Iain Banks

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Johnny X
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Re: Iain Banks

Post by Johnny X »

Well, decision's been made and I'm a few chapters into House of Suns. A little slow to get going for me but things are starting to pick up. Don't know if it's just the different scenario's but there is definately a difference in "style"

Overall, I am liking how Reynolds describes the "physics", I can easily relate to the terms he uses which is no bad thing :D

Onwards......
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Re: Iain Banks

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Yeah, he's definitely the most 'hard sci-fi' of the hard sci-if dudes. I really enjoy the arc of House of Suns. The second half just goes relativistic crazy.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Finished House of Suns the other day. What a cracking read :yes: Definately a few levels above Pushing Ice.

Had me guessing all sorts of scenarios all the way through, and although I never completely guessed what was going to happen, I was never too far off. All the time stuff is very well described and I liked the solution to the Causality problem, as simple as it was.

One thing I have found a little strange whilst reading these two Reynolds books, is that I couldn't help thinking about other sci fi greats and that some of his inspiration may well have come from reading other stuff. A bit of a weird feeling but it was definately there. I found myself thinking about 20001 and 2010 whilst reading Pushing Ice (It was the stuff about the Americans, Russians and the Chinese that had me thinking in that one) and early on in House of Suns I was thinking Dune (with all the stuff about Houses, the ornithopters on Neume... which sounds like Dune) although HoS goes down a completely different road to Dune.

Anyways, a damn good read and thanks for the heads up on that one. by the way, my mate also passes on his thanks for HoS. He told me he was getting a little bored with sci-fi (He's a hard core Banks fan) but he really enjoyed it too. He's looking at Revelation Space to tide him over to the new Banks Culture novel.

Not sure where I'm going next. I want to do Reamde but I also have some non sci-fi I want to look at. Pondering over a couple of Cormack McCarthy books. Who knows.... I need a little syncromesh, dial in a good factor and have a good think about it :)
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Re: Iain Banks

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No problem - always great to find someone new to read. I agree he draws inspiration from other places - mostly obvious in his stand alone novels. The Revelation Space universe is quite good and worth getting stuck into.

Just finished "Leviathan Wakes" and really enjoyed it. It's only set in our solar system but in a time when we have spread beyond Earth to Mars as well as the asteroid belt and there are factions from each. Looking forward to picking up the sequel.

I'm onto "Engines of God" now by Jack McDevitt. It has a very space opera premise so looking forward to getting into it.
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Re: Iain Banks

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There were a couple of neat little tricks that I didn't notice till a few chapters in, in HoS. The way the perspective (and narrative) alternated between Campion and Purslane from chapter to chapter was pretty good and helped to re-inforce the idea of the shatterlings being extensions of the same person. The tools used for manipulating time were pretty clever too.

I also found a couple of passages of his writing that were particularly powerful to me. I don't mind dropping my manly facade and admitting that the description of Cyphel's funeral was extremely moving for me. I have to admit, I got pretty emotional reading that.

I got started on Reamde last night, but the writing style hasn't grabbed me yet... It's got another 2 or 3 chapters to grab me or it's gone....
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Re: Iain Banks

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Well, to actually bring this thread back on topic, I've started reading my first Iain Banks novel - Consider Phlebas. Only 70 pages in so far so can't really comment except to say he obviously had a big universe planned going into the Culture books.

Engines of God by Jack McDevitt was pretty average. Premise was good, story was OK but the writing, especially the characterisation and dialogue, was horrible. I won't be returning to that series any time soon.

I just finished Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan. Not space opera at all, more detective noir set 500 years into the future. I enjoyed it quite a lot, however. It was pretty graphic, which I'm not sure it needed to be, and had too many characters, but it was a great ride. And nice to read something a little "different" even if it's still sci-fi.

So it's onto two of space opera's modern mainstays now with Iain Banks and then Larry Niven to read next.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Nice to hear that you're getting into a Banks novel although The Culture is spread over a galaxy and not a universe :D I quite enjoyed Phlebas although, for me, it's not quite indicative of what the Culture is all about. I'll be interested to hear what you think once you get into it.

I'm just about to finish Simmons' Hyperion stuff. Quite enjoying it although I'm a little confused as to where it's all going to end, got about a third of the Fall of Hyperion to do. As it happens I'm also re-reading my favourite Banks Culture novel, Excession.

Only a couple of months to go before his next instalment is due out :yummy:
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Re: Iain Banks

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Got anywhere with Consider Phlebas yet Exar ?

I've re-read it in anticiipation of you finishing it and also finished Excession. Currently re-reading another of the Culture novels - Use of Weapons. The story of Cheradenine Zakelwe, who also appears in the very last sentence of Surface Detail.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Yep dude. Finished it off a while back. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It wasn't the ending I was expecting but that's a good thing. I'll definitely be picking up the rest of the Culture novels.

I just finished Ringworld. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more when I was younger but it was still kind of cool. I love big dumb object novels (Rama and Eon, for example) but this one felt like it didn't explore as much as I would have liked. That and the characters were just a bit... I don't know, two dimensional? I'll grab Ringworld Engineers though.

At the behest of my wife, I'm now reading Cloud Atlas. It does go sci-fi at some point so there's a saving grace.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Banks' latest, The Hydrogen Sonata, is released tomorrow and my copy should be landing pretty soon thereafter :D :yes:

A short precis:

The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization.

An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they've made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilizations; they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.

Amid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted - dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command. She must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago. It seems that the final days of the Gzilt civilization are likely to prove its most perilous.


From some of the stuff I've seen it sounds similar to my favourie Culture novel Excession so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this :nod:
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Re: Iain Banks

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I'm still working my way through the pile of novels I bought earlier in the year. Finished off Cloud Atlas - the sci fi bit was good and I wish it had been longer but the regular fiction of the rest of it just didn't do it for me. Should be a good movie though!

I'm onto Stephen Baxter's Ring now. He gets pretty heavy on the physics when it comes to how the sun works and only half way through the book has already spanned 1000 subjective years and 5 million objective years of time! Not sure where it's going next but things are just starting to get really interesting.
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Re: Iain Banks

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I just grabbed Hydrogen Sonata for Kindle.

Will start on the train tomorrow.. Very excited!
eek
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Re: Iain Banks

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Finished my first read through of Hydrogen Sonata last night. All in all and without giving too much away, I enjoyed the story :yes:

Fairly typical Banks writing within the Culture in which the ships and the Minds are the real characters a la Excession. I found the "humanoid" characters to be slightly over-shadowed by the ships, drones and machinery of the Culture but they are the ones who run the show ultimately.

A good insight into the process of Subliming coupled with Banks' usual knock/dig at religion and a smattering of political manipulation all makes for a steady build up to an intense ending with ships strutting their stuff.

Won't mention any particular bits that got me really into it as I don't want to spoil anything for pix or any other readers. Just be prepared for the "more than" Culure excess at the Last Party :D

I'm going to let it all sink in and then read it again in a couple of months time :yes:
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Re: Iain Banks

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Thought I'd dig this up now that I've gotten back to the Culture novels. Just finished The Player of Games which was excellent and am starting on Use of Weapons now. Found Matter at the second hand book store yesterday nice and cheap so chucked that in the "to read" pile too.

Has anyone read Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War by James SA Corey (actually two authors collaborating)? They're the first two in a series and make for excellent reading.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Exar Kun wrote: Found Matter at the second hand book store yesterday nice and cheap so chucked that in the "to read" pile too.
Matter is excellent, one of my favourites!
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Re: Iain Banks

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Exar Kun wrote:Thought I'd dig this up now that I've gotten back to the Culture novels. Just finished The Player of Games which was excellent and am starting on Use of Weapons now. Found Matter at the second hand book store yesterday nice and cheap so chucked that in the "to read" pile too.
Good to know that you're enjoying Mr Banks' work... Use of Weapons is really good, you'll enjoy that too. I'm not as keen on Matter as pix... but it is more about how Contact work with pre Cultureised civilisations.

I've spent the last couple of months wading through the Revelation Space series.. just a few chapters to go in Absolution Gap. Really enjoying Reynolds style of writing and his characterisations as well as physics that I can get to grips with :yes:
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Re: Iain Banks

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Nice to have you back Johnny. :)
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Re: Iain Banks

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Revelation space is pretty epic. There's a short story that kind of wraps things up with the green fly or whatever it was called. I've still got to grab Blue Remembered Earth off a mate to start on that one.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Ian Banks has been diagnosed with gall-bladder cancer. Less than a year to live... Sad

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/ap ... der-cancer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Iain Banks

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I just read that :-( :-(

Very sad. He is one of the few author's I can identify with. At least he will of left a lasting legacy.

Hang on for a while Iain! Just one more ride with the culture.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Was just about to post the same....

Sad indeed... here's the BBC item http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems there's one more general fiction novel to be published but I guess that's it for The Culture.

:(
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Re: Iain Banks

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Bugger, that's not what I expected to read when I came into this thread. :( I'm only just starting to get into his stuff but even within the three culture novels I've read I'm amazed at how varied his style is. I'm not a fan of general fiction but I can certainly see myself working through all of his sci-fi catalogue. Just a shame that there won't be anymore once I'm done. :(
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Re: Iain Banks

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http://friends.banksophilia.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some words from the man himself about the predicament he finds himself in.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Exar Kun wrote:Revelation space is pretty epic. There's a short story that kind of wraps things up with the green fly or whatever it was called. I've still got to grab Blue Remembered Earth off a mate to start on that one.
Aaahh... I found out about the Greenfly last night. Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days is up next and then I guess it's on to Blue Remembered Earth.
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Re: Iain Banks

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Exar Kun wrote:I'm not a fan of general fiction but I can certainly see myself working through all of his sci-fi catalogue.
I've recently got into reading some of his general fiction. I believe that the last of his work is being brought forward for publication and is a general fiction novel called The Quarry. I did Stonemouth a while back and that's an entertaining piece of work, but I just finished his first published novel, The Wasp Factory, and that is an amazing little story. Very dark and unsettling and with an ending that I didn't see coming.

You might be surprised if you give it a go mate :nod: :yes:
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