# Iain Banks is dying.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 3, 2013, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720 "2013-04-03T11:22:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/1 "2013-04-03T11:22:26Z")
Official statement [here](http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/LittleBrownBookGroup/a-personal-statment-iain-banks.page).
One of my favourite authors. Terrible news.
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### Author:  [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/2 "2013-04-03T11:48:59Z")
Fuck cancer.
☹
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/3 "2013-04-03T11:59:28Z")
Yeah, fuck cancer. I admire the wit and courage displayed by his statement.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/4 "2013-04-03T12:53:18Z")
Damn. We’re losing one of the best, if not THE best, science fiction writers we’ve got.
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### Author:  [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/5 "2013-04-03T13:28:29Z")
godammitsomuch!
First Pratchett, now Banks.
Neil Gaiman better be taking good care of himself.
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/6 "2013-04-03T13:35:25Z")
Damn.
I prefer to believe that he’s a Special Circumstances operative, and this is just his exit plan.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/7 "2013-04-03T14:45:45Z")
Damn it. That poor man. I hope he’s not in too much pain.
I consider _Player of Games_ my favourite SF book ever. So it seems _Hydrogen Sonata_ will be the last Culture book ever.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/8 "2013-04-03T14:53:11Z")
I’ve liked most of his books that I’ve read, but _The Crow Road_ is great. Anyone who’s only read his SF should really try his other stuff as well.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/9 "2013-04-03T15:28:16Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#):
>
> I’ve liked most of his books that I’ve read, but _The Crow Road_ is great.
_The Crow Road_ has one of the best opening lines in all of fiction: “It was the day my Grandmother exploded.”
That’s the way to open a novel 🙂
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/10 "2013-04-03T15:31:43Z")
Shitshitshit.
Fuck.
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### Author:  [@martu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/martu)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/11 "2013-04-03T15:37:55Z")
If only we were living in the time and place of The Culture where shit like cancer has been eradicated.
Thanks for the stories Iain, you will live on even after you sublime.
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### Author:  [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/12 "2013-04-03T17:25:49Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#):
>
> godammitsomuch!
>
> First Pratchett, now Banks.
This. Banks is my favorite author ever and I learned how to read English with Pratchett’s books. ☹
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/13 "2013-04-03T17:34:15Z")
Fuck cancer.
I just got into the Culture novels last year, and for my money, each one was a significantly better book than it’s predecessor. Banks was eventually going to write a book that would have stood head, shoulders and waist above the rest of the crowd, and now he won’t have the time to do that and we shan’t ever get a chance to read it or tell him how amazing it is.
Ddamn it.
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### Author:  [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/14 "2013-04-03T17:39:40Z")
I’ve just only recently started reading the Culture series, and came online this morning to praise his imagination and wit. Today’s news hit me like a punch in the gut. For me, reading a book is an intimate experience, like inhabiting someone else’s mind for a time. Losing him will be a great loss for us all. I’m terribly saddened by his prognosis, and am quite pleased that he wed his lady-love.
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### Author:  [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/15 "2013-04-03T17:40:56Z")
“Espedair Street” is one of my all-time, bar none favourites of rock [del]journalism[/del] fiction. So sorry to hear this news.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/16 "2013-04-03T17:45:20Z")
> [@martu](#):
>
> If only we were living in the time and place of The Culture where shit like cancer has been eradicated.
We are, in the Culture universe, living in the time and place of the Culture. Contact is using us as a controlled experiment for the next century or two.
But yeah, if only Banks could transmit his running mind-state to a friendly passing GSV. As a species we really need to get on that.
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### Author:  [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/17 "2013-04-03T18:01:02Z")
> [@Steophan](#):
>
> Official statement [here](http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/LittleBrownBookGroup/a-personal-statment-iain-banks.page).
>
> One of my favourite authors. Terrible news.
Damn it. Thanks for all that you’ve given us over the years, Iain. You will be missed but never forgotten.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/18 "2013-04-03T18:18:44Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#):
>
> godammitsomuch!
>
> First Pratchett, now Banks.
>
> Neil Gaiman better be taking good care of himself.
For those who haven’t heard, Jay Lake is also not doing well. He’s been battling cancer for several years and has taken a recent turn for the worse. In his words: _“I’m not terminal yet, but I am formally classified as incurable. In other words, barring some great good luck or a medical miracle it’s only a matter of time. I can definitely see the station from here.”_
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/19 "2013-04-03T18:55:33Z")
Well, fuck me running.
Banks is the fiction author I would have most liked to be like, were I a fiction author.
What a goddam shame.
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### Author:  [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iain-banks-is-dying/654720/20 "2013-04-03T19:42:10Z")
My bookshelf has Kage Baker books next to Iain Bank books. Two lives ravaged by cancer, much too young.
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