Novelist of Crime and Science Fiction Dies at 59:“Iain Banks, a best-selling Scottish novelist whose books ranged from violent crime dramas to interstellar conflicts, died on Sunday in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. He was 59… Mr. Banks had announced in April that he had advanced gall bladder cancer.

Mr. Banks published 28 books in just under 30 years, writing literary fiction under the name Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. Whether space opera or paranoid thriller, his books combined lurid sex and violence, complex story structure, black humor and, frequently, political subtext.” (NYTimes obit)

I am extrememly saddened by this news. I’ve followed Banks for a long time, reading most of his science fiction and non-sci-fi opus and am finishing his last book as we speak.If there is any consolation to his premature death, it was that, given his joie de vivre, he lived 59 years more densely passionately than most of us live 80 or 90. He will be missed.

And here is a brief radio remembrance by his friend and fellow Scottish science fiction writer, Ken Macleod (As It Happens, CBC).