Loving the #IainBanks reference in #GoodOmens2

#FinishedReading the last book by #IainBanks , about a group of friends visiting a man dying of cancer, in his condemned house about to be swallowed by the next door quarry. Not quite as grim as it sounds, even though Banks's cancer diagnosis came while he was finishing the book; it argues for the value of meeting terrible things with dark humour and even rage. It feels a bit like a stage play with its restricted setting, small cast, and focus on dialogue and monologue. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

#IainBanks non-sci fi reference

#10yrsago UK #SeriousCrimesAgency buried evidence of massive criminality by major corporations, rich people — wouldn’t even tell the cops https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-bigger-than-phone-hacking-soca-sat-on-bluechip-dirty-tricks-evidence-for-years-8730861.html

#10yrsago #IainBanks’s The Quarry, his final novel https://memex.craphound.com/2013/07/26/iain-bankss-the-quarry-his-final-novel/

#10yrsago What @eff learned at #ComicCon https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/what-we-learned-san-diego-comic-con

#10yrsago PIN-punching $200 robot can brute force every Android numeric screen-password in 19 hours https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/22/pin-punching-robot-can-crack-your-phones-security-code-in-less-than-24-hours/

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@dschier @bookstodon

Try #IainMBanks #books for #scifi. The series on #TheCulture are very good - first one #ConsiderPhlebas. Banks also writes as #IainBanks which are also very good - #TheWaspFactory was his first.

@victorgijsbers That is also a great name for a Culture ship. #IainBanks

Ahhh. Ten years since the death of one of my favourite authors. Writer of strange fiction and science fiction, I'm raising a toast of a wee dram of malt whisky to Iain (M) Banks.

Here is a nice wee introduction to his oeuvre in The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/29/where-to-start-with-iain-banks

#IainBanks #IainMBanks #sciencefiction #SciFi #scottishfiction #whisky #maltwhisky #literature #books

This month marks a decade since we lost Iain Banks, far, far, far too damned early. Delighted to see the Guardian celebrating his work and selecting their faves from his "literary" and SF output https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/29/where-to-start-with-iain-banks

Still miss bumping into Iain, as lovely a bloke as you're ever likely to meet, and a bloody brilliant writer.

#books #livres #IainBanks

Where to start with: Iain Banks

This month marks 10 years since the award-winning novelist Iain Banks died aged 59. The beloved #Scottish writer, who wrote #literaryfiction as #IainBanks & #sciencefiction as #IainMBanks began his writing career with the hit novel The Wasp Factory in 1984, & went on to write more than 30 books. Steven Poole picks out some good ways in to his world.

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/29/where-to-start-with-iain-banks

I *just* learned that there was going to be a TV adaptation of #IainBanks #Culture #scifi series by Amazon and it was cancelled, which I learned by googling to see if anyone had ever talked about doing one.

And while I would *looooove* a good Culture TV show, I'm kind of glad it was cancelled, to be honest. 3 reasons 🧵

Nice blog by Chris Hallam, celebrating the work of Iain Banks, ten years on since we lost him far too bloody soon https://chrishallamworldview.wordpress.com/2023/06/08/ten-years-on-iain-m-banks-1954-2013/#comment-10134

God but Iain would have loved our @cymerafestival if we still had him here. We'd probably have to have pulled him from he bar at closing time...

Also, how the hell is that ten years already???

(Via Down the Tubes) )

#books #livres #IainBanks #Scotland

#15yrsago #DHS spends millions on bus kill-switches to stop Osama bin Laden from reenacting the movie “Speed” https://nypost.com/2008/06/08/busting-terror/

#15yrsago #NationalGeographic’s China issue has controversial pages glued together in China https://web.archive.org/web/20130928204106/http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2008/06/04/glued-geographic/

#10yrsago UK government online disability benefits signup requires #InternetExplorer6 https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/make-online-dla-claim-system-work

#10yrsago Detailed obit of #IainBanks https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/09/iain-banks-dies-59-cancer

3/

My favourite author died on this day a while back. I still miss awaiting the publication of his latest book. The anticipation was keen.

Iain Banks. Remembered.

#IainBanks #Author

Just blogged quick thoughts about the 10 books I finished reading in May 2023 https://vivdunstan.dreamwidth.org/391904.html #books #reading #fiction #nonFiction #WheelOfTime #NeilGaiman #DoctorWho #PaulMagrs #DavidBowie #Whisky #Biography #PercyJackson #PamAyres #AlexandreDumas #IainBanks #fantasy #childrensBooks #YA #Otter #Otters #Scotland #historicalFiction #Holland #Netherlands #17thCentury #Interviews #Disney #Comics #GraphicNovel

I finished reading Raw Spirit by #IainBanks last night, a tour around Scotland’s #whisky distilleries. After he wrote it a distillery was started in #Hawick in the #ScottishBorders, my home town. They claim they’re the first distillery in the Borders since 1837. Maybe first legal distillery. My ancestor in 1857 Hawick had an illicit whisky still at #WiltonDean. Which I view as rather enterprising of him! https://vivsancestry.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/an-ancestors-illicit-whisky-still-in-1850s-hawick/ #Scotland #Ancestry #FamilyHistory #Genealogy #ScottishHistory

The drawback of reading Iain Banks’s “Raw Spirit” whisky tour book is I now have a very long list of whiskies I want to try! If we ever get back to the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh I will have to spend a long time - and a lot of money! - in their dedicated whisky bar. It is also marvellous reading more about whisky names I recognise from all the computers at St Andrews Computer Science back in the 1990s 🙂 #Scotch #whisky #Scotland #IainBanks #BalmoralHotel #StAndrewsUniversity #ComputerScience

Fans of Iain M. Banks and his "Culture" books may be interested in this book:
https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/titles/iain-m-banks-3/the-culture-the-drawings/9780356519425/

#IainMBanks #IainBanks #TheCulture

It was very Banks-y at the library today. #IainBanks #RussellBanks

It was very Banks-y at the library today. #IainBanks #RussellBanks

Just finished a couple of books, so starting on a new novel, Wheel of Time book 6. Here’s a visual with it and the other two main books I’m reading at the moment: Iain Banks on a whisky road trip around Scotland, and a collection of interviews with David Bowie. #books #reading #WheelOfTime #IainBanks #Whisky #DavidBowie #Fiction #NonFiction #Novels #Fantasy #Scotland