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You like science fiction, don't you? Of course you do!

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oblivion:
^^ I don't recall reading anything by Iain Banks. He didn't have a very long innings, did he?
-IainB (June 10, 2013, 05:16 AM)
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30 years?

His first novel, The Wasp Factory, was odd, affecting and unsettling: I remember the disconcerting feeling, after I'd finished it, that I'd never really been made to feel sympathy with a complete psycho before.

His SF output, written as Iain M Banks, started with Consider Phlebas and introduced The Culture, a system that housed most of his later SF. (Actually, Walking On Glass was sort of sf too, but I might be the only person in the world who liked it -- it's often forgotten.)

Non-SF novels included The Crow Road (which was televised) and Complicity (which was filmed).

I haven't read all his books, by quite a stretch, but I haven't read anything of his that I didn't like, at least to some extent. He often didn't create characters that were easy to sympathise with, or even like, but you couldn't complain about the quality of his creations, which were almost always stunning.

Oh, and you might remember the fuss about Feersumm Enjinn.

I think he grew in importance with every book, and as The Wasp Factory was pretty important from the get-go, I think he was a major loss.

The notice in The Scotsman might remind you of some things you've forgotten about him.

kyrathaba:
I've read "Consider Phlebas", "The Player of Games" and "Use of Weapons". Good, action-packed scifi.

urlwolf:
Oh, Firefly and serenity...
How I long for the day netflix decides to do a relaunch, like they did for 'Arrested development'.
A pity the actors may be too old by now ;)

IainB:
Very long innings?  Haven't heard that expression. ...
-wraith808 (June 10, 2013, 09:37 AM)
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  Sorry, it's an English cricketing metaphor/term. The period of time that you are a batsman "in" the crease and being bowled at is your "innings", and you are defending your wicket (from being hit by the ball) meanwhile.
   To say that someone "didn't have a long innings" means that he didn't last long before being bowled "out", caught "out", or otherwise adjudged "out" by the umpire (e.g., LBW - leg before wicket).
It's complicated by the fact that, in any given innings, there would be two batsmen - one at each of the two wickets. The one who is currently not being bowled at is waiting his turn and just supports the other in taking any runs.

Iain Banks was apparently only 59 years old when he died - well below the typical "three score and ten" (Christian Biblical, Leviticus 12, and Psalms 90) - hence "He didn't have a very long innings, did he?" - i.e., a lifespan prematurely cut short.

rjbull:
Jack Vance (the science fiction writer-IainB (June 02, 2013, 10:02 PM)
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I think there's a project to bring all his work back into print.  I haven't read very many of his; last one I read was the entertaining Night Lamp.

[Edit at UK time 2013-06-12, 21:51:-] There is such a project: see the Jack Vance Wikipedia page [/Edit]

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