Sept muses on the wasn't quite as impressed, concluding "this is an airport novel ... You're welcome to take that for as much of a recommendation as you choose." Ah well, each to their own, eh?
Do feel free to let us know if you've spotted any reviews online that we haven't mentioned here.
Quick Iain Banks interview on FT.com
September 21st, 2009 in Global, Interviews
Anna Metcalfe sends a series of quick-fire questions in Iain's direction for a 'Small Talk' feature over www.ft.com. Questions like: "What is the strangest thing you’ve done when researching a book?" (Answer: "Using the equation e=mc2 to work out the explosive yield of very small quantities of antimatter, to determine how small an effective nano-missile could be.")
Iain Banks talks to… Ken Livingstone?
September 18th, 2009 in Global, Interviews
The New Statesman website has posted an interview with Iain carried out by none other than Ken Livingstone.
Yes, that Ken Livignstone, the former Mayor of London. Turns out he's something of an sf fan: he name-checks David Brin and mentions putting in an appearance at the Brighton SF Festival in 1987, and says he reads sf classics. You live and learn, eh?
Read the full piece at www.newstatesman.com.
Iain Banks interviewed for The Guardian
September 17th, 2009 in Global, Interviews
In a feature-length interview piece posted to The Guardian's website, Maxton Walker talks to Iain about whether or not Transition can (or should) be interpreted as a literary attack on American foreign policy and his attitude towards torture as a weapon in the fight against terrorism. They also discuss the Transition serial podcast and how current trends in the publishing industry are affecting Iain and other writers.
Good reading over at www.guardian.co.uk.
Iain Banks interviewed for The Independent
September 16th, 2009 in Global, Interviews
The Independent's website is running an interview with Iain conducted by Arifa Akbar. Discussions range across Iain's plans to write a symphony, the concept of "Christian terrorism" in Transition, the effect that the passing of his father, Robert, in June has had on his personal life and writing alike, and the contrast between his generally sunny disposition and the dark mood to be found in most of his books.
Well worth a visit to www.independent.co.uk to read the full article.
Iain Banks interviewed for The Scotsman
September 15th, 2009 in Global, Interviews
In an interview posted on The Scotsman's website, Aidan Smith asks Iain about Transition, as well as topics as diverse as his friendly rivalry with fellow Fife-resident Ian Rankin, drugs, the women in his life and his opinion of Prime Minister Gordon Brown ("I'm only a little disappointed in him. He's not a war criminal like Tony Blair, he's been unlucky, but he has ballsed up.")
Read the full interview at news.scotsman.com.
Newsflash: Iain Banks on Simon Mayo, BBC R5 Live, today
September 14th, 2009 in Global, TV, Radio & Film
Iain Banks will be a guest on the Simon Mayo show on BBC Radio 5 Live, today, Monday 14th September, at 13.00 hours.
That is all.
Thanks yet again to Dave H of the Banksoniain for the heads-up!
Iain Banks talking to Cerys Matthews, Tuesday Sept 15th
September 10th, 2009 in Global, TV, Radio & Film
Iain Banks will be a guest on BBC Radio 6's Cerys on 6, next Tuesday, September 15th, from 13.00. He'll be talking to presenter Cerys Matthews about his new novel Transition.
More info at the BBC Radio 6 website.
Thanks to Dave H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up!
Doug Johnstone reviews Transition for The Independent
September 2nd, 2009 in Global, Reviews
This Sunday's edition of The Independent (UK) included a review of Transition by Doug Johnstone, who gave the new novel a hearth thumbs-up. Doug concluded by saying:
"Transition is a book that makes you think, one that makes you look at the world around you in a different light, and it's also a properly thrilling read. If only more contemporary fiction was like it."
Read the full review (although be warned: there are a couple of spoilers in there) at www.independent.co.uk.
Transition by Iain Banks – UK & US Covers
July 28th, 2009 in Book News, Global
Transition, the brand new novel by Iain Banks, will be published by Little, Brown in the UK on September 3rd and by Orbit in the US on September 23rd.
And here, for your visual edification, are the UK, US and UK Audio covers:
Click on a cover to see a larger image.
Iain Banks talks to the Prague Post
June 18th, 2009 in Global, Interviews
Earlier in the month, to coincide with his appearance at the Prague Writers' Festival, Iain Banks was interviewed by the Prague Post.
When asked about forthcoming brand new novel Transition's placement in the M / non-M spectrum of his work, Iain said:
"The template I had in mind was The Bridge, my third novel, from 1986. I still think very highly of it, and I liked the way its structure let me use different voices and approaches. So, for Transition, I was trying to come up with something as different and challenging. I still think of Transition as basically mainstream, but I guess there's enough sci-fi in there to justify publishing it as such in a market where my sci-fi has generally done better."
Visit www.praguepost.com to read the rest of the interview.
Many thanks to Joe G of FPI Blog fame for the heads-up!