Ranking Iain (M) Banks' Novels

[TedShatner10]

Here is my breakdown of Iain M. Banks' sci-fi novels (which include his non-M novels as well):

Classic - Use of Weapons, The Player of Games, Against a Dark Background (what I read of it, I'm up to page 175)

Great - Consider Phlebas, Matter, Look to Windward

Very Good - Inversions, The Algebraist, Feersum Endjinn, The State of the Art, Excession

Good - A Song of Stone, The Business


I always hear that The Crow Road, The Wasp Factory and The Bridge are the best of the non-Ms. It is very hard to pick my favourite, since I've never yet come accross a genuinely 'bad' book by Banks (I've had mixed feelings about The Algebraist, initially thought it was a tad overrated, but on hindsight it is actually one of Banks' better recent books and deserves another re-read to properly digest it. CP has moved up a few spaces in my personal ranking as well).

 

[stj]

I can never remember what the difference between Ian Banks and Iain M. Banks is supposed to be, so the SF first---

I rate Matter and The Algebraist highest, the best combination of scope and humanity. Consider Phlebas (the first Culture novel I read) on the same level for its originality.

Excession, Look to Windward and Inversions are are all excellent I think.

Feersum Endjinn I would rate merely adequate, because it repeats too much from other books with more bloat but less feeling.

The others---

Walking on Glass bears a strong resemblance to Feersum Endjinn, combining an SF scenario with a more realistic (in this case contemporary) scenario. Unlike Feersum Endjinn it is focused. Average.

The Bridge also combines a SF scenario with the contemporary but with more imagination, more intensity of feeling and more originality. This may be Banks' best novel of all.

The Wasp Factory is just a lurid thriller. But it is a crackerjack of a lurid thriller, and may be remembered longest of all Banks' novels.

Complicity is also an excellent lurid thriller, one of my favorites..

Song of Stone I almost forgot because it was for me just lurid with no thrilling. What an embarrassment!

 

[Stevil2001]

The Bridge is the only Iain Banks novel I've read, but I thought it was fantastic, and it was easy to see from the great worldbuilding in there how he could be a good sf novelist as well.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I can never remember what the difference between Ian Banks and Iain M. Banks is supposed to be, so the SF first---

When he first wanted to do sci-fi his agent/publisher didn't want him to do it under the same name, so he went with the M, and then kinda stuck to it because he didn't want fans who only read one type of his books to be confused when picking up his next book.

Or at least that's what I seem to remember them saying on TV.

from Wikipedia

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents named him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.

I haven't got round to reading any of his books, but I keep meaning to. I'm sure I will at some point.

 

[TedShatner10]

What sci-fi novels have you read Bob the Scutter so far? Another British novelist that I might take up after ploughing through Banks' sci-fi line up is the Welsh writer Alastair Reynolds (whoes sci-fi sounds more gritty and less cheery than Banks', but Banks has pretty fucked up shit his books).

 

[bryce]

I haven't read any of the non-"M" novels, but I agree with the OP's general ranking of the Culture novels.

"Player of Games" is my all-time favorite. "Excession" is a good read (I've read it 3 times) but nothing "excellent", just good.
Though I *love* the idea of the OCP (Outside the Context Problem)!!!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

What sci-fi novels have you read Bob the Scutter so far? Another British novelist that I might take up after ploughing through Banks' sci-fi line up is the Welsh writer Alastair Reynolds (whoes sci-fi sounds more gritty and less cheery than Banks', but Banks has pretty fucked up shit his books).

Mostly Star Trek tie-ins, I can't say I've read too many series, or specific authors, but I've just picked up a few random ones here and there like A Scanner Darkly, Foundation, Coyote, 3001. I'm currently reading Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol.1, but I keep getting caught up in other books and reading them through, and only coming back to that later.

 

[stj]

Thanks to Bob the Skutter.

What sci-fi novels have you read Bob the Scutter so far? Another British novelist that I might take up after ploughing through Banks' sci-fi line up is the Welsh writer Alastair Reynolds (whoes sci-fi sounds more gritty and less cheery than Banks', but Banks has pretty fucked up shit his books).

I've read Reynolds Inhibitor books (except The Prefect) and Pushing Ice and the Galactic North short story collection. In my opinion Reynolds is just more monotone than Banks' SF---neither as grim and cruel nor as expansive and humane. (I still like Reynolds, though the short form is his best work, so it's a shame he has publishers' logorrhea.) As for Banks' non-SF, the only UK writer working now who gets meaner than him I know of is Mo Hayter!

 

[stonester1]

Another for Reynolds. Also, Peter F. Hamilton's stuff I really like. Just getting into Banks, myself.