An update regarding THE CULTURE: NOTES AND DRAWINGS by Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod". Orbit Books. 15 June 2021 . Retrieved 5 May 2023. In 2010 he gave an interview to BBC Radio Scotland in which he spoke with painful frankness about the breakdown of his relationship with his first wife. But then the media interview seemed his natural forum: it is difficult to think of a more frequently interviewed British novelist. The Human Front (2001) by Ken MacLeod, the PS Publishing edition, ISBN 1-902880-30-7 (hbk) and ISBN 1-902880-31-5 (pbk). The latter task requires Frank to kill small animals. His brother, Eric, had a similar pastime. Eric felt the need to set dogs on fire. The law caught up with Eric and placed him in a mental institution. Now, Eric has escaped. He calls Frank and informs his brother that he is on his way home. While he worked he was writing. In the late 1970s he completed three science fiction novels that failed to find publishers, though all three would later be reworked and published successfully. Then followed one of the more remarkable literary debuts.

It's a human thing, I expect, to want to make a mark upon the world, even if the mark only lasts a little while." In addition to Paul, Frank has murdered two other children. He killed his cousin Blyth, as revenge, after Blyth set Frank and Eric’s pet rabbits on fire. Frank also killed his cousin Esmerelda, not out of any particular dislike for her, but because he felt he had killed too many male children, and felt it essential to help restore balance to the world by killing a girl.

Opening Lines

Banks's next work of literary fiction was The Steep Approach to Garbadale (2007), a return to the territory of The Crow Road. Banks's protagonist, Alban McGill, struggles to prevent his family's company from being taken over by a US giant, occasioning diatribes against American capitalism and American foreign policy that seem straightforwardly authorial. From 2007 Banks lived in North Queensferry on the north side of the Firth of Forth, with his girlfriend Adele Hartley, an author and founder of the Dead by Dawn film festival. [31] She and Banks had been friends since the early 1990s, [31] but commenced romantic relations in 2006 and married on 29 March 2013 [47] after he asked her to "do me the honour of becoming my widow." [6] [48] Illness and death [ edit ] The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks, has garnered many accolades since its initial release in 1984. The book has appeared on a number of greatest horror lists and in a poll was even named one of the top 100 novels of the century. To some, Banks is a visionary crafting a tale of the macabre. While others have viewed The Wasp Factory as little more than nonsensical garbage. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Theatre: The Curse of Iain Banks, Gilded Balloon". The Herald Scotland. 11 August 1999 . Retrieved 6 April 2013. this is some hard stuff, and by "hard" i mean Hard Like the Marquis de Sade Is Hard. do not read this if you cannot stomach depictions of animal torture. do not read this if you cannot stomach the murder of children. this one was hard for me to read at times, and i read some pretty terrible things.

By his death in June 2013, Banks had published 26 novels. A 27th novel The Quarry was published posthumously. [19] His final work, a poetry collection, appeared in February 2015. [20] In an interview in January 2013, he also mentioned he had the plot idea for another novel in the Culture series, which would most likely have been his next book and was planned for publication in 2014. [21] A project to publish Banks's unseen early drawings, maps and sketches from the Culture universe alongs with his writings and notes on the setting was underway in February 2018. [22] In 2021, the delayed single volume of The Culture: Notes and Drawings was cancelled and replaced with two separate volumes: a landscape artbook of The Culture: The Drawings and a companion volume containing notes, excerpts and new text from Ken MacLeod. [23] In 2023, the release date for The Culture: The Drawings was confirmed for the 7 November that year while the still-untitled companion volume was scheduled for late 2024. [24] ASLS Honorary Fellowships". Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Archived from the original on 13 January 2013 . Retrieved 5 November 2013.Lindsay Deutsch (7 May 2013). "Book Buzz: New Iain Banks coming in June". USA TODAY . Retrieved 10 May 2013. Humanity comes off badly in this book. The truth of what made Frank the person he is will leave you more chilled than any silly evocation of a devil in a religious text. Frank's very being is an ambulatory evil act. But the reason for it, the motivating factor, is the absolute worst horror this book contains. All the animal-torture stuff is unpleasant, I agree. It's not as though it's lovingly and lingeringly described. And it pales in comparison to Frank's raison d'etre. What a disappointment. A book full of severely exaggerated characters and stereotypes who meander through a "plot" that is clearly a collection of lazy thoughts and drink or drug fuelled "great ideas" aimed purely at producing a feeling of “horror” in us all. Banks' political stance has been termed "left of centre" [35] and in 2002 endorsed the Scottish Socialist Party. [36] The State of the Art (1991). London: Orbit. ISBN 0-356-19669-0 – also included below in short fiction collections, but included here because it is considered part of the Culture series. [85]

Over the course of a week Eric calls Frank from locations across Scotland, coming closer and closer. He eventually arrives on the island to Frank’s excitement and dismay—he is happy to see his older brother, but he is also afraid of being on the receiving end of the destruction and violence he knows his brother is capable of. Unfortunately, Iain Banks died too young at age 59, but his books will be read for generations and maybe this one will be read even longer than that. Iain M Banks (5 April 2013). "Iain Banks: why I'm supporting a cultural boycott of Israel". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 April 2013.

Broadcasts

For the first time ever (in the history of my reading life) I would understand completely any rating for this book. I thought long and hard and for me it was a strong three star that could have been a four star but wasn't for a number of factors. It even opens, like The Bridge, with an evocation of the Forth road bridge, the building of which Banks had watched as a boy from his bedroom window – or at least in this case, of a fictional bridge resembling it. For all their formal inventiveness and play of ideas, his novels remain memorable for the sense they give of their author's personal memories and passions.

For lovers of the grotesque, there are some truly disgusting imagery in The Wasp Factory. The event which serves as the catalyst for Eric’s own descent into psychosis is among the best written passages to ever grace horror literature. Banks is to be commended for the work, but the ending loses much of its intended purpose. Frank is not a scion from which lessons can be learned and that leaves only the madness. Enjoy the journey. In 2011 Banks featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme Saturday Live. Banks reaffirmed his atheism in this appearance, explaining death as an important "part of the totality of life" that should be treated realistically instead of feared. [29] [30]And, finally, the counter-argument to the cult of power through death, as Frank decides to leave the island and to try to live in the real world: During the ensuing confrontation, Eric attempts to destroy the island with explosives and fire but is not successful. In 1998 Banks was in a near-fatal accident when his car rolled off the road. [8] In February 2007, Banks sold his extensive car collection, including a 3.2-litre Porsche Boxster, a Porsche 911 Turbo, a 3.8-litre Jaguar Mark II, a 5-litre BMW M5 and a daily-use diesel Land Rover Defender, whose power he had boosted by about 50 per cent. All these Banks exchanged for a Lexus RX 400h hybrid – later replaced by a diesel Toyota Yaris, and said in future he would fly only in emergencies. [31] [45] Piccadilly, London, 2012