Iain Banks is dying of cancer

Story at the Guardian, thanks to people in comments below. This is very sad news. He has been a wonderful and prolific writer, whose intelligence and considerable grasp of politics were often concealed by the lightness of his touch. I would have loved it had he written more in the experimental vein of some of his earlier fiction – Walking on Glass is just a lovely book – but am grateful for what he has written. He never got the reception in the US that he deserved – some CT readers may not know his work. Readers interested in his literary side should perhaps start with Walking on Glass or The Wasp Factory (“It is a sick, sick world when the confidence and investment of an astute firm of publishers is justified by a work of unparalleled depravity. There is no denying the bizarre fertility of the author’s imagination: his brilliant dialogue, his cruel humour, his repellent inventiveness. The majority of the literate public, however, will be relieved that only reviewers are obliged to look at any of it.” – The Irish Times), and those more interested in sf should begin with Consider Phlebas or perhaps The Use of Weapons. They’re all wonderful novels, in very different ways.

via Crooked Timber http://crookedtimber.org/2013/04/03/iain-banks-is-dying-of-cancer/