Ian (M) Banks - 15/02/1954 - 09/06/2013

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Sad to hear of his passing so soon after diagnosis.
The Wasp Factory is one of my all time favourite books. Looking to read more of his sci-fi work (The Culture series looks very interesting).

Your thoughts on the man and his work?

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

A real shame, he was a great writer. Everyone should check out the culture novels.

[Lord Testicles]

His culture series are my favourite books. It's sad to think that I'll never read another one.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

The Culture series is great, but sociologically, it doesn't really check out. Supposedly libertarian, by the end the Culture is another empire with apolitical citizens, a standing army (complete with military plots) and a secret police (Special Circumstances). They're eclipsed technologically by the Homomda, who still appear to live in a state society for some reason.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

The Culture series is great, but sociologically, it doesn't really check out. Supposedly libertarian, by the end the Culture is another empire with apolitical citizens, a standing army (complete with military plots) and a secret police (Special Circumstances). They're eclipsed technologically by the Homomda, who still appear to live in a state society for some reason.

The fact that the novels are not black and white is what's compelling about them. The culture would be boring as hell if it were not so flawed.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

The fact that the novels are not black and white is what's compelling about them. The culture would be boring as hell if it were not so flawed.

The Culture might not be white, but most of its enemies are quite black. The Affront are probably the worst example; everything about them is calculated to cause offence in readers. Hell, the Idirans are probably the most sympathetic of the bunch (unless you count the Homomda), and they're religious lunatics and species-supremacists.

I mean, Banks was an excellent writer, but one can have flawed characters without also making every institution an empire, particularly not in an era where empires should be a thing of the past. See, for example, the work of the brothers Strugatsky, or much of Lem's work.

Alright, I probably have a political axe to grind against space opera, and American-style space opera in particular, but this doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend Banks. Quite the contrary. I rather enjoyed Consider Phlebas and the Player of Games in particular. It's just that I find certain political aspects of his writing to be worrying. But then again, this goes for most authors that exist.