# Tell me about Iain Banks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 27, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915 "2008-03-27T14:50:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/1 "2008-03-27T14:50:05Z")
He seems like a writer I’d be into. I’m especially interested in the Culture books. Where should I start? I’d like to read them in order. What’s he like?
I’m posting and running but I’ll be back in a few hours to check replies.
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### Author:  [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/2 "2008-03-27T15:12:01Z")
They’re not in any special order. Personally I would recommend this one:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Try not to be put off by the crappy covers his books have had up till not in the US. It’s extremely good space opera action with morally ambiguous anarcho-communists and their hyper-intelligent AIs, what’s not to like?
Feersum Enjinn, while not a Culture novel per se, is also pretty damn good.
Against a dark background is good too, but my ‘least favourite’
Haven’t read The algebraist yet so I won’t comment on it.
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### Author:  [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/3 "2008-03-27T17:02:57Z")
In the UK his novels are published as Iain Banks - the sci-fi as Iain M Banks - sorry if you knew this but I came in thinking we were talking his novels.
Not a sci-fi reader but have read a couple of his - he’s a very talented writer.
MiM
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### Author:  [@krisolov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krisolov)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/4 "2008-03-27T17:24:57Z")
The Algebraist is a tremendously cool book. Not sure it’s part of the Culture series neccessarily, but very good regardless. The very idea of a civilization that lives in gas giants, and how humans interact with them was really well done. Highly recommended.
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/5 "2008-03-27T17:26:03Z")
Agreeing with **Made in Macau** here. Iain Banks has the helpful habit of publishing the space opera stuff as Iain M. Banks, and the other novels as Iain Banks.
I skip the Iain M. Banks books sciffy stuff, but I loved “The Wasp Factory” (inventive ways to kill small children, sad tales of eating dogs … ) and “Whit” (a fun take on fake religion and with strange Scottish/Indian fusion food) ). “The Crow Road” was also good, although I tend to read things just for the story rather than bothering to try to work out who killed whom.
Eek, I cannot now recall the title of the one full of inventive ways to do vengeful killings, but I’m sure I can come back with that later. Of course, a quick walk to the bookshelf is fraught with the danger of getting distracted. The book also involves a journalist who likes drugs and computer games … grrr, I had better go and find it. (I’m now guessing it was “Complicity” but can’t be sure and it might feel too silly to Google when it should be around somewhere.)
The most recent one I read was “The Steep Approach to Garbadale”, which was good, but a bit “Crow Road” ish, I thought.
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### Author:  [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/6 "2008-03-27T19:13:33Z")
[QUOTE=Celyn]
Eek, I cannot now recall the title of the one full of inventive ways to do vengeful killings, but I’m sure I can come back with that later. Of course, a quick walk to the bookshelf is fraught with the danger of getting distracted. The book also involves a journalist who likes drugs and computer games … grrr, I had better go and find it. (I’m now guessing it was “Complicity” but can’t be sure and it might feel too silly to Google when it should be around somewhere.)
[/QUOTE]
Complicity
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/7 "2008-03-27T19:37:42Z")
Thanks. 🙂 And now I must just work out whether it is hiding or whether I foolishly lent it out.
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### Author:  [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/8 "2008-03-27T20:42:09Z")
I’m not necessarily squeamish but I felt uncomforatble with the regular fiction books. I would read the schi fi in order, that is how I tend to reread them. I would also recommend sporting the extra cash for used Orbit editions because, as mentioned, the American covers are indeed shameful.
He is also an expert on single malt scotch whiskey and burned his passport to protest the UK’s involvement in dubya’s war.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/9 "2008-03-27T21:16:58Z")
I’d say Banks is one of the, if not the, best SF writers ever. He earns high marks for actually thinking about and writing about what a multi-solar system society that is immensely more powerful and wealthy than ours might actually be like. Most such societies you see are just current or past Earth societies pasted over all that wealth and power. (Think Star Wars for an example of a feudal society, think Star Trek for an example of an America-type trade federation). Banks asked some hard questions, gave them serious thought, and came up with original and thought-provoking answers. This is what gives the Culture series its immense appeal – it’s not just a cheap gloss but a deep, well-reasoned mythos.
Vernor Vinge is capable of the same caliber of writing as well. Not many others.
And of course Banks is a topnotch prose stylist, which doesn’t hurt either.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/10 "2008-03-28T02:50:15Z")
Thanks guys. I saw that _Player of Games_ and _Consider Phlebas_ have been reissued, which is what made me start this thread. I’ll pick them up tomorrow, and start them as soon as I finish the SF I’m reading now. I’m glad to hear from GSV CoD that they’re the first two books. Also the reissues have pretty cool covers. I’m interested in his noir stuff too.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/11 "2008-03-28T04:11:52Z")
Personally I found the sci-fi stuff to be a good read but the endings generally left me feeling confused and/or unsatisfied. I love his literary fiction. The first I read was Walking on Glass and I think I’ve read everything else.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/12 "2008-03-28T04:29:11Z")
Concerning an evaluation of Banks, if you can’t trust a General Systems Vehicle, who can you trust?
Another rave in favor of his space operas; he’s far and away my favorite author, in any genre, of recent years. I would practically lay down my life for my set of UK editions. The man sets up amazingly complicated, internally consistent fictional civilizations with wildly different physical features and philosophies, contemplates all sorts of plausible ways in which they might interact, and still manages to slip in beautifully-realized action setpieces that move the plot forward. The prose gets a bit dense at times, but I manage to put up with that.
I haven’t read any of his non-SF novels though, because, well, I’m frankly a bit afraid of just how dark they may be. For that matter, there is some seriously twisted writing in both _Consider Phlebas_ and _Use of Weapons_, but they remain my two personal favorites of his SF output. After that, probably _Feersum Endjinn_, despite the wacky, difficult-to-follow grammar of one of the main characters, _The Player of Games_, and _Against a Dark Background_. \*Look to Windward \* was pretty good, _Excession_ seemed like a bit of an afterthought, although I kind of enjoyed the conceit of a nascent civilization of intelligent spaceships, and _Inversions_ really didn’t do a whole lot for me. There you have it.
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### Author:  [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/13 "2008-03-28T08:56:51Z")
[QUOTE=El\_Kabong]
Concerning an evaluation of Banks, if you can’t trust a General Systems Vehicle, who can you trust?
[/QUOTE]
Heh, I wouldn’t trust a GSV as far as I could Displace it.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/14 "2008-03-28T15:02:59Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor]
I’d say Banks is one of the, if not the, best SF writers ever. He earns high marks for actually thinking about and writing about what a multi-solar system society that is immensely more powerful and wealthy than ours might actually be like. Most such societies you see are just current or past Earth societies pasted over all that wealth and power. (Think Star Wars for an example of a feudal society, think Star Trek for an example of an America-type trade federation). Banks asked some hard questions, gave them serious thought, and came up with original and thought-provoking answers. This is what gives the Culture series its immense appeal – it’s not just a cheap gloss but a deep, well-reasoned mythos…
[/QUOTE]
I haven’t read any Banks yet, although I’ve been meaning to. George R.R. Martin has the same talent - check out _Sandkings, Dying of the Light_ or most especially _Tuf Voyaging_. All set in more or less the same well-thought-out, distant future, human-dominated starfaring culture.
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/15 "2008-03-28T15:03:47Z")
[QUOTE=El\_Kabong]
…
I haven’t read any of his non-SF novels though, because, well, I’m frankly a bit afraid of just how dark they may be…
[/QUOTE]
Really not dark, actually, otherwise I would not read them. Yes, people do tend to get killed off, but the books are always just interesting, good reads, and _amusing_. They are not the sort of dark thing that would give one nightmares, honestly.
Small tangent, in my paperback edition of “The Wasp Factory”, (oh, all right, a bit dark, perhaps don’t start with that one), it amuses and charms me that a whole lots of reviews are quoted at the beginning. Nothing unusual in that, but this is not only the complimentary reviews, but also all the very “bad” ones. I though that a nice touch, somehow. 😃
And now a PLAN! I am aware that a habit of avoiding any sci-fi sort of writing is probably a bad and lazy one, so respecting all of your opinions, I now think I really should give the Iain M. Banks books a try. My prejudice is probably left over from childhood and books that seemed just to be “oh, a spaceship. It is a very clever machine and it goes very far. And there are robots and monsters”. Yawn @ that. But it’s high time to outgrow that, and I might as well attempt IMB books, since they will be well-written and thoughtful.
See what a good influence you all are? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/16 "2008-03-28T18:05:23Z")
My two Euro cents - start with _Player of Games_. Sure, _Consider Phlebas_ is the first in the series chronologically but POG gives you a much better insight into what the Culture is and the universe it sits in. I would also say that _the Algebraist_ is the best non-Culture sci-fi book he’s written. _Feersum Endjinn_ is good but I think Algebraist tops it.
For his non sci-fi books I’ve only read two, _Walking on Glass_ and _the Steep Approach to Garbadale_. The former was good but very VERY weird, the latter was very good and one I’d heartily recommend.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/17 "2008-03-28T21:55:28Z")
I picked up Phlebas and POG today. The new issues, courtesy of Orbit books, are nice trade paperbacks with pretty good cover design. I’m curious about the crappy covers **GSV** mentioned. I’ll start them when I finish the SF I’m reading now: _The Space Opera Renaissance_, which turns out to have a Banks story in it, “A Gift from the Culture.” I’ll take **Illuminatiprimus’** advice and start with POG.
I hope to check out his non-SF books at some point. I don’t mind dark fiction if it’s done well and has a point beyond dark for dark’s sake.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-iain-banks/442915/18 "2008-03-28T22:52:34Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia]
I hope to check out his non-SF books at some point. I don’t mind dark fiction if it’s done well and has a point beyond dark for dark’s sake.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think his non-sf is dark for dark’s sake. Try _The Crow Road_. It’s wonderful - it does however start with “It was the day my Grandmother exploded”! I’m very fond of _Espedair Street_ too, albeit it is about a musician contemplating his suicide.