IAIN M. BANKS

The 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.

A stunning new reissue edition of Inversions - a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination, from the modern master of science fiction, Iain M. Banks

The 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.

A stunning new reissue edition of Look to Windward - a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination, from the modern master of science fiction, Iain M. Banks

The 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 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.

***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***

This extraordinary collection celebrates the dazzling worldbuilding of Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction. WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK Banks created many original drawings detailing the universe of his bestselling Culture novels. Now these illustrations are being published for the very first time in a book that celebrates Banks' grand vision. Faithfully reproduced from notebooks 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. This is an essential addition to the collection of any Iain M. Banks fan. "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

Nerokas ja riemastuttavan kekseliäs syväsukellus aikaan ja avaruuteen, tekoälyyn, peleihin, moraaliin - ja valtaan. Kulttuuri, ihmisten ja koneiden yhteinen, symbioottinen yhteiskunta, on aikojen saatossa tuottanut lukuisia loistavia pelaajia. Yksi loistavimmista on Jernau Morat Gurgeh, Pelaaja, kaikkien lauta-, verkko- ja strategiapelien mestari. Menestykseensä kyllästynyt Gurgeh matkustaa Azadin julmaan ja käsittämättömän vauraaseen imperiumiin kokeillakseen saman nimistä peliä - niin monimutkaista ja elämän kaltaista, että sen voittaja kruunataan keisariksi. Pilkattuna, kiristettynä ja likipitäen murhattuna Gurgeh ottaa haasteen vastaan ja osallistuu kilpailuun pannen peliin elämänsä, hyvin todennäköisesti myös kuolemansa. Pelaaja on Iain M. Banksin Kulttuuri-sarjan toinen osa, joka julkaistaan nyt Ville Keynäksen täysin uudistettuna suomennoksena. Lukuisat tunnetut ihmiset, kuten muun muassa Amazonin perustaja Jeff Bezos, ovat nimenneet Kulttuurin suosikkisarjakseen. Iain Banks (1954-2013) oli skotlantilainen kirjailija. Erityisen tunnettu Banks on Kulttuuri-sarjastaan.” Banksin luomissa maisemissa on rohkeaa jylhyyttä.” - Portti”Banks on kirjallisesti kunnianhimoinen, joten hän ei tyydy jäljittelemään menneitä menestysteoksia tai toistamaan perinteisiä kaavoja.” -Tähtivaeltaja”Fantastista mielikuvituksen loistavaa kirjoa, vauhdikkaita tapahtumia ja avaruusoopperan raikuvia sointuja. - Taikakirjaimet”Yksi vuosikymmenen häikäisevimmistä ja pisimmälle viedyistä avaruusseikkailuista.” - Chicago Sun Times”Banks on ilmiö!” - William Gibson”Runollisia, hauskoja, hämmentäviä, pelottavia, haluttavia - Iain M. Banksin kirjat ovat tätä kaikkea, ja enemmän!" - New Musical Express"Eeppinen mittakaava, korkealle kurottavat ideat ja koukuttava toteutus." - Independent on Sunday

Mustalla huumorilla höystetty salamannopea, nerokkaasti sommiteltu ja psykologisesti oivaltava maailma Tutustu tästä lukunäytteeseen Koko galaksi kävi sotaa. Miljardit olivat jo kuolleet ja miljardeja tulisi vielä kuolemaan. Kuita, planeettoja ja tähtiä tultaisiin tuhoamaan tunteilematta ja sattumanvaraisesti. Idiriläiset taistelivat uskonsa puolesta, Kulttuuri oikeuttaakseen olemassaolonsa. Kyse oli periaatteista. Antautuminen ei tullut kysymykseen. Keskellä kosmista taistelua oli käynnissä yksityinen ristiretki. Syvällä kuivan ja karun maailman, kuolevaisilta suljetun kuolleiden planeetan uumenissa ja labyrintin kätköissä piileskeli uuden sukupolven mieli. Sekä Kulttuuri että idiriläiset halusivat sen itselleen. Horza oli muuttuja ja hänen seurueensa joukko epäluotettavia palkkasotureita, ihmisiä ja koneita. Heidän kohtalonsa olisi löytää mieli ja samalla kohdata oma tuhonsa. Muista Flebasta on tyrmäävän vahva ja mielikuvituksellinen avaruusooppera, jonka mittakaava ylittää inhimillisen käsityskyvyn. Se on ensimmäinen Iain M. Banksin Kulttuurista kertova kirja. Kauan kaivatun uusintapainoksen tarkistetun suomennoksen on laatinut Ville Keynäs. Iain Banks (1954-2013) oli skotlantilainen kirjailija. Erityisen tunnettu Banks on Kulttuuri-sarjastaan.” Fantastista mielikuvituksen loistavaa kirjoa, vauhdikkaita tapahtumia ja avaruusoopperan raikuvia sointuja. - Taikakirjaimet”Yksi vuosikymmenen häikäisevimmistä ja pisimmälle viedyistä avaruusseikkailuista.” - Chicago Sun Times” Banks on ilmiö!” - William Gibson

An anthology featuring some of the biggest names in British genre fiction, including rare, previously uncollected stories by Iain M. Banks, Stephen Baxter, Peter F. Hamilton, Justina Robson, Paul McAuley, Juliet E McKenna, Anne Nicholls, and Geoff Ryman, alongside original stories by Eric Brown, Ian R. MacLeod, Martin Sketchley, Kari Sperring, and Adrian Tchaikovsky. The rare reprints all appeared originally in souvenir booklets given to attendees of the Novacon convention and featuring original work by that year's Guest of Honour. The very best of British Science Fiction. Table of Contents: Burning Brightly: Introduction by Rog PeytonChiron - Stephen BaxterThe Spheres - Iain M. BanksActs of Defiance - Eric BrownHeatwave - Anne NichollsAlien TV - Paul McAuleyCanary Girls - Kari SperringSoftlight Sins - Peter F. HamiltonErie Lackawana Song - Justina RobsonThrough the Veil - Juliet E. McKennaThe Coming of Enkidu - Geoff RymanRed Sky in the Morning - Adrian TchaikovskyThe God of Nothing - Ian R. MacLeodThe Ships of Aleph - Jaine FennBloodbirds - Martin SketchleyAbout the Authors

Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from highly gifted at one end, to nutter at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time. Uncle Paul's a media lawyer now; Rob and Ali are upwardly mobile corporate bunnies; pretty, hopeful Pris is a single mother; Haze is still living up to his drug-inspired name twenty years on; and fierce, protective Hol is a gifted if acerbic critic. As young film students they lived at Willoughtree House with Guy, and they've all come back because they want something. Kit, too, has his own ulterior motives. Before his father dies he wants to know who his mother is, and what's on the mysterious tape they're all looking for. But most of all he wants to stop time and keep his father alive. Fast-paced, gripping and savagely funny, The Quarry is a virtuoso performance whose soaring riffs on the inexhaustible marvel of human perception and rage against the dying of the light will stand among Iain Banks' greatest work.

The New York Times bestselling Culture novel. . . The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, provably, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization. An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they've made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilizations; they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence. Amid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont 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 her last mission given to her by the High Command. She must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago. It seems that the final days of the Gzilt civilization are likely to prove its most perilous. The 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

Surface Detail is among Iain M. Banks' Culture novels, a breathtaking achievement from a writer whose body of work is without parallel in the modern history of science fiction. It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. It begins with a murder. And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself. Lededje 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. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture. Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful -- and arguably deranged -- warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war -- brutal, far-reaching -- is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality. It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the center of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether. The 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

There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers? Among those operatives are Temudjin Oh, of mysterious Mongolian origins, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice under snow; Adrian Cubbish, a restlessly greedy City trader; and a nameless, faceless state-sponsored torturer known only as the Philosopher, who moves between time zones with sinister ease. Then there are those who question the Concern: the bandit queen Mrs. Mulverhill, roaming the worlds recruiting rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, under sedation and feigning madness in a forgotten hospital ward, in hiding from a dirty past. There is a world that needs help; but whether it needs the Concern is a different matter.

From science fiction master Iain M. Banks comes a standalone adventure of one woman on the run in an isolated galaxy. Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilization based around the planet Golter. Now she is hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes that she is the last obstacle before the faith's apotheosis, and her only hope of escape is to find the last of the apocalyptically powerful Lazy Guns before the Huhsz find her. 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.

A novel of dazzling wit and serious purpose. An extraordinary feat of storytelling and breathtaking invention on a grand scale, it is a tour de force from a writer who has turned science fiction on its head. "Unexpectedly savage, emotionally powerful, and impossible to forget." --The Times In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one -- maybe two -- people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever. Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has changed almost beyond recognition to become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilizations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity -- and her particular set of abilities -- might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter. The 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

The Culture -- a human/machine symbiotic society -- has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game. . . a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life -- and very possibly his death. The 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

The first book in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces readers to the utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination. The 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. The 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

A superb standalone novel from the awesome imagination of Iain M. Banks, a master of modern science fiction

A superb standalone novel from the awesome imagination of Iain M. Banks, a master of modern science fiction.