We’re absolutely heartbroken to report that author Iain Banks – who writes sprawling space opera under the name Iain M Banks – has been diagnosed with late stage cancer, and isn’t expected to live beyond a year according to the BBC.
Banks has cancelled all forthcoming engagements, and had said that his next book, The Quarry, will be his last.
Born 16 February 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Banks’ debut novel, 1984’s The Wasp Factory, quickly became a hit, as did his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas in 1987, the start of his incredible Culture series.
Huge fans of his work in all its guises (this writer’s first encounter was stealing 1995’s Whit from a hotel library and being absolutely intoxicated by the weird mundanity he created so effortlessly), our thoughts go out to all of our fellow readers, as well as his friends ands family, and of course the great man himself.