Search results for ""Author Iain M. Banks""

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared.It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared.Now it is back.Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the spoiled-brat operative Ulver Seich, and faced with the systematic depravities of a race who call themselves the Affront, it''s anyone''s guess whether he''ll succeed . . . Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars but Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilisation. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars.Abruptly seconded to a military-religious order he''s barely heard of - part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony - Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years.But with each day that passes a war draws closer - a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he''s ever known.Praise for the novels of Iain M. Banks:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph Books by Iain M. Banks:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtAgainst a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson In the winter palace, the King''s new physician has more enemies than she realises. But then she also has more defences than even her most hardened adversaries could imagine.In another palace, far across the mountains, sits the regicidal Protector General. His chief bodyguard also has enemies to worry about, with the threat of treachery and assassination never far away.And beneath the surface of these feudal courts - behind the spies, murders, politics and intrigues - lies an entirely different kind of threat, an entity that nobody would ever suspect.Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Banks''s sci-fi, at its best, is staggeringly inventive, beautifully written, dramatic and often very funny. His stories are packed with ideas, warships with minds very much of their own, alien races, charismatic drones and intergalactic politics'' New Scientist''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilisation.An ancient people, organised on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier. Now they''ve made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilisations: they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.But, amid preparations, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Vyr Cossont, a former soldier for the Gzilt, appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted - dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete a final mission; she must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might just hold the key to understanding what happened . . .The final days of the Gzilt civilisation may prove its most perilous.Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson The War in Heaven, a simulated war game, rages between civilisations. Its virtual battles have been fought for decades, and the victors will decide the fate of the digital Hells - torturous artificial afterlives with horrors beyond imagination.In the Sichultian Enablement, Y''breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit.As the virtual war threatens to spill into the Real, Y''breq is willing to risk everything for her freedom - but she''ll need the Culture, and its help comes at a price. The Culture is going to war with death itself.Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war.It led to atrocities on an extraordinary scale. To the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported.Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those doomed stars has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq'', bathing its fifty billion inhabitants in the rays of their society''s ancient mistake.Amongst them is Major Quilan, sent on a mission so secret that not even he knows what it is, and determined to exact his revenge against the Culture at any cost.Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe works of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson The State of the Art is the only collection of Iain M. Banks''s short fiction and includes the acclaimed Culture novella of the same name.From science fiction to horror, dark fantasy to twisted comedy, all eight stories bear the indefinable stamp of Banks''s staggering talent.Praise for the novels of Iain M. Banks:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The novels of Iain M. Banks: The Culture seriesConsider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. BanksAgainst a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson The Culture - a utopian human-machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many expert Game Players, and one of the greatest is Jernau Morat Gurgeh. He is Master of every board, computer and strategy - he is The Player of Games.Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the cruel and incredibly wealthy Empire of Azad to try their infamous game . . . a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh plays the game, and faces the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death. Praise for the Culture series: ''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday ''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Banks''s sci-fi, at its best, is staggeringly inventive, beautifully written, dramatic and often very funny. His stories are packed with ideas, warships with minds very much of their own, alien races, charismatic drones and intergalactic politics'' New Scientist ''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman ''Compulsive reading'' Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewFew of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth * THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION *Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *Banks is an incredibly talented writer. All his books are lively and entertaining. They are laced with a wry humour, fascinating characters and inspired plots. THE PLAYER OF GAMES, I am pleased to say is no exception... Go on, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed. * STARBURST *In The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks presents a distant future that could almost be called the end of history. Humanity has filled the galaxy, and thanks to ultra-high technology everyone has everything they want, no one gets sick, and no one dies. It's * Brooks Peck, AMAZON.CO.UK *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson The man known as Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances'' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.Though the woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and aided his stratospheric rise, she did not know him as well as she thought.The drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw thought it knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman''s life by massacring her attackers, and it believed the man to be a burnt-out wreck - but not even its superlative machine-intelligence could see the horrors in his past. Praise for the Culture series:''Trade ReviewThere is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *In many ways his best yet... rich, vivid and great fun. * VECTOR *To say that Banks is Britain's best writer of science fiction would be to understate the case. He's simply one of our best novelists, whatever the genre. Read him * BOOK PEOPLE *At last SF as it should be written!... If you aren't as yet familiar with these works I urge you to become so at your earliest opportunity. * CRITICAL WAVE *

Read more less

Book Synopsis***WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK***This extraordinary collection celebrates the dazzling worldbuilding of Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.Faithfully reproduced from notebooks he kept in the 1970s and 80s, these annotated original illustrations depict the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.''Superb - well worth it for the hardcore fans. This is an incredibly well put-together collection of drawings, diagrams, notes and schematics from one of the all-time greats of science fiction and space opera. This book looks absolutely stunning and the quality is extraordinarily high. It was well worth the wait'' Waterstones bookseller review''The Culture: The Drawings pulls together his art work for the first time, and it''s clear he was a very good draughtsman. Maps of alien archipelagos. Sketches of spaceships and guns and castles and tanks . . . This isn''t an archive of ideas so much as the melting pot from which ideas came'' The Times''Banks was a dude who loved his whisky and his amateur draftsmanship has some of the character of cask spirit: raw and unrefined but heady and intoxicating'' Eurogamer''The Culture series is incredible and this book goes to show how the books could be so intricate and consistent. He designed the whole universe by hand'' Reader reviewPraise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday ''Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth'' New York Review of Science Fiction''Banks''s sci-fi, at its best, is staggeringly inventive, beautifully written, dramatic and often very funny. His stories are packed with ideas, warships with minds very much of their own, alien races, charismatic drones and intergalactic politics'' New Scientist ''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman ''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' GuardianThe Culture series: Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons The State of the Art Excession Inversions Look to Windward Matter Surface Detail The Hydrogen Sonata Other books by Iain M. Banks: Against a Dark Background Feersum Endjinn The Algebraist***Also, look out for the Deluxe ''Special Circumstances'' Edition of The Culture: The Drawings. This ultimate, limited collector''s edition includes an exclusive, numbered, cloth-bound edition of The Culture: The Drawings in a sumptuous presentation case, a booklet of original Culture-inspired artwork, specially commissioned 3D printing files and many other Culture-inspired features***Trade ReviewSuperb - well worth it for the hardcore fans. This is an incredibly well put-together collection of drawings, diagrams, notes and schematics from one of the all-time greats of Science Fiction and Space Opera. This book looks absolutely stunning and the quality is extraordinarily high. It was well worth the wait * Waterstones bookseller review *The recent publication of behind-the-curtain coffee table tome The Culture: The Drawings [collates] his earliest conceptual designs for what would become his signature sci-fi creation. Banks was apparently a habitual scribbler and doodler, conjuring crude but detailed geographical maps, architectural drafts, spaceship designs, weapons prototypes and the sketched-out foundations for an entire glyph-based language . . . His amateur draftsmanship has some of the character of cask spirit: raw and unrefined but heady and intoxicating * EUROGAMER *A beautiful book. If you enjoy The Culture, have been immersed in it and moved by it, I doubt you will be disappointed in the book * Reader review *Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future * GUARDIAN *Jam-packed with extraordinary invention * SCOTSMAN on The Culture series *Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY on The Culture series *Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth * NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION *The first glimmerings of the Culture emerged from young Banksie's schoolboy doodlings. The Culture: The Drawings pulls together his art work for the first time, and it's clear he was a very good draughtsman. Maps of alien archipelagos. Sketches of spaceships and guns and castles and tanks. Although the contents are arranged by broad themes (Locales, Ships, Transport, Weaponry and the rest), there has been (wisely, I think) no attempt to explain the material further. What is that Second World War-era battle tank doing on the ramparts of Thra-dra-Ostlehep? Who knows? This isn't an archive of ideas so much as the melting pot from which ideas came * THE TIMES *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson Count Sessine is about to die for the very last time . . .Chief Scientist Gadfium is about to receive the mysterious message she has been awaiting from the Plain of Sliding Stones . . .Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, is about to enter the chaos of the crypt . . .This is the time of the encroachment and everything is about to change. Although the dimming sun still shines on the vast, towering walls of Serehfa Fastness, the end is close at hand. The King knows it, his closest advisers know it, and the crypt knows it too; so an emissary has been sent - an emissary who holds the key to all their futures.Praise for the novels of IaiTrade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson The intricate structure of a Shellworld - an artificial planet of spheres-within-spheres - is matched only by the machinations of its inhabitants.On the eighth sphere of Sursamen, a man witnesses the murder of his father and flees, searching for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother, this means a life lived under constant threat of treachery, while for their sister, Djan Seriy Anaplian, it means returning to a place she''d thought abandoned forever.Anaplian is not who she once was. She has become an agent of the Culture''s Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy.Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which she returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else''s war is never a simple matter.Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisCONSIDER PHLEBASThe war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender.Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.USE OF WEAPONSThe man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances'' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscur

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson Lady Sharrow was once the fearless leader of a combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the vicinity of the planet Golter. Now she is hunted by the Huhsz - a religious cult hellbent on assassinating her - and her only hope of escape is to find the last of the apocalyptically powerful Lazy Guns before the Huhsz track her down.Her journey through the exotic Golterian system is a destructive and savage odyssey into her past, and that of her family and of the system itself.Praise for the novels of Iain M. Banks:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on SundayTrade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson War rages across the galaxy. Billions have died, billions more are doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, face cold-blooded, brutal destruction. The Idirans fight for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles are at stake. There can be no surrender.Within this cosmic conflict, a crucial battle of wits is waged. Deep within a fabled labyrinth, on a Planet of the Dead forbidden to mortals, lies a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans desperately seek it. It is the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, to actually find it - and with it their own destruction. Praise for the Culture series ''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday ''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Banks''s sci-fi, at its best, is staggeringly inventive, beautifully written, dramatic and often very funny. His stories are packed with ideas, warships with minds very much of their own, alien races, charismatic drones and intergalactic politics'' New Scientist ''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman ''Compulsive reading'' Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.Trade ReviewBanks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

Read more less