From archive (archive) Subject: Author Lists: Iain Banks From: JWenn.ESAE@XEROX.COM Date: 2 Jun 89 16:03:21 GMT I'm sorry I haven't read any Iain Banks. Does anyone have something to say? [NSF] == Not SF /John arpa: JWenn.ESAE@Xerox.com beautyisnteverythingwillingnesscountsforalot-ly ---------------------------------------------------------------- Banks, Iain In Same Universe: Consider Phlebas [1987] The Player of Games [1988] The Wasp Factory [1984] Walking On Glass [1985] The Bridge [1986] Espedair Street [1987] [NSF] From rec.arts.sf.written Sat Aug 28 11:56:20 1993 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!bsdi.com!not-for-mail From: donn@BSDI.COM (Donn Seeley) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: chronology of writing for Iain Banks's novels Date: 24 Aug 1993 18:54:10 -0400 Organization: Berkeley Software Design Inc., Outdoor Recreation Dept. Lines: 105 Distribution: world Message-ID: <25e66i$o92@BSDI.COM> NNTP-Posting-Host: bsdi.com Summary: it's not the obvious order [Since there seems to be some renewed interest in Iain Banks and some confusion about the order in which he wrote his novels, I've dredged up an old posting of mine which summarizes some comments that Banks made in an interview that appeared in Mark Ziesing's now defunct JOURNAL WIRED. Enjoy... -- Donn] Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Path: hellgate.utah.edu!donn From: donn@albion.utah.edu (Donn Seeley) Subject: the novels of Iain Banks Summary: Banks spills the beans in an interview for JOURNAL WIRED Organization: University of Utah CS Dept Date: Thu, 4 Jan 90 07:41:03 GMT A number of months ago, there was a plea in sf-lovers for a list of the novels of Iain Banks. This plea was mostly answered, I think, but just recently I read an interview with Banks in JOURNAL WIRED and in that interview Banks sets out a complete list of his published AND unpublished novels... The interview (from May 1989) is fun and informative and you ought to track it down if you have an interest in Banks. Just in case you haven't ordered a copy of JOURNAL WIRED from Mark Ziesing or your favorite SF bookstore, I've typed up a summary of Banks's novels based on his enumeration of his works in the interview. The titles in this list should be in order by date of writing (NOT publication). Quotes from Banks derive from the interview. THE HUNGARIAN LIFT JET. Written in 1970, unpublished. '[A] spy story, absolutely full of sex and violence, neither of which I'd had any experience with at the time [laughter].' TTR. Written in 1972, unpublished. 'Just gigantic. ... It had a cast of thousands and was very silly.' Quasi-SF in the mold of CATCH-22 and STAND ON ZANZIBAR. THE USE OF WEAPONS. Written in 1974 or 1975, unpublished in its original version; apparently rewritten in the summer of 1989 for publication. SF; the first novel of the Culture. Like the later novels THE PLAYER OF GAMES and CONSIDER PHLEBAS, it apparently concerns a misfit or outsider in the interstellar utopian anarchy of the Culture. AGAINST A DARK BACKGROUND. Written after WEAPONS; unpublished. SF but not connected to the Culture stories. THE PLAYER OF GAMES. Written three years after BACKGROUND, published in 1988 after a bit of rewriting. The second Culture novel. A story about the nature of competition and cooperation that takes place on a planet where society is built around an incredibly complex game. Fun, although the politics is a bit heavy-handed. THE STATE OF THE ART. Written in 1979, published in 1989 after some polishing. A novella about Earth and the Culture published as a book. A Culture starship discovers Earth and members of the crew have different reactions to our own culture circa 1977. How does a utopia like the Culture react to an ugly mess like Earth? Some interesting insights into the Culture but the story doesn't stand by itself. THE WASP FACTORY. Banks's sixth novel, first one published, in 1984. The first book 'that I did a second draft on.' As for content -- to quote the author, 'Well, you can call THE WASP FACTORY a lot of things, but MEDIOCRE it AIN'T.' If you had to classify it, I suppose you could call it 'psychological horror'. FACTORY made a big stir in the UK when it came out -- some people found it pretty shocking. It's great fun even when it's being egregiously nasty... Highly recommended. CONSIDER PHLEBAS. Written after FACTORY; published in 1987, making it the first published Culture novel. A big and gaudy novel, written as a kind of send-up of or tribute to classic space opera. As space opera, it kicks ass -- plus it's wonderfully funny. Says Mr Banks: 'CONSIDER PHLEBAS would make a fucking BRILLIANT film...' It would, too. WALKING ON GLASS. Written after PHLEBAS; published in 1985. Very complex novel about the different ways people experience reality. Reminds me of Phil Dick and Christopher Priest. Hey, and it's funny too. I read this first and I still think it's great, but David Hartwell didn't like it and you might not either. De gustibus. O. Written after GLASS; unpublished. 'It wasn't very good...' THE BRIDGE. Written after O; published in 1986. Very strange fantasy about a man who finds himself in a world where civilization is built on an infinite bridge over an infinite sea. It contains some bits from the unpublished novel O. The editor had Banks cut some 40,000 words from the novel; Banks mentions the idea of publishing an unabridged BRIDGE someday. However, he says: 'I'm certainly very happy with the way it IS' -- the book is still very effective. I liked it a lot. ESPEDAIR STREET. Written after BRIDGE; published in 1987. A novel about the career of a rock musician from Scotland who makes it big but falls from grace. I liked it but I wasn't overwhelmed; it's a nice character study with many details from the music business. CANAL DREAMS. Written after the rewrite of GAMES; published 1989. A short novel that combines a character study of a classical musician with nail-biting suspense. The musician is a woman cello player from Japan, so it's more exotic than it might sound. I rather liked it. Forthcoming: The rewritten WEAPONS for 1989; a new non-SF book for 1990 ('something more like THE BRIDGE, that complicated and intricate [but] a bit bigger, beefier, as it were, the size of PHLEBAS perhaps'); the rewrite of BACKGROUND for 1991. Looking forward to more Banks books, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@cs.utah.edu 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 utah-cs!donn