Iain M. Banks Books In Order

Publication Order of Culture Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Shoreline of Infinity Science Fiction Magazine Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Iain M. Banks was a Scottish author of fiction. He used this as his pen name for science fiction and goes by Iain Banks for some of his books. The Crow Road was turned into a 1996 t.v. miniseries. Complicity became a film in 2000 and a t.v. series called Stonemouth came out based on his novel.

Banks was born on February 16, 1954 in Fife, Scotland. His father was an Admiralty officer and his mother ice skated professionally. He attended the University of Stirling and studied philosophy, psychology, and English literature.

After school, Banks decided that he would move to London. He resided in the southern area of England until he decided to move in 1988 to Scotland. He lived in Edinburgh before eventually moving to Fife. He had met his wife in London and in 1992, they got married in a ceremony held in Hawaii. They separated after 25 years.

He had a friendship with writer Ken MacLeod, who specialized in social and technical science fiction. Just like Ken, there is an awareness of the left wing history in his writing. One of these is an argument about the fact that an abundant economy may make anarchy viable or inevitable, even though it is an experiment that likely never be tested.

The author also put his signature on a document that was making a call for the independence of Scotland. He also belonged to a group in 2004 that campaigned, trying to have Tony Blair impeached as Prime Minister after the invasion of Iraq, sending his cut-up passport to 10 Downing Street in protest.

He did an interview in which he addressed the passport incident. He claimed that he did that after abandoning the concept of driving his Land Rover through the Fife dockyard gates, mostly due to spotting some guys there armed with some hefty machine guns. He also parlayed concerns that he had about the Iraq invasion in a book titled Raw Spirit that was turned into a film.

The author explained in an interview on the BBC Four series with Mark Lawson in November 2006 the reason why his books come out under two names. He says that his parents registered him as Iain Banks officially through a mistake of his father’s. His mother and father wanted to name him that name but with the middle name of Menzies.

The writer continues to utilize his artificial middle name that never made it to the paperwork and used this name when he submitted his book The Wasp Factory to be published. The editor expressed the point of view that it might be better to drop the ‘M’ from his name because it was too fussy in his opinion. They were also concerned about the potential of the name to be confused with Rosie M. Banks, which is a romantic novelist minor character in some P.G. Wodehouse novels.

The first three of his novels came out into the mainstream before the publishers were down to release the first science fiction novel from the author, which was titled Consider Phlebas. The return of the middle initial was brought up to his publishers by the author himself. He did at one point consider using as his science fiction pen name John B. Macallan, which was based on names from two of his favorite whiskies.

Iain M. Banks is the creator and the author of the Culture series. The first book in this series came out in 1987 and is titled Consider Phlebas. The second book came out the year after and is titled The Player of Games. The third book came out in 1990 and is titled Use of Weapons. Several more books came out and the tenth book is the final in the series. It came out in 2012 and is titled The Hydrogen Sonata.

Banks divulged to the public that he had cancer in its late stages in the month April of 2013. He passed away on June 9, 2013. He leaves behind a legacy of his writing. The Quarry, released in June of 2013, was his final book to be published.

Consider Phlebas is the first novel in the Culture series of fictional novels by Iain M. Banks. If you love engaging series that are definitively in the sci-fi genre, then check out this series!

The galaxy is facing a huge war that has been raging all over it. By now, there are billions that have been fatally injured as a result of the conflict. The planets, the moons, and the stars were even facing down the possibility of being destroyed in the middle of this war. Their cold end could come at any moment and the random nature of the situation meant that destruction was imminent and unpredictable.

Different groups are clashing with different motivations. The Idirans are driven by faith, and fight for it to the end. The Culture fought for what it believed to be its right morally to exist. With principles being fought over, it seemed clear that this was a war that both sides felt they needed to wage. There would be no choosing to surrender.

The crusade of an individual also moves through this plight of cosmic conflict. On a world totally barren, deep within a labyrinth, is contained a fugitive Mind. This dead planet holds a treasure in this mind that is sought after by the Idirans and the Culture alike.

It appears that it may be Horza’s fate to find this Mind along with his crew of machine and human mercenaries. The motley group is after the Mind to give themselves the edge in the war. But will the discovery bring about destruction instead? Read this book to find out!

The Player of Games is the second novel in the Culture series. A symbiotic society has sprung up between humanoids and machines. Known as The Culture, it has been able to see its fair share of talented Game Players.

Jernau Morat Gurgeh would be one of them, a top player in strategy and every game. He goes to Empire of Azad to try a game there because he’s bored with always winning. The complex game is similar to life and whoever wins becomes emperor. Can he win, or will he lose everything? Read this book to find out!