I set up a Google Alert (now an obsolete Google tech, but still working) to track any web news about Iain Banks’ new book Surface Detail. Very few uses of the phrase “surface detail” relate to his book though. I am either getting stuff about astronomy/photography like: Photo Tips for Shooting the Moon Or stuff [...]

A good summary of Iain Bank’s career at this site about the Edinburgh Festival. Unfortunately not many snippets about Surface Detail though. All we get is: His next book is Surface Detail, a Culture novel(released 7 October 2010). The utopian Culture, he tells us was created to reclaim the moral high ground of space opera where [...]

The full story is at the Little Brown Book Group blog. Confirmed events so far include: Wed 06.10.10 – The Roundhouse, London Thu 07.10.10 – Forbidden Planet, London Fri 15.10.10 – Morley Literature Festival, Leeds Sat 16.10.10 & Sun 17.10.10 – Cheltenham Literary Festival Tue 19.10.10 – The Paragon, Bath (with Toppings Books) REARRANGED – [...]

How amazingly self-indulgent of me, but I thought Sunday would be a good day for reflecting on some of the blog posts created over the last month that have also drawn the most hits over the last month, so here they are the top five! Review of Iain Banks iPhone App – way out in [...]

You might have heard that there’s a new Culture novel from Iain Banks coming out later this year (October 2010). It’s called Surface Detail and here’s the info about it on his site at the moment: Surface Detail It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. It begins with a murder. [...]

For some crazy reason I seem to have not spotted some of the videos contained in the protected section of the Iain Banks iPhone App. I have now corrected the original review so please go there to see the whole listing. It seems that these videos are unique to the app at the moment – [...]

Very intriguing! As a fan of Iain Banks (see my article on his Wasp Factory), and also a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy, this is an amazing insight into the mind of one of the world’s best SF writers. I was really interested in how Iain wrote his books – did he plan meticulously, [...]

I have listened to eight episodes of Transition so far. It’s quite good, but not as good as some of his best work like The Bridge or Matter. What is clear though, is that, no matter what his publishers might say, this is science fiction. Time travel, alternate realities – completely science fiction. Which probably [...]

I was going to do a selection of interesting links that I had come across this week, this was the only one that really stood out! Listen to Iain Banks’ new book Transition on iTunes

Interesting article about Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory at the Guardian. Link takes you to the story on Iain’s own blog. Interesting that he turned to ‘mainstream’ after feeling frustration at several SF books being rejected. Incoming search terms:wasp factory guardian