In the realm of sad news, I just found out that Iain Banks (a.k.a. Iain M. Banks) passed away on June 9th. Earlier this year, in April, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with terminal gall bladder cancer and had less than a year to live.
He was well-known, and admired, for both his mainstream and science fiction novels. As Iain Banks, he was probably best known for his novels The Wasp Factory (1984), The Crow Road (1992), Complicity (1993), and his most challenging novel, The Bridge (1986). As Iain M. Banks, he was best known for a series of stand-alone science fiction novels depicting an interstellar, utopian society called the Culture (e.g.: Player of Games (1988), Use of Weapons (1990), and Surface Detail (2010)). His works were overflowing with imagination and dark, gothic humour.
His final Culture book, The Hydrogen Sonata, was published in 2012.
His final mainstream novel, The Quarry, is due to arrive on bookshelves on June 20. Ironically, the novel depicts the final weeks of a man who has terminal cancer: Iain Banks had almost completed the novel before receiving his own cancer diagnosis in April. His publisher, Little, Brown, had apparently presented him with completed hardback copies of The Quarry just three weeks ago.
Since announcing his illness, Iain Banks had been “hugely moved” by the show of affection by his contemporary authors and the general public through his website.
He will be missed.
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db johnston
almost falling 