Talking exclusively to ScIFiNow about the forthcoming Halo 4, franchise director for the series, Frank O’Connor, revealed how bestselling SF author Iain M Banks directly influenced the fourth instalment of the blockbuster videogame series.
“I’m a huge sci-fi nerd,” O’Connor said, pinpointing a specific inspiration for Halo 4. “I think it was Iain M Banks’ Matter. The book starts off with this one perspective, a powerful aristocratic figure and his manservant.His manservant is an everyman, and as you go through the novel you start to realise what it’s doing.
“People are big fans of Iain M Banks’ Culture universe, and eventually you realise what it’s doing is saying ‘What if you, the reader, were given the opportunity to become a Culture citizen and engage in a Culture adventure?’ And that’s how the rest of the novel plays out – the twist is this manservant ends up being the hero. But it’s a tour of this universe. And with this being the start of a new saga, we wanted to give people the opportunity to be given a tour of this universe.”
Iain M Banks’ latest Culture novel, The Hydrogen Sonata, is out 4 October 2012, buy it now from Amazon.co.uk for £10. Halo 4 is available from 6 November 2012 for Xbox 360 – pre-order it from Amazon.co.uk for £37.87.
