From Iain's website.
QuoteA Personal Statement from Iain Banks
April 3rd, 2013 in From the Author
"I am officially Very Poorly.
After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that - it turns out - is the least of my problems.
I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I'd started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day. When it hadn't gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice. Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.
I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.
The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.
As a result, I've withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry - but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we'll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.
There is a possibility that it might be worth undergoing a course of chemotherapy to extend the amount of time available. However that is still something we're balancing the pros and cons of, and anyway it is out of the question until my jaundice has further and significantly, reduced.
Lastly, I'd like to add that from my GP onwards, the professionalism of the medics involved - and the speed with which the resources of the NHS in Scotland have been deployed - has been exemplary, and the standard of care deeply impressive. We're all just sorry the outcome hasn't been more cheerful.
A website is being set up where friends, family and fans can leave messages for me and check on my progress. It should be up and running during this week and a link to it will be here on my official website as soon as it's ready."
Iain Banks
Damn...really sad news indeed. I'm a massive fan of Mr. Bank's work and that news is like a sucker punch. :'(
That is truly terrible news. :(
Jesus, terrible news.
Oh that's so sad news
This terribly sad news.
Yeah, grim. It just so happens I'm reading Stonemouth and Consider Phlebas at the moment - both fantastic books. It's hard to comprehend a future without a new Iain Banks novel. I get the impression from anyone who has ever met him, or saw him at a convention or signing, that he is a great bloke - a really good laugh, and generous to his fans. Such a fucking shame.
Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 03 April, 2013, 02:45:01 PM
Yeah, grim. It just so happens I'm reading Stonemouth and Consider Phlebas at the moment - both fantastic books. It's hard to comprehend a future without a new Iain Banks novel. I get the impression from anyone who has ever met him, or saw him at a convention or signing, that he is a great bloke - a really good laugh, and generous to his fans. Such a fucking shame.
Yup. Massive fan here. I've met him a few times and he is indeed a very lovely man.
Cannot get my head around this news at all. The end of the Culture? I don't like that at all.
I'm halfway through Stonemouth at the moment too, and it has suddenly become a bit of a strange read...
Although I have to say in all honestly, it is a well written book, but not near his best. So far, it's kind of Crow Road-lite, but I'm sure it'll come together in the end.
Bah!
That's awful. He's a great talent, and both he and the regular annual arrival of another of his books will be sorely missed.
This is just tragic :|.
I'm devastated. He's my favourite novelist for much the same reason Pat Mills is my favourite comic writer - they're very different but they both have that vast imagination that can take you places no-one else can. They both have the power to make the unbelievable believable, enabling them to write about things few others could get away with.
Banks, at his best, cannot be touched. It's that simple. He should be up there with Asimov, Bradbury and Philip K. Dick in the Sci-Fi hall of fame.
A brilliant, brilliant writer.
Mark Taylor sets his sights too low: Banks should be up there with Shakespeare, Dickens and Chaucer.
Banks is one of those authors whom many friends of mine RAVE about, but sadly I've not had the chance to get round to taking a look at anything of his. Still, his reputation speaks for itself - and this is truly sad news. Not only for him and his family, but for his many fans the world over.
I guess I should read something by him. Anyone got any recommendations of where to start?
Player of Games is my favourite Iain Banks book because it's just stuffed with good ideas, but I expect others will make their own recommendations.
I'm gutted for the man, his loved ones and for the wider community. What a sad loss.
Quote from: ChickenStu on 03 April, 2013, 06:49:04 PMI guess I should read something by him. Anyone got any recommendations of where to start?
At the beginning. For non Sci-fi start with The Wasp Factory, or if you prefer to tuck straight into some Sci-fi start with Consider Phlebas.
None of his books depend on having read anything previous to be comprehensible, but his earliest novels are as good as (in some cases better than) anything he wrote later on so they're still the logical place to start.
Very sad news, I met him once at a book signing/Q&A session and he was extremely friendly, funny and courteous. A future without him and his fantastic Culture is a sad one indeed. Truly gutted. :(
Awful, awful news. I'm a huge fan of his work, he is far and away my favourite writer. Sometimes I think that everything else I read is just to fill in the time between Culture novels :(.
Fuck cancer.
Quote from: Mark Taylor on 03 April, 2013, 07:16:55 PM
Quote from: ChickenStu on 03 April, 2013, 06:49:04 PMI guess I should read something by him. Anyone got any recommendations of where to start?
At the beginning. For non Sci-fi start with The Wasp Factory, or if you prefer to tuck straight into some Sci-fi start with Consider Phlebas.
They're the only two I've read; and they're both very good indeed. How does a man fit such very different universes into one brain? He'll be missed.
Of his books I've only read Consider Phlebas and Use of Weapons, both of which I picked up at a second hand store here on the recommendation of some sci-fi list. They are great books and since then I've been reading them as ebooks since physical copies are hard to come by locally, though that is changing.
Of the sci-fi I've read, his were the most recent and genuinely interesting, not related to some established IP and being an original creation is a plus too. It's depressing reading his statement there in the OP, seeing people grapple with terminal cancer is something I can't look at.
Orbit has set up a guest book to leave a message for Mr. Banks.
http://friends.banksophilia.com/guestbook/ (http://friends.banksophilia.com/guestbook/)
Very sad news indeed.
Truly awful news.
My thoughts are with Iain.
Gutted.
Dunk.
Tweet from Ian Rankin earlier, that show's Iain's utter class:
"Typical of Iain to propose marriage to his partner Adele with the words 'Will you do me the honour of becoming my widow?"
Quote from: ChickenStu on 03 April, 2013, 06:49:04 PM
I guess I should read something by him. Anyone got any recommendations of where to start?
You can start anywhere, but
Use of Weapons and
The Wasp Factory are the standouts for me - probably because they both offer a fairly dark and cynical view of human nature. In comparison, everything else he's written is more upbeat and the new stuff is just as good as the old stuff.
Quote from: sauchie on 03 April, 2013, 10:15:10 PM
Quote from: ChickenStu on 03 April, 2013, 06:49:04 PM
I guess I should read something by him. Anyone got any recommendations of where to start?
You can start anywhere, but Use of Weapons and The Wasp Factory are the standouts for me - probably because they both offer a fairly dark and cynical view of human nature. In comparison, everything else he's written is more upbeat and the new stuff is just as good as the old stuff.
If you want to ease yourself into his normal fiction, start with The Crow Road, I reckon, though Wasp Factory is a bloody brilliant book. I think Player of Games is my fave Sci-Fi, with Use of a Weapons a close second.
There's many Iain Banks books at iBooks
I read Transition (Transitions?) last month and it was the most sci-fi "non-SF" book I've ever read. And dashed good, too.
Oh god, I forgot all about 'Walking On Glass'. How could I? That book is genius! It might even be my favourite of all his work.
It is kind of half-fantasy, half contemporary fiction, and all just so bizarre - as soon as I finished it the first time my mind was still boggling, so had to read it again immediately. It's one of those books where it all really clicks during the second reading, and you can see all the threads coming together to make an elaborate tapestry. Truly masterful.
The Bridge is still a great favourite of mine; I have a much-loved tatty copy that an old girlfriend took along to a signing for me many years ago (dedicated with added 'Yeeee ha!').
I've read most of his fiction and science fiction over the years but the sad news has definitely given me a kick up the arse to fill in the gaps. He'll be sorely missed, that's for sure.
Dreadful news, and my thoughts and best wishes to him and all his family and friends...
The first book of his, I ever read was The Wasp Factory.....Amazingly disturbing, and lived on in my memory for many, many years.....
Quote from: Sideshow Bob on 04 April, 2013, 02:12:08 PM
The Wasp Factory.....Amazingly disturbing, and lived on in my memory for many, many years.....
Same here. I've never been able to get that image of the
fly maggots in the brain bit out of my head.
And I never will.
I too was a fan of The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road. His statement alone is evidence of the man's warmth and wit.
Agree, Link Prime,
That was exactly the part that stuck with me for years..........Just seeing it written again in your post " fly maggots in the brain " ( represses a shudder ) brings it all flooding back........A 'horrendous' piece of imagery.....A truly 'disturbing' novel and a recommended read...