Scottish science fiction writer, listed by Britain's fifty best writers, Tarantino from literature, according to literary critics and journalists, Ian Menzies Banks was born in February 1954 in the Scottish city of Dunfermline. Few would have managed to leave such a great memory as Banks Ian in just 59 lived years. A brief biography contains not only books. Ian Banks named the asteroid.
The writer lived as he wrote - honestly. And what happened to him on earth, even the most seemingly insignificant event, all this unfolded colorfully and widely in a completely different world - science fiction. However, for a completely normal school of realism, he worked a lot. The author signed fiction like this - Ian M. Banks, and reality - just Ian Banks. A kind of split happened.
Milestones
Ian Banks graduated from the University of Stirling, where he studied English, psychology and philosophy. After that he lived in London until 1988, and having returned to his homeland in 1992, he married. The marriage was happy, but lasted only fourteen years. After the divorce, Ian Banks could not recover for a long time and for four years did not publish his works.
In 2013, he felt ill, turned to the doctors who diagnosed gallbladder cancer. How would an ordinary person behave? Hard to say. Most often, people finally remember some little things. Ian Banks did otherwise. He announced to many fans of his work that he was mortally ill and had only a few months left to live, so he asked him not to disturb him anymore.
Having stopped public activity, he suddenly married his old girlfriend. Probably offended by God, he did it on Good Friday 2013, when Christ was crucified. Or maybe, on the contrary, with this step, the best-selling author Ian Banks wanted to give the dying God a little joy. Since the writer married on March 31, and on June 9 he was gone. Too little time was left for joy. Ian Banks did not want to cry a day.
Worldviews
Eccentric acts of this kind have happened before. For example, the case of a passport in 2003. Scottish writer Banks Iain adhered to left-wing political views, that is, the principles that the Labor Party of Great Britain preached were not alien to him. The leader of the Labor Party and the Prime Minister of England at that time was Tony Blair - a record holder, by the way, only Margaret Thatcher could compare with him by the time he was at the helm.
And the eccentric act was why. Ian Banks was disappointed with the policies pursued by Tony Blair’s office. As we recall, 2003 was sadly marked by the invasion of Iraq by US forces and the coalition, which included Britain. World famous author Banks Ian tore his passport in protest and sent scraps to Blair. In addition, the writer has always been for the independence of Scotland and put his signature on the declaration, initiated by the Scottish Socialist Party.
Banks humanoids
The most interesting are science fiction books, united by the author in the cycle "Culture". We are talking about the super-civilization of humanoids of absolutely unearthly origin, who are not people in the generally accepted sense of the word. The artificial intelligence of this world has far surpassed the human.
Unbridled fantasy reveals the writer Banks Ian, whose books force the reader to move into the world of intelligent starships, drones, Reasons (highly intelligent machines living in each orbital) and, of course, representatives of intelligent races that have evolved biologically.
Banks’s utopian world captivates: there one can be immortal, there is no disease, hyperspace is conquered, therefore, travel can be arbitrarily distant, taking a minimum of time, orbital sites are not planets, but asteroids artificially constructed in space, where absolutely any desire can be satisfied. There is no power as such, it is created as needed (adhocracy), starships, asteroids.
Problems and subject-building
When a society of universal abundance and prosperity was built (see the old programs of the Labor Party of Great Britain, again this is the terminology of their dreams, betrayed and forgotten), not a single writer can build a fascinating plot. Naturally, Banks, too, could not do without adventures in the pages of his books.
In the novel “Remember Phleb” the reader encounters hostile cultures, in “Excession” - with events that came with the “outside world”, in “Inversions” - with insufficiently intelligent civilizations. An interesting moment when the culture ship lands in 1977, where we meet it ("The Last Word of Technology"). No less interesting novels are “Failure-Free Tool”, “Beyond the Darkness", "Algebraist" and "Transition" do not belong to the cycle "Culture".
"Aspen Factory"
This is Banks' first published book (1984), his business card. The novel is provocative, very tough. The opinions of readers and critics did not coincide about this book: along with the elegant syllable and the beauty of the narrative, the plot itself contains scenes of cruelty and violence.
In the story, a teenager named Frank creates his own little world, where he arrogates to himself the right to kill insects. And he does it inventively and ritually. Having enclosed the space that he called the island, Frank dominates the lower beings through the aspen factory. His brother Eric escapes from the madhouse and promises to arrive soon. Frank is waiting for him, walks around the island with a reader who is learning more about the brothers, and even the reasons for their psychosis are becoming clear. But it turns out that the reader made a mistake in everything - completely and completely.
Crow Road
The book was published 12 years after the Aspen Factory, and during that time Banks became recognizable from the very first lines. This novel is much more populated - the family saga, where each character has his own path through a variety of adventures - to death, as usual with the characters of Ian Banks.
In addition to the psychological disclosure of the inner world of heroes, Banks introduces a lot of pictures of beautiful Scotland into the descriptions, discusses quite extensively about the war in Iraq and much more. Reviews on Crow's Road also vary, but everyone is noted for their interest. According to this book in the 90s a series was shot.
"Glass Steps"
Here the narrative is divided into three parts according to the subject, they are all connected with the game, where there are society, consciousness, and sexuality. The first is a thematic story about an ordinary love triangle, the second is phantasmagoric, it tells about veterans of various intergalactic wars who cannot leave the castle until they answer the question posed to them. Well, and the third, as usual, is about a psycho.
Despite the strangeness of the plot lines and the whimsical construction, on the unusual behavior of the characters, the reader gradually clarifies the logical chains, it comes to the understanding that people of this kind do not behave differently. It becomes interesting for the reader to find out for himself what kind of complexes they will climb out of himself under extreme situations that have developed in this way?
"Song of the stone"
This time, the author chose the background corresponding to the psychological research of the characters - here is a war where moral principles are much easier to collapse and people are hardened to beast-like. A war, especially not a domestic war, but a civil war, is as brutal as everyone we know. Two lyrical heroes are considered - Abel and his wife Morgan, who fail to escape from hostilities. On the contrary, they are in hell, despite the fact that they are at home, in their own castle. Both heroes act as it should for people with their moral organization: they seduce and seduce, lie, betray and mercilessly avenge each other.
"Player"
This work is from the latest books by science fiction writer Ian M. Banks. The second novel about super-civilization from the series "Culture". Again intergalactic games, the main character of the novel is Gurge. He carries out the task on behalf of the Special Circumstances Department and must take part in an unthinkable adventure. The game’s empire is Azad, and the winner of the game is the imperial crown. The concept of destination comes to the fore. The entire Culture cycle, even in writing style, is fundamentally different from all the other books that Ian Banks wrote. Reviews are nevertheless eloquent and numerous on books under all his pseudonyms.