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Iain M. Banks (Modern Masters of Science Fiction) Paperback – May 12, 2017

by Paul Kincaid (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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The 1987 publication of Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas helped trigger the British renaissance of radical hard science fiction and influenced a generation of New Space Opera masters. The thirteen SF novels that followed inspired an avid fandom and intense intellectual engagement while Banks's mainstream books vaulted him to the top of the Scottish literary scene. Paul Kincaid has written the first study of Iain M. Banks to explore the confluence of his SF and literary techniques and sensibilities. As Kincaid shows, the two powerful aspects of Banks's work flowed into each other, blurring a line that critics too often treat as clear-cut. Banks's gift for black humor and a honed skepticism regarding politics and religion found expression even as he orchestrated the vast, galaxy-spanning vistas in his novels of the Culture. In examining Banks's entire SF oeuvre, Kincaid unlocks the set of ideas Banks drew upon, ideas that spoke to an unusually varied readership that praised him as a visionary and reveled in the distinctive character of his works. Entertaining and broad in scope, Iain M. Banks offers new insights on one of the most admired figures in contemporary science fiction.
Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Modern Masters of Science Fiction
  2. Print length
    208 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    University of Illinois Press
  5. Publication date
    May 12, 2017
  6. Dimensions
    8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0252082508
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0252082504
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction, British Science Fiction Association, 2018
Finalist, Hugo Award for Best Related Work, 2018
Locus Recommended Reading List, 2017

"Paul Kincaid has done an admirable job with this book, presenting us with the first really comprehensive survey of Banks' work across all his literary modes. Insightful, detailed, fair-minded, as generous as it is bracingly honest, it's a work that demands the attention of anyone with a real interest in this much-beloved author."--Alastair Reynolds, author of Poseidon's Wake

"A thorough, focused, and very useful study of the works of Iain Banks . . . with the M and without the M!"--Gwyneth Jones, author of Life

"Kincaid's Iain M. Banks is a significant and authoritative addition to these books that is likely to become a benchmark for Banks studies in the years ahead."--Strange Horizons

"Kincaid remains a masterful practitioner of the lost art of finely calibrated literary criticism . . . Kincaid is, unsurprisingly, both meticulous and astute."--Science Fiction Studies

"A warmly appreciative yet acutely critical survey, clear, concise, and well-judged."--Ken MacLeod, author of The Corporation Wars: Insurgence

"Kincaid's short Ian M. Banks is admirable in the scope and depth of its explorations of Banks's many writerly projects." --Fafnir

About the Author

Paul Kincaid is a Clareson Award-winning critic and the author of What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Illinois Press (May 12, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0252082508
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0252082504
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert Shaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2017
Verified Purchase
I have enjoyed the Modern Masters of Science Fiction series and this is a good addition.
Helpful
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Nigel Seel
4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and thorough literary review of Iain Banks's work
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2018
I've read all of Iain Banks's science-fiction (I abandoned  Feersum Endjinn ) but I do find the novels curiously unmemorable. Partially this is to do with their complex structure, the large cast of characters with indecipherable names, and detailed and baroque settings which can overwhelm the storyline. Sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees. The first great service Paul Kincaid offers in this impressive piece of literary criticism is to confirm these complexities and to summarise the novels for the floundering reader. More than this, Kincaid dives deep into each book's thematic unconscious, distilling what he believes to be motivating the author.

He does a pretty good job. Kincaid sees Banks as eternally wrestling with his ideal society. If utopia is post-scarcity communism where oppression is definitionally absent, then how do people spend their time? If the Culture is about freedom, how does it deal with cultures which don't share the Culture's value system? Perhaps in Banks's earliest formulations, these seemed distant and rather easy problems to solve. Yet the more he engaged, the more problematic the Culture became. In the end, utopia seems smug, boring, shallow, selfish, cowardly - even imperialistic.

Banks was a smart guy but he was also a proud bien-pensant liberal, a world-view which is curiously unreflective of the true roots of its value-system. In that spirit, Banks never quite resolves the contradictions at the heart of his own philosophy.

This is a mature, comprehensive and above all interesting take on all of Iain Banks's work and it's recommended.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Gerardo
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Spain on May 29, 2018
Verified Purchase
Este ensayo es una introducción muy interesante a la obra de Iain M banks,en especial a sus libros de La cultura.Lo recomiendo a todos los seguidores de este autor
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Nigel Seel
4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and thorough literary review of Iain Banks's work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2018
Verified Purchase
I've read all of Iain Banks's science-fiction (I abandoned  Feersum Endjinn ) but I do find the novels curiously unmemorable. Partially this is to do with their complex structure, the large cast of characters with indecipherable names, and detailed and baroque settings which can overwhelm the storyline. Sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees. The first great service Paul Kincaid offers in this impressive piece of literary criticism is to confirm these complexities and to summarise the novels for the floundering reader. More than this, Kincaid dives deep into each book's thematic unconscious, distilling what he believes to be motivating the author.

He does a pretty good job. Kincaid sees Banks as eternally wrestling with his ideal society. If utopia is post-scarcity communism where oppression is definitionally absent, then how do people spend their time? If the Culture is about freedom, how does it deal with cultures which don't share the Culture's value system? Perhaps in Banks's earliest formulations, these seemed distant and rather easy problems to solve. Yet the more he engaged, the more problematic the Culture became. In the end, utopia seems smug, boring, shallow, selfish, cowardly - even imperialistic.

Banks was a smart guy but he was also a proud bien-pensant liberal, a world-view which is curiously unreflective of the true roots of its value-system. In that spirit, Banks never quite resolves the contradictions at the heart of his own philosophy.

This is a mature, comprehensive and above all interesting take on all of Iain Banks's work and it's recommended.
4 people found this helpful
 Report