I sit here with a tear in my eye after reading of the untimely death of one of the great authors of our time.

Iain Banks was a Scotsman, a few short years older than me, who I encountered as an author about 15 years ago. He wrote incredibly detailed novels full of humanity, looking at some of the less-explored aspects of being human. His output was prodigious and his talent incomparable in our time in my view. I never read one of his books without coming away feeling I was enriched for the experience, although I had to have a couple of goes at some, which were very dense with emotion and uncomfortable ideas.

He also enjoyed great success with his science fiction/fantasy novels which he published as Iain M Banks.They explored many of the aspects of our interactions with others in a way not possible in a more conventional tale of manners. He developed a huge fantastical future society called The Culture, which was a fantastically rich and powerful melding of humanity and intelligent machines that were self-determining, independent entities who interacted with the humans not out of need but because of their shared culture, which was one of unending curiosity and no restrictions except an abstract sense that there must be a quid pro quo in every transaction, but only within the Culture; the rest of the universe was available to be played with at will, for good or ill. Modern Greek Gods, with their actions left to be judged by the reader's own morality.

He was diagnosed with gall bladder cancer in March and his final actions included marrying his partner and astoundingly, writing his final novel, about a man with terminal cancer. He saw the proofs a week or two ago and it will be published soon.

I will miss him.

That is a lovely epitaph Antiseptic. I have never read Iain Banks but after reading your post am encouraged to do so now.

Dear Antiseptic,

I write to echo your salute to Iain M Banks. The Culture series is an astounding, mind wrenching, evocative body of work and I consider him in my top ten list of authors. I credit him with creating possibly the most villainous villains in literature, one Archimandrite Luseferous, from The Algebraist. In Banks' hands the normally fraught mixing of Gothic and Sci-Fi became a tour de force.

I have also this morning been reading about Edward Snowden, the ex-NSA employee who has been responsible for leaking to the Guardian facts about how extensive the surveillance of ordinary citizens has become. It is a measure of Banks' work that seeing Snowden as a Culture War hero is so easy.

“He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

To learn of Iain's early death today was a real shock. He will be greatly missed.

Yes, I just read that Guardian piece. It's a very courageous thing to do, especially when you know as much as he does.

I've been planning to re-read all of Banks' stuff, but I got out of the habit of reading. Couldn't be a better time to get back into it.

Antiseptic,

You are giving us really sad news. Although I never met Iain Banks in person, his wonderful Culture novels are permanent guests in our house.

Dear Antiseptic,

I've not read any of the works of Iain Banks.
However Thank You for drawing my attention to
this author. I'll try to get hold of "The Wasp
Factory," and go from there.

"Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord
And let perpetual light shine on them
May they rest in peace. Amen."