Descargar Libros y Ebooks (PDF / EPUB)

The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks

Autor: Simone Caroti

Número de Páginas: 251

This critical history of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels covers the series from its inception in the 1970s to the The Hydrogen Sonata (2012), published less than a year before Banks' death. It considers Banks' origins as a writer, the development of his politics and ethics, his struggles to become a published author, his eventual success with The Wasp Factory (1984) and the publication of the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas (1987). His 1994 essay "A Few Notes on the Culture" is included, along with a range of critical responses to the 10 Culture books he published in his lifetime and a discussion of the series' status as utopian literature. Banks was a complex man, both in his everyday life and on the page. This work aims at understanding the Culture series not only as a fundamental contribution to science fiction but also as a product of its creator's responses to the turbulent times he lived in.

The Transgressive Iain Banks

Autor: Martyn Colebrook , Katharine Cox

Número de Páginas: 207

This collection of 12 new essays brings together prominent literary experts to explore the importance of Scottish writer Iain (M.) Banks, both his mainstream and science fiction work. It considers Banks as a habitual border crosser who makes things fresh and new by subversive and transgressive strategies. The essays are divided into four thematic areas--the Scottish context, the geographies of his writing, the impact of genre and a combined focus on gender, games and play--and will be of particular interest to scholars of contemporary literature, Scottish literature and science fiction.

Masculinity in Contemporary Science Fiction by Men

Autor: Sara Martín

Número de Páginas: 145

Masculinity in Contemporary Science Fiction by Men: No Plans for the Future is the first comprehensive study of the self-representation of men in SF novels published in the twenty-first century by male authors. Exploring a broad selection of writers and works, the fourteen chapters present a panoramic overview of men’s contributions to current SF and explore their slow but noticeable progress in the representation of gender. The impact of feminism and gender studies, and the demands of readers, have profoundly transformed men’s SF, which now presents far more caring and vulnerable male characters. The old stereotypes are being replaced by a collective reflection on how men and masculinity are changing, though the lack of a common agenda results in novels that, while exciting and often challenging, sometimes miss the chance to imagine a better, anti-patriarchal, pro-feminist future for men and for all human beings. The authors analysed include Robert Charles Wilson, Geoff Ryman, Samuel R. Delany, Richard K. Morgan, John Scalzi, Iain M. Banks, Ernest Cline, James S.A. Corey, Colson Whitehead, Andy Weir, Daniel H. Wilson, Ian McDonald, Yoon Ha Lee, Tade Thompson, Neal Stephenson...

Iain M. Banks

Autor: Paul Kincaid

Número de Páginas: 206

The 1987 publication of Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas helped trigger the British renaissance of radical hard science fiction and influenced a generation of New Space Opera masters. The thirteen SF novels that followed inspired an avid fandom and intense intellectual engagement while Banks's mainstream books vaulted him to the top of the Scottish literary scene. Paul Kincaid has written the first study of Iain M. Banks to explore the confluence of his SF and literary techniques and sensibilities. As Kincaid shows, the two powerful aspects of Banks's work flowed into each other, blurring a line that critics too often treat as clear-cut. Banks's gift for black humor and a honed skepticism regarding politics and religion found expression even as he orchestrated the vast, galaxy-spanning vistas in his novels of the Culture. In examining Banks's entire SF oeuvre, Kincaid unlocks the set of ideas Banks drew upon, ideas that spoke to an unusually varied readership that praised him as a visionary and reveled in the distinctive character of his works. Entertaining and broad in scope, Iain M. Banks offers new insights on one of the most admired figures in contemporary science fiction.

Dead Air

Autor: Iain Banks

Número de Páginas: 288

'A deeply satirical and thought-provoking thriller' Sunday Express A couple of ice cubes, first, then the apple that really started it all. A loft apartment in London's East End; cool but doomed, demolition and redevelopment slated for the following week. Ken Nott, devoutly contrarian leftish shock-jock attending a mid-week wedding lunch, starts dropping stuff off the roof towards the deserted car park a hundred feet below. Other guests join in and soon half the contents of the flat are following the fruit towards the pitted tarmac... just as mobiles start to ring, and the apartment's remaining TV is turned on, because apparently a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center... Praise for Iain Banks: 'The most imaginative novelist of his generation' The Times 'His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readers' Ken MacLeod, Guardian 'His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent' Neil Gaiman 'An exceptional wordsmith' Scotsman

The State Of The Art

Autor: Iain M. Banks

Número de Páginas: 201

The works of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson The State of the Art is the only collection of Iain M. Banks's short fiction and includes the acclaimed Culture novella of the same name. From science fiction to horror, dark fantasy to twisted comedy, all eight stories bear the indefinable stamp of Banks's staggering talent. Praise for the novels of Iain M. Banks: '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 novels of Iain M. Banks: The Culture series Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons Excession Inversions Look to Windward Matter Surface Detail The Hydrogen Sonata The State of the Art Other books by Iain M. Banks Against a Dark Background Feersum Endjinn The Algebraist Also now available: The Culture:...

Iain M. Banks

Autor: Iain M. Banks

British Fantasy and Science-fiction Writers Since 1960

Autor: Darren Harris-fain

Número de Páginas: 504

Essays on British writers of fantasy and science fiction discuss the changing attitudes towards this genre, including serious consideration by critics. Covers the publication of science fiction in comic books, limited productions of publications by fan presses, the difference between British and American science fiction, the birth of the New Wave, and the revival of horror fiction as a distinct genre.

Iain Banks

Autor: Iain Banks

Walking On Glass

Autor: Iain Banks

Número de Páginas: 183

'Establishes beyond doubt that Iain Banks is a novelist of remarkable talents' Daily Telegraph Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him. They are. Quiss, insecure in his fabulous if ramshackle castle, is forced to play interminable impossible games. The solution to the oldest of all paradoxical riddles will release him. But he must find an answer before he knows the question. Park, Grout, Quiss - no trio could be further apart. But their separate courses are set for collision. Praise for Iain Banks: 'The most imaginative novelist of his generation' The Times 'His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readers' Ken MacLeod, Guardian 'His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent' Neil Gaiman 'An exceptional wordsmith' Scotsman

A Song of Stone

Autor: Iain Banks

Número de Páginas: 290

Set in a war-torn country not unlike Bosnia, this internationally bestselling novel concerns a band of soldiers who find refuge in a rural castle.

Matter

Autor: Iain M. Banks

Número de Páginas: 280

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 intricate structure of a Shellworld - an artificial planet of spheres-within-spheres - is matched only by the machinations of its inhabitants. On the eighth sphere of Sursamen, a man witnesses the murder of his father and flees, searching for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother, this means a life lived under constant threat of treachery, while for their sister, Djan Seriy Anaplian, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever. Anaplian is not who she once was. She has become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which she returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of...

Iain Banks Backlist X18 D/B

Autor: Iain M. Banks

100 Most Popular Science Fiction Authors

Autor: Maura Heaphy

Número de Páginas: 598

Contains biographical and bibliographical information on one hundred popular science fiction writers active from the classical era into the twenty-first century, each including a list of interviews and essays.

Surface Detail

Autor: Iain M. Banks

Número de Páginas: 443

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 "War in Heaven", a simulated war game, rages between civilisations. Its virtual battles have been fought for decades, and the victors will decide the fate of the digital Hells - torturous artificial afterlives with horrors beyond imagination. In the Sichultian Enablement, Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. As the virtual war threatens to spill into the Real, Y'breq is willing to risk everything for her freedom - but she'll need the Culture, and its help comes at a price. The Culture is going to war with death itself. 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...

British Writers

Autor: Jay Parini

Número de Páginas: 536

Covers writers who have made significant contributions to British, Irish, and Commonwealth literature from the fourteenth century to the present day. Includes in-depth critical and biographical analysis

English Novel Explication

Autor: Peter L. Abernethy

Número de Páginas: 616

The Bridge

Autor: Iain Banks

Número de Páginas: 0

A stunning audio experience that re-works Ian,Banks' popular novel, narrated by Banks himself.,The soundtrack, performed by a cast of forty five,was created by Gary Lloyd, a composer who has,written for television, theatre, film, and,contemporary dance. This is much more than a,""talking book"".

Transition

Autor: Iain Banks

Número de Páginas: 289

A world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse, such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organisation with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers? On the Concern's books are Temudjin Oh, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice; and a nameless, faceless torturer known only as the Philosopher. And then there's the renegade Mrs Mulverhill, who recruits rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, hiding out from a dirty past in a forgotten hospital ward. As these vivid, strange and sensuous worlds circle and collide, the implications of turning traitor to the Concern become horribly apparent, and an unstable universe is set on a dizzying course.

The Wasp Factory

Autor: Iain Banks

Número de Páginas: 196

The polarizing literary debut by Scottish author Ian Banks, The Wasp Factory is the bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath. Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least: Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.