Favourite Iain (M) Banks?

Watched the conclusion to the superb Crow Road adaptation again last night on BBC3 – Can't believe it's been 13 years since I first saw it.

Reminded me just how much I love this man's writing, and persuaded me to start rereading his stuff again.
Not read Garbadale, Transition, Matter or The Algebraist yet either, so really looking forward to those.

Favourite of the non genre stuff is definitely The Crow Road, which I always find uplifting if I'm feeling a bit down: The strong familial bonds and the sense of redemption get me every time.

Of the genre stuff, I really like Against a Dark Background and Player of Games – The former for it's charcters and the way they interact and the latter for it's plot and storyline.

Any stand out for you?

Have loads of his books and have always wanted to like him/them. Prefer his real-world stuff, e.g. Wasp Factory, Whit, etc, to the other-worldly.

I guess it's an acquired taste.

just finished Matter, a cracking read and immensely complex in it's construction of future worlds and (in my mind) it's criticism of organised religion

Without doubt it has to be Espedair Street. I've worn out three copies with re-reading.

Just read Consider Phlebas which was very good. Reading Excession at the moment which is also a great read.

It's all good. Just read Transition and enjoyed it. I have a signed copy of the Wasp Factory shrink wrapped at home.

'excession' is superb, though found it a bit tricky with the masses of ships involved.
'against a dark background' is a corker.
'use of weapons' has some properly dark aspects to it.
like his contemporary fiction a lot too. great writer. really liked 'complicity'. a little predictable towards the end, but top writing nevertheless.

Crow Road
Espidair Street
Wasp factory

These were all written by Iain Banks, not Ian M Banks. ;-)Edit: I;ve just seen the brackets round the 'M', sorry.

These were all written by Iain Banks, not Ian M Banks.

Err it's the same guy, and the title does imply books from either his SF writing (Iain M Banks) or general fiction (Iain Banks)

Am reading Player of Games again now having read it for the first time many moons ago…

Samuri, did you mean Espedair Street? 😉

Err it's the same guy
Yes, that would be the smiley then.

Just had a look on Wikipedia and apparantly there was a film made of Complicity.

Anyone seen it? Was it any good?
And did anyone else think that Valerie Edmond (who played Ash in the Crow Road) is a bit of a corker?

Not read any of his sci-fi stuff (I don't work in IT), but his other stuff is very good.

I've got

Complicity
The Wasp Factory
Dead Air
Whit
The Crow Road
The Business

There is not a dud amongst them.

Difficult to pick a winner, but for me it is probably The Crow Road.

Rusty Spanner – Member
Just had a look on Wikipedia and apparantly there was a film made of Complicity.

Anyone seen it? Was it any good?

Jonny Lee Miller and Keeley Hawes (In the buff!!!)

I thought Matter was a bit of a missed opportunity

(possible spoiler alert but trying not to be specific)
because the interweaving threads of the story seemed to get suddenly severed without really meeting up and the ending is quite abrupt and didn't resolve a lot of the tensions that had built up or address any of the fundamental questions
(/possible spoiler alert)

Against a Dark Background wins it for me so far. I can't get on with the non-M stuff very well though – can't seem to get as drawn in to them.

Not read any of his sci-fi stuff (I don't work in IT), but his other stuff is very good.

it's ok you know. i don't think there's any sort of qualifications required to read good books. 🙂

thepurist – Try The Bridge or Walking on Glass. Not SF, but not exactly 'everyday' fiction either.

Harry, go on, give Consider Phlebas or Against a Dark Background a try.
You'll feel a bit, you know, soiled at first, but after a bit you'll start to forget any embarrassment and feel pretty normal.

Cheers Rusty Spanner – mental note for next trip to the library.

consider phlebas and excession are my favourite of his sci fis

i love them al though my fave of his non sci fi is the bridge thou thats almost scifi really

have you tried alistair reynolds?!

have you tried alistair reynolds?!

No, but just looked him up on Wiki.
Another for the must read list!

So far, read Player of Games (wierd, but good), and Complicity. So can't really choose a favourite since it's 1 from each genre.

Got Consider Phlebas and Use of Weapons on the "yet to read" pile.

Use of Weapons is by far the best Sci-Fi one he's written.

use of weapons,just love the clown scene…..allways makes me smile,
tried to read fearsum engine a few times but just couldn't get in to it.

I've got all of the SF books, and a good number of the non-genre ones.

Of the SF I Like Feersum Endjin (ooo contraversial), The Algebraist and Excession. But all of the SF books are very good. I like The Bridge and the Wasp factory best of his other stuff, Complicity is very good too.

I second the recommendation of Alastair Reynolds, he is very very good, as is Ken MacLeod and Charlie Stross.

I've only read three of his sci-fi novels: Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas and The Algebraist. Sometimes I find bits of his writing clunky but the scale he works at, the set pieces he builds are fantastic.

Crow Road definitely wins out but as has been said, he's not done a dud yet.
Read The Bridge recently and was ready to throw it out of the window halfway through but stuck with it and it's one of the most imaginative ways of describing the inner psyche of a character I've ever read.

I think I'm ready for a re-read of Crow Road. I love the subtle analogy (that I presume is the crux of the novel) about the path through grassy wasteland that McHoan sees from a train window. Utterly profound.

If I had to pick two, it would be The Algebraist and Excession but I think that all his Sci-Fi stuff is epic. Which reminds me I haven't actually read Consider Phlebas yet. Went off on a Peter F Hamilton tangent. Another tangent – do you think he uses the Iain M Banks moniker because Peter uses Peter F Hamilton?? Random I know.

*Goes to check ebay…

Hard to pick a favourite as I like most of his work. But forcing myself to just one per "genre", todays choices are

Iain Banks – Whit wins for humour and humanity.
Iain M Banks – Use of Weapons is undeniably brilliant if very dark.

use of weapons is my favorite sci-fi one, but i don;t think theres a scifi one that i haven't enjoyed reading

Read The Wasp Factory when it first came and really loved his other early work, really enjoyed the rerun of The Crow Road, miles better than any of the other adaptations. Not really written anything decent since Complicity, imho.

The Steep Approach to Garbadale is getting back to his earlier form but a little run of the mill for my tastes but it is worth reading just for the description of the suicide and was a huge improvement on the awful era of Song of Stone, Business, Whit etc. Never really got on with his Sci-Fi stuff either.

Saw him do a Q&A at a festival last year and was really impressed with his honesty and openness about his writing (and his loathing of Mrs T)

Strangely, I am looking forward to Transition, he may be revisiting old themes but at least he's revisiting the good ones. And the early reviews I've read and comments from friends who still do the hardback thing have been very good.

Recently read Song of Stone, which is disturbing in places but didn't really grip me. Much preferred The Wasp Factory, or Steep Approach To Garbadale.

I have to admit to reading more of his SF stuff, despite not working in IT. The Algebraist is probably my favourite.

I really like all the SF stuff. Especially The Culture ones. Look to Windward would be my favourite. But Excession is good and Against a Dark Background and…

I'm less keen on the 'conventional' stuff.

Crow Road is good. But Garbadale seems too similar.

Espedair Street just seems like wish fulfilment.

The Bridge is meant to be Banks' favourite. I liked it but it's more like the SF novels.

Cant remember if its Use of Weapons or Againts a Dark Background, whihc is the one with the chair? Thats the best one. I would say The State of the Art final story called The State of the Art is utterly brilliant when you think about how dependant people are on mobile phones now.

Really into all his SF stuff. Especially liked Feersum Endjinn.

Had to concentrate on that one as I normally read his books too quickly. Liked the way the plot in Inversions evolved gradually.

"Against a Dark Background" for me.

Its simply, well, dark! Something about the character of Lady Sharrow and how we are introduced to her grabs me. I love the tragedy that's weaved through the story, the despair. As for the Lazy Guns – superb!

Alastair Reynolds is great as well, "Pushing Ice" is a personal favourite, but I really like the concept of a light hugger, and the Nostalgia for Infinity is my favourite space ship in any book!

Peter F Hamilton is another winner for space opera – the Nights Dawn Trilogy blew me away when I first read it – although I was reading the Lalonde section when I did my first solo night ride. Every squeak in the night was bum tightening! Although "Fallen Dragon" is my favourite Peter Hamilton.

Richard Morgan is another one – "Woken Furies". Amazing. Morgan has a thing for very very strong lead characters. Also I quite like the idea of Quellism – but you would need to read the books to know what I mean. Perhaps not heroes, but strong! His latest book was a fantasy rather than sci-fi with the non-hero being a gay barbarian. Bizarre choice but I couldn't put it down.

Neal Asher is also worth a read – hes not of the same standard as the authors above, he writes very action / explosive sci-fi. Its the same as a cheeseburger vs a steak. Sometimes a cheap, cheerful cheeseburger is what you really want!

David.

Use of Weapons is the one with the chair…. Beautiful that is, in context obviously 😯

I love Consider Phlebas personally, and Espedair Street from the non-M stuff. Matter seems to be back on form too, not got the newest one yet though. Don't see me reading Dead Air, Garbadale (Crow Road 2) or Canal Dreams again in a hurry mind.

Top recommendation from dmiller, if you like Banks- especially Player of Games- you should give the Kovacs books a try, absolutely brilliant. And if you like the bit in Consider Phlebas where Horza flies the CAT out of the GSV, you'll like Peter Hamilton, because it's pretty much all like that.

Another one is Ken Macleod, he's best when he's grounded in the near-future but The Star Fraction and its series is fantastic. Not exactly Banksian but there's similarities in style.

(was/is anyone else on the old culture@busstop.org, out of curiousity?)

If you like Banks and you like whisky, his book about whisky is worth reading: Raw Spirit.

Player of games for me – culture novels FTW.

have read all the fiction jobbies which whilst pretty good are no-where near the sci-fi ones.

/me notes down the other authors mentioned.