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The thought of no more Iain Banks & no more of his books in the world fills me with disgust. gently caress cancer.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:10
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First Pratchett, now Banks. What the gently caress, world. Pay those drat medical research scientists more, society. What the gently caress.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:16
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I wanted this to be a tasteless joke so badly; I'm a huge fan of Banks work, and this is just such terrible news.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:24
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Banks is one of a very small number of writers to move me almost to tears. This is awful. I'd better read his books again. It's been too long.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:28
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This is loving poo poo anyway. I work in cancer research and when I hear news like this even I get a sense of loving outraged disappointment that medical research hasn't gotten this poo poo squared away yet. Tonight I'll have a double whiskey for one (two?) of the finest authors of the turn of the millenium, Sun Earther Iain El-Bonko Banks of North Queensferry 
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Apr 3, 2013 18:28
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Absolutely devastating. My favorite SF author by far. Truly terrible news. I hope, one day, years from now, someone names a starship after him.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:52
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This is so sad. I thought 56 new replies meant a new book was out, not that my favorite author has mere months to live. I hope he has an awesome time with his loved ones, at least.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:59
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It's no problem we can always take a copy of his mind state from his neural lace with our eff...  drat that loving disease.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:03
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Hey, Banksy must've announced a new Culture novel or some----- ROU Well gently caress This poo poo Altogether
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Apr 3, 2013 19:03
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That's just loving terrible. To stop this thread becoming too morose, why don't we post favourite/most memorable bits from his books? I think for me, for some reason, it has to be in Player of Games when Gurgeh is getting accustomed to the planet the tournament is on, and he turns on the TV and finds some kind of porno with the three sexes (male/female/the one that takes the sperm from the male and puts it in the female). The Player of Games was the first book of his I read, and it was that scene in particular with its absurdity and humour that made me realise he was above regular sci-fi authors.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:13
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'Itchy motile envelope'.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:22
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In use of weapons (I think), where the lead character gets decapitated, and while recovering receives a gift from a snarky drone: a hat. An old old joke, but it never fails to make me laugh.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:27
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Oh loving hell, no
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Apr 3, 2013 19:29
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Eau de MacGowan posted:That's just loving terrible. In Crow Road, when Prentice finally gives up his kind of doomed love for Verity and gets together with Ashley at the end. I think that process really encapsulates what so much of the book is about I am still loving reeling at this
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Apr 3, 2013 19:37
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Wolfechu posted:In use of weapons (I think), where the lead character gets decapitated, and while recovering receives a gift from a snarky drone: a hat. I was going to post this. Skaffen-Amitsaw giving the decapitated Zakalwe a hat as a gift is such a standout moment. That drone is unhinged. The reveal of the full Ship name in Hydrogen Sonata is such a great moment that I can't spoil it for anyone. But it is so good
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Apr 3, 2013 19:37
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Don't usually come into the BB, but when I saw this online today, I figured I'd come in and express my dismay. I'm getting old enough now that many of the cultural figures I'd spent my whole life thinking of as "in their prime" are starting to get old, and some to die. I've been on a nervous "death watch" for several years now, always waiting to cringe, but somehow Banks just never made it on to the list. I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind I assumed he'd live forever.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:40
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I was fourteen when I first found Banks: disillusioned by The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole (why the gently caress does everyone read it at that age??), I headed to the rear shelves of the school library and found a poorly laminated copy of what I read as "Consider Phlsasldaibgeibaonsdasda" because why read and try to comprehend a whole title? I liked the idea of a book asking me to consider it, and besides it had the amazing picture of ship crashing into a sea that curved...upwards... Sue Townsend had had her chance. The unpronounceably-named book went in my bag. I spend the next six hundred pages not having a loving clue what was going on, and loving every second of it. Everything was shiny and dark and funny and sassy and clever and exciting. Explosions and chases, and a world that impossibly, incalculably huge. All locked in a small sheaf of pages, and in my head, while everyone else blundered around their daily lives as if they were in any way important. I desperately wanted to have a drone, to play Damage at the eve of destruction, and to escape it all in a ship with a pun for a name. That was eight years ago, and every time I pick up one of his M books, I still do.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:41
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In non-amusing memorable moments, the Clear Air Turbulence escape from inside the GCU in Consider Phlebas. I can picture this as clear as a high budget movie every time I read the book, it's so well written.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:46
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I remember struggling with the Culture novels to begin with. My friend, who had lent me Against a Dark Background, urged me to keep going. I did, and discovered something amazing. It's so sad to think there won't be anymore, but that's a first world problem compared to what his family and loved ones must be going through right now :-(
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Apr 3, 2013 19:50
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The reason this hits me hardest is the reason I love The Culture so much. They realized long ago that the mind is what's important, the body is just how it gets around. Here we have a wonderful and creative mind that will be snuffed out at its peak of creativity because its support system broke.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:53
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I love every moment in The Player of Games with the drone Mawhrin-skel. He is so indignant, screeching like a petulant child when he doesn't get his way and utterly unable to control his emotions. He just cracks me up.
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Apr 3, 2013 19:56
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The thought of good people/excellent authors like Banks and Pratchett (favorite Sci Fi and Fantasy authors for me, respectively) going out altogether too soon... gently caress. Use of Weapons, the ending. Probably the Culture novel that hit me hardest on completion. KazigluBey fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Apr 3, 2013 |
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Apr 3, 2013 20:02
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Eau de MacGowan posted:
Look to Windward, when the orbital describes it's involvement in the great war and the loss of it's twin. Those pages have always stood out to me as being exceptional.
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Apr 3, 2013 20:08
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Swamp Fancy posted:Look to Windward, when the orbital describes it's involvement in the great war and the loss of it's twin. Those pages have always stood out to me as being exceptional. The Orbital as a whole was an amazing character ; is that the same scene where it's describing the billions of people it's currently assisting, conversing with, or monitoring? Or is that just another great scene? The more of these people bring up, the more great moments spring to mind. The scene where the Sleeper Service shakes the ship that's monitoring it in Excession , for instance. Starting to really hit home how his books are just packed with fantastic ideas and characterisation.
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Apr 3, 2013 20:21
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He's got a keen enough mind to last for a while in the Cryptosphere, right? 
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Apr 3, 2013 20:31
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Swamp Fancy posted:Look to Windward, when the orbital describes it's involvement in the great war and the loss of it's twin. Those pages have always stood out to me as being exceptional. This is one of my favorite parts of not just Look to Windward but all literature. I must have read and re-read the part in Excession where Killing Time takes on the Affronter fleet at least 20+ times. FEMA summer camp fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Apr 3, 2013 |
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Apr 3, 2013 20:43
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Excession. The chapter where the Affront and the corrupted Attitude Adjuster try to ambush the ROU Killing Time. "Missed, you fuckers." And from there on anything involving the Killing Time is pure gold.
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Apr 3, 2013 20:47
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I've met him a few times - some family members lived basically next door to him for a few years. He is a clever, funny and generous man.I hope his remaining time is all that he and his family hope it can be. I like a lot of his books, but an abiding memory is getting increasingly annoyed with Prentice McHoan in The Crow Road. Ashley loves you, you idiot. I also approve of the actions of the Sleeper Service and Killing Time. I guess it's hard to think of another author who was quite that diverse.
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Apr 3, 2013 20:52
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drat, poor guy finding this out so late. I've been reading my way through the sci-fi half of his work over the last six months or so - it's a shame that there won't be more to look forward to.
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Apr 3, 2013 20:54
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The top secret ship to ship chitchat in Excession, especially where one flies completely off the handle. The description of the main character's house in Espedair Street
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Apr 3, 2013 20:58
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Oh loving hell
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Apr 3, 2013 21:30
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The last game in The Player of Games. You know the one.
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Apr 3, 2013 21:35
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While I felt that on the whole the book was flawed, I quite liked the portion in Transition where the main character ruminates on what it feels like to enter a universe in which the version of himself that he inhabits is gay.
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Apr 3, 2013 21:35
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My relief that the ship I took my nym after is an okay one, and not Meatfucker II or something (Chose my user name from the "List of Culture ship names" wiki before I'd read Hydrogen Sonata).  Also in Excession when the Sleeper Service unveils its own drat Navy and reveals itself as a power to rival any one of the Involved races all by its lonesome. Edit: added spoiler. Caconym fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Apr 5, 2013 |
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Apr 3, 2013 22:01
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Well balls. The Hydrogen Sonata made me laugh quite a bit, but for me the stand out line was one of the last, you know, the one where Cossont is summing up how she thinks the Minds will refer to the whole incident.
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Apr 3, 2013 22:06
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The chair and its consequences.
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Apr 3, 2013 22:16
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God drat it, I saw 88 new posts in this thread and got excited that some new awesome thing was annou-and gently caress Banks is just incredible for so many reasons, but one thing that I really love about him is the diversity of his protagonists in a genre that tends to be pretty monochromatic and dudely.
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Apr 3, 2013 22:23
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And to think I'd thought that Iain Banks put out so many books so often, I'd never catch up reading them all
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Apr 3, 2013 22:49
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He was one of my favorite authors before I even read any of his science fiction. gently caress drat Hell.
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Apr 3, 2013 23:20
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gender illusionist posted:The Hydrogen Sonata made me laugh quite a bit, but for me the stand out line was one of the last, you know, the one where Cossont is summing up how she thinks the Minds will refer to the whole incident. I loved this part too — really confronted the utopianism of the Culture and made me question the Minds. As much as Banks obviously loved the Minds, his self-awareness of their flaws was always refreshing.
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Apr 3, 2013 23:34
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