Iain Banks Posts

To mark the release of Matter, science fiction mega-blog io9 has posted a handy, print-out-and-keep guide to the Culture, including a synopsis / mini-review of each Culture novel to-date, plus a link to an essay that Iain wrote back in 1994 to explain a few things about the Culture, that was originally posted to the […]

Just a quick reminder for anyone who missed issue #214 of Interzone, the UK’s longest-running original short science fiction magazine, this particular issue (January 2008) contains a lengthy feature interview with Iain, conducted by Paul Raven of Velcro City Tourist Board and Futurismic.com. Iain tells Paul about the background and inspiration for the major themes […]

Andrew McKie sounds like a dyed-in-the-wool Culture fan (good man!) who says, at the conclusion of his Telegraph.co.uk review of Matter: “I have returned repeatedly to the early Culture novels, particularly Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games. This is a major sequence for anyone who cares about science fiction, and I recommend it to […]

The Guardian‘s Sarah Kinson has conducted a quick-fire interview with Iain, that’s available to read at The Guardian Unlimited. The topic of the interview is ‘Why I Write’, and Iain talks about his inspiration and motivation for living the writer’s life, plus the joy of getting up and writing at 4 a.m. if that’s when […]

John Naish talks to Iain for the Life & Style section of The Times Online about his increasingly laid-back, green and low-octane approach to life. The opening paragraph reads: “Iain Banks lifts a corduroy trouser leg to reveal a nasty-looking scar line just below his kneecap. It’s the last physical mark of the best-selling author’s […]

The Clare Maclean prize for Scottish Fiction is a new award that will be announced by the organisers of Aye Write!, the Bank of Scotland Book Festival on March 15th. The Steep Approach to Garbadale is one of six short-listed novels, all of which were first published in 2007, that have been nominated for the […]

Highly-respected SF author Lisa Tuttle has reviewed Matter in The Times and had the following to say about the new Culture novel: “The usual ingredients of a Culture novel are all here: lots of action, snippy drones, believable people, bizarre aliens, extreme violence, awesome weapons, silly names and sly jokes … The conclusion is unexpectedly […]