The Hydrogen Sonata is the tenth Culture book by Iain M.Banks, joining the ranks of eight other novels and one short story collection. This latest Culture novel was just released this year, which marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first Culture novel. This is one of those series that often leaves new readers confused about where to start, but each book is supposed to stand alone very well. The entire list of Culture books in publication order can be found […]

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week – old or new, bought or received for review. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included. The Hydrogen Sonata (A Culture Novel) […]

Orbit announced today that Little, Brown UK announced the audio version of Transition by Iain M. Banks will be available as a free podcast beginning on September 3, its publication date. Banks is best known for his series of science fiction novels set in the Culture universe, but he writes some science fiction novels not set in the Culture and this is one of them (he also writes mainsteam fictions as Iain Banks). I’ve read two of the Culture novels, […]

It’s Saturday again so it is time to announce giveaway #2 of the month! I’ve decided not to go in order of favorites each week even though I did my very favorite books of the year first (mostly because favorite book #2 is one of the four books I haven’t found time to review yet between work and the holiday season). Last week’s giveaway was fantasy so it’s time to give away a science fiction book. This week’s book is […]

The newest Iain Banks Q&A is up (this is a few days late but I only just saw it a few minutes ago). In this one, he answers questions about killing off characters, his novel Walking on Glass, the existence of gods in the Culture, technological singularity, whether or not any of his books have been banned, and how disappointing it must be to live in Britain instead of the Culture. In case anyone missed them, here are links to […]

Part two of the Q & A with Iain Banks is up on his site. Readers emailed him questions about the books, writing quirks, video games, and what kind of tattoo based on his books he’d get. Part one, which was put up in July, is available here. This one has more questions related to the books but if you ever wanted to know what places to visit in Scotland, this is the one to read.