Iain M. Banks – författare

“Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.” –William Gibson

“Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.” –The New York Times

Consider Phlebas is a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination, from a modern master of science fiction. The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender.Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, to actually find it - and with it their own destruction.Praise for the Culture series''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsThe State of the ArtExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe Algebraist

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson

The Culture - a utopian human-machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many expert Game Players, and one of the greatest is Jernau Morat Gurgeh. He is Master of every board, computer and strategy - he is The Player of Games.Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the cruel and incredibly wealthy Empire of Azad to try their infamous game . . . a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh plays the game, and faces the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death. Praise for the Culture series: ''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday ''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian

''Banks''s sci-fi, at its best, is staggeringly inventive, beautifully written, dramatic and often very funny. His stories are packed with ideas, warships with minds very much of their own, alien races, charismatic drones and intergalactic politics'' New Scientist ''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman ''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph

The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe Algebraist

Also now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared.

It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared.

Now it is back.

Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the spoiled-brat operative Ulver Seich, and faced with the systematic depravities of a race who call themselves the A­ffront, it''s anyone''s guess whether he''ll succeed . . . Praise for the Culture series:

''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday

''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian

''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman

''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph

The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe Algebraist

Also now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

Mustalla huumorilla höystetty salamannopea, nerokkaasti sommiteltu ja psykologisesti oivaltava maailma

Koko galaksi kävi sotaa. Miljardit olivat jo kuolleet ja miljardeja tulisi vielä kuolemaan. Kuita, planeettoja ja tähtiä tultaisiin tuhoamaan tunteilematta ja sattumanvaraisesti. Idiriläiset taistelivat uskonsa puolesta, Kulttuuri oikeuttaakseen olemassaolonsa. Kyse oli periaatteista. Antautuminen ei tullut kysymykseen.

Keskellä kosmista taistelua oli käynnissä yksityinen ristiretki. Syvällä kuivan ja karun maailman, kuolevaisilta suljetun kuolleiden planeetan uumenissa ja labyrintin kätköissä piileskeli uuden sukupolven mieli. Sekä Kulttuuri että idiriläiset halusivat sen itselleen. Horza oli muuttuja ja hänen seurueensa joukko epäluotettavia palkkasotureita, ihmisiä ja koneita. Heidän kohtalonsa olisi löytää mieli ja samalla kohdata oma tuhonsa.

Muista Flebasta on tyrmäävän vahva ja mielikuvituksellinen avaruusooppera, jonka mittakaava ylittää inhimillisen käsityskyvyn. Se on ensimmäinen Iain M. Banksin Kulttuurista kertova kirja. Kauan kaivatun uusintapainoksen tarkistetun suomennoksen on laatinut Ville Keynäs.

Iain Banks (1954–2013) oli skotlantilainen kirjailija. Erityisen tunnettu Banks on Kulttuuri-sarjastaan.

”Fantastista mielikuvituksen loistavaa kirjoa, vauhdikkaita tapahtumia ja avaruusoopperan raikuvia sointuja. – Taikakirjaimet

”Yksi vuosikymmenen häikäisevimmistä ja pisimmälle viedyistä avaruusseikkailuista.” – Chicago Sun Times

” Banks on ilmiö!” – William Gibson