Iain (M.) Banks succumbed to cancer after a short battle with it, and mere days before the release of his now final book The Quarry. Banks has been on my yearly checklist of authors to look up and automatically buy anything new they have published, for some time now. Ever since I read Use of Weapons—the psychological examination of a master assassin, periodically hired by those too powerful and pure to do their dirty work, and told in a Memento style time loop, where we learn the background and the aftermath simultaneously, as one works backward and the other works forward to meet at the end of the novel—I’ve been captured by the huge worlds he builds and the lovely ways in which he describes them. Iain had an economic flair for words, and a way of packing depth and quantity into such a small space that it was easy to miss it. He was also one of the few authors I’ve encountered who was as equally skilled as he was devoted to both general literature and science fiction. You’ll be missed, Mr. Banks.
guardian.co.uk/books/2013/ju … -59-cancer
guardian.co.uk/books/2013/ju … r-scotland
Ordered The Wasp Factory today, lots of catching up to do.
loved and respected by most who knew him, and knew of him and his work.
Bon Voyage, Iain
Indeed, yes.
Would but we could give them to them, but we can’t, but what a legacy Iain has left for his ’Widow’, Adele. All but universally loved and admire, for the kind of human being he was, and widely admired and respected for his multi genre talent…some would say genius.
Let’s hope time works its magic on behalf of Adele and the family and friends of Iain, and pain is short lived, to be replaced by smiles from warm fond memories. I suspect he’s created oodles of material for those.