Iain Banks

Iain Menzies Banks writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. He was born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland; the son of an officer in the Admiralty and a mother who was once a professional ice skater. Banks studied English and Philosophy at the University of Stirling. Married in 1992, he lives currently in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge. His next book will be a mainstream one and is due for publication in September 2006.

Bibliography

Mainstream novels

His 'mainstream' novels (although some contain fantastical elements), i.e. those written as Iain Banks, are:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• The Wasp Factory (1984)
• Walking on Glass (1985)
• The Bridge (1986)
• Espedair Street (1987) – adapted for BBC radio in 1998 (dir. Dave Batchelor)
• Canal Dreams (1989)
• The Crow Road (1992) – adapted for BBC TV in 1996 (dir. Gavin Millar)
• Complicity (1993) – filmed in 2000 (dir. Gavin Millar), retitled Retribution for its US DVD/video release
• Whit (1995)
• A Song of Stone (1997)
• The Business (1999)
• Dead Air (2002)

Science fiction novels

Much of Banks' science fiction deals with a large pan-galactic civilisation, the Culture, which he has developed in some detail over the course of six novels and a collection of short stories.

Related Topics:
The Culture - Short stories

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These are written as Iain M. Banks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Consider Phlebas (1987)
• The Player of Games (1988)
• Use of Weapons (1990)
• Excession (1996)
• Inversions (1998) (makes covert references to the protagonists being Culture citizens)
• Look to Windward (2000)

His other, non-Culture, science fiction novels are:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Against a Dark Background (1993)
• Feersum Endjinn (1994)
• The Algebraist (2004)

Short fiction

Banks does not write much short fiction but has published one collection under his Iain M. Banks name:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• The State of the Art (1989)

It contains both science fiction and mainstream writing. The title novella deals with the Culture, as do two other stories.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nonfiction

• Raw Spirit (2003) (a travelogue of Scotland and its whisky distilleries)