^^ I don't recall reading anything by Iain Banks. He didn't have a very long innings, did he?
-IainB
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.
