Iain Banks - Iain Banks Iain Menzies Banks (born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Politics 2 Miscellany 3 Bibliography 3.1 Mainstream novels 3.2 Science Fiction novels 3.3 Nonficton 4 External Links Politics As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. Miscellany Banks tends to write a novel in around three months, working solidly, then take nine months off. In his leisure time, he has had.
Ken MacLeod - notable for the exploration of socialist, communist and anarchist political themes. He is a friend of Iain Banks and is thanked for his advice in at least one of the latter's books. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Bibliography 1.1 Fall Revolution sequence 1.2 Engines of Light trilogy 2.
Idiran-Culture War - is a fictional conflict in the midst of which Iain M. Banks' science fiction novel Consider Phlebas is set. His later book, Look to Windward, contains many references to the war: particularly the induced supernovae of two stars, which resulted in the death of billions of sentient creatures. According to Banks' appendices to Consider Phlebas, the war began in 1327 AD, and continued for 48 years and one month. Total casualties amounted to 851.4 billion sentient creatures, including medjel (slaves of the Idirans), sentient machines and non-combatants. The war resulted in the destruction of over 91 million starships, fourteen thousand Orbitals and six stars. The conflict was one of principles; the Culture went to war because the Idirans' fanatical imperial expansion, on religious grounds, threatened the Culture's very right to exist..
Inversions - Inversions Inversions is a science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks, which tells the story of two influential strangers within two competing societies on a world whose state of advancement is quite similar to that of early modern Europe. Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers. Banks has written a series of novels set in a single universe which are referred to as Culture novels, and the status of Inversions in this respect is arguable. Unlike the other two most recent novels in the series, Excession and Look To Windward, it is not declared a Culture novel on the cover. It is made quite obvious to readers of the other Culture novels, however, that the two protagonists hail from the Culture, a vast and extremely advanced society with a predilection for interfering in the.
Hard science fiction - a universe that is at least potentially realistic. Hard science fiction is largely a literary genre, as the complexities of physics rarely translate well to the screen. One of the notable exceptions is 2001: A Space Odyssey, however the movie still leaves out much of the examination of the physics, computer science, and other scientific analyses present in the novel version. Well known authors often said to be practitioners of hard SF, include Poul Anderson Isaac Asimov Iain M. Banks Stephen Baxter Greg Bear Gregory Benford David Brin Arthur C. Clarke Hal Clement Greg Egan Robert Forward Robert Heinlein Nancy Kress Julian May Larry Niven Paul Preuss Kim Stanley Robinson Jules Verne See the article on Hal Clement for a description of how one hard science fiction author viewed his craft..
Feersum Endjinn - Feersum Endjinn is a science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks; unlike most of his science fiction, it does not feature the Culture. One of the most notable characteristics of the book is that one part in four (and the title) is written in the voice of a character who spells phonetically (eg "I 1/2 2" for "I have to"). Warning - Wikipedia contains spoilers The book is set on a far future Earth where the uploading of mindstates into a world-spanning computer network (known as "the Crypt") is commonplace, allowing the dead to be easily reincarnated (though by custom, only a limited number of reincarnations are allowed). Humanity has lost much of its technological background, due partly to an exodus by much of the species, which left behind only those.
Fictional language - dislocated. Primary examples of this are: George Orwell's Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four Anthony Burgess's Nadsat in A Clockwork Orange Iain M. Banks' Marain in his Culture novels and Ursula K. LeGuin's Pravic in The Dispossessed. Some of these languages are presented as distorted versions of modern English. Jack Womack's Dryco novels feature a future form of English with a modified grammar. A fictional language is separated from an artlang (language constructed for beauty or fun) by both purpose and relative completion: a fictional language generally has the least amount of grammar and vocabulary possible, and it is made usually for a novel or movie. Others have developed languages in detail for their own sake, such as the languages of Middle-earth of J. R. R. Tolkien, Star Trek's Klingon and the languages.
Future history - future history is compiled in two volumes: The Past Through Tomorrow and Orphans of the Sky. Other notable future histories: Larry Niven's Known Space series. H. Beam Piper's Terro-Human Future History. Isaac Asimov's robots, empire, and Foundation stories (the link between the robots stories and the others is a retcon). John Varley's Eight Worlds series. Iain M. Banks' The Culture. A set of stories which share a backdrop but are not really concerned with the sequence of history in their universe are rarely considered future histories. For example, neither Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series nor George R. R. Martin's 1970s short stories which share a backdrop are generally considered future histories. Also, standalone stories which trace an arc of history are rarely considered future histories. For example, neither Walter M..
Use of Weapons - Weapons Use of Weapons is a science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks, and the third published that deals with The Culture, his fictional technological utopia. The story is essentially a biography of a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe who was born outside of the Culture and was recruited by the Culture's euphemistically named Special Circumstances to work as an agent interfering in primitive (compared to the Culture) civilizations. It is widely considered to be the best of the Culture novels, but also one of the least accessible due to its complex structure. The book is made up of two narrative streams, interwoven with alternating chapters. The names of the chapters indicate which stream they belong to: one set are numbered forward (One, Two...) in words, the other in reverse (XIII, XII...).
Espedair Street - Street is a rock and roll-based novel by Iain Banks..
Excession - Excession Excession is a science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks and the fourth published to feature The Culture. It is a large-scale space opera with a complex plot following many characters across large volumes of space. Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers The book details the Culture's response to an "Outside Context Problem", the Excession of the title (essentially a Big Dumb Object, a perfect blackbody sphere that appears mysteriously on the edges of Culture space, is Mysterious and Ineffable for a while, and then disappears). One of the main plot elements is the relationship between the Culture and a civilization appropriately named the Affront, that tends to view all other sentient beings as tools for their amusement. The book more than any of the other Culture novels focuses on the Culture's.
Diziet Sma - a citizen of The Culture in the novel Use of Weapons and the novella The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks. Her full name is Rasd-Codurersa Diziet Embless Sma da'Marenhide. This is a good example of how names work in the Culture: Rasd-Codurersa is the solar system of her birth, and the specific object (planet, orbital, Dyson sphere, etc.). By this convention, human beings would all be named Sun-Earther. Diziet is her given name. This is chosen by a parent, usually the mother Embless is her chosen name. Most Culture citizens choose this when they reach adulthood. As with all conventions in the Culture, it may be broken or ignored: some change their chosen name during their lives, some never take one. Sma is her surname, usually taken from.
Dead Air - Dead Air Dead Air is a book by Iain Banks, published in 2002. It revolves around the life of Ken Nott, a radio DJ on a London station called Capital Live!. The first person narrative begins on September 11, 2001, and Banks uses the protagonist's conversations -- both on the radio and off -- to discuss the political consequences of the terrorist attacks in the US on that day. The cover of the novel also conjures images of that attack; it shows an old picture of two of the towers of London's Battersea Power Station with an aeroplane above them..
1984 in literature - Steven Levy Iacocca: An Autobiography - Lee Iacocca Lincoln: A Novel - Gore Vidal Love and War - John Jakes Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner The Lover - Marguerite Duras Neuromancer - William Gibson The Outsider - Howard Fast The Practice Effect - David Brin The Sicilian - Mario Puzo The Talisman - Stephen King, Peter Straub The Tie That Binds - Kent Haruf The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks White Noise - Don DeLillo The Witches of Eastwick - John Updike The Women of Montparnasse, the Americans in Paris - Morrill Cody & Hugh Ford Births Deaths February 22 - Jessamyn West, writer Awards Booker Prize: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac See 1984 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. Nebula Award:.
Against a Dark Background - Against a Dark Background is a science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks. Unlike most of his science fiction, it does not deal with the Culture..
Anarchism in the arts - through that symbolism and the anti-authoritarian sentiment which many punk songs expressed. Anarcho-punk, on the other hand, is a current that has been more explicitly engaged with anarchist politics, particularly in the case of bands such as Crass, Poison Girls, (early) Chumbawamba, The Ex, Flux Of Pink Indians, Riot/Clone, etc. Many other bands, especially at the local level of unsigned groups, have taken on what is known as a "punk" or "DIY" ethic: that is, Doing It Yourself, indeed a popular Anarcho-punk slogan reads "DIY not EMI", a reference to a conscious rejection of the major record company. Some groups who began as 'anarcho-punk' have attempted to move their ideas into a more mainstream musical arena, for instance, Chumbawamba, who continue to support and promote anarchist politics despite now playing more.
Anarchism and nature - of government, but of civilisation. On the opposite end of the technology spectrum are some that have been labelled cyberpunks, a few of whom are both anarchist and ecologist, and who see information technology as the way to replace hierarchy, defeat monopoly, and prevent war, and support culture jamming in particular as a way to do so. Some writers -- particularly Iain M. Banks, who has written quite extensively in the science fiction genre about The Culture, an futuristic society which has disposed of government -- have theorised that anarchism would be inevitable with the technological advances that would make travelling and living in space plausible [1]. Other Anarchist Traditions and Nature Anarcho-capitalists believe that private property allows people who care for nature to protect whatever is valuable about it. Indeed,.
Bildungsroman - Young Werther. Other examples include Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and David Copperfield. Jane Eyre also contains elements of the Bildungsroman. More contemporary examples are Iain Banks' novel The Crow Road and Ursula K. Le Guin's fantasy novel A Wizard of Earthsea. See also: Künstlerroman.
Big Dumb Object - just by being there; to a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates this. Big Dumb Objects in science fiction include: Iain M. Banks' Excession Larry Niven's Ringworld Arthur C. Clarke's Rama Arthur C. Clarke's monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey Greg Bear's Eon Bob Shaw's Orbitsville Clifford D. Simak's abandoned machine-world in Limiting Factor (1949) many Dyson Spheres.
Bridge - (or part of it) can be turned up (drawbridge; either one part or two) or sideways (swing bridge). A third method is that the bridge deck is lifted while staying horizontal (lift bridge or lifting bridge). (Alternatively, if road traffic is very light, a transporter bridge may be used.) For small bridges these movements may be enabled without the need for an engine. Some bridges are operated by the users, especially those with a boat, others by a bridge-man/woman, sometimes remotely using video-cameras and loudspeakers. There are often traffic lights for the road and water traffic, and moving barriers for the road traffic. See also arch bridge cable-stayed bridge caisson construction clapper bridge compression bridge covered bridge pontoon bridge suspension bridge toll bridge transporter bridge Works of art featuring bridges or.
