New Releases by Iain Banks

Iain Banks is celebrated as a novelist and science fiction writer. It is less well known that his first published work was the poem ''041'', in New Writing Scotland in 1983. Like the poems that appeared within his novels, this was selected from the many he had written between 1973 and 1981. Banks took his poetry seriously and worked on it assiduously, but showed it mostly to friends. He first thought of publishing his poetry late in 2012, though insisted it be a joint collection with his life-long friend Ken MacLeod. The two writers were working on this project when Banks learned of his terminal diagnosis, and continued thereafter. He made his final revisions just days before his death. Readers of Iain Banks'' novels will find in the poems a further affirmation of the humane, sceptical and clear-eyed sensibility that informed all his work, shot through as ever with a dry wit that continues to disturb and delight. Ken MacLeod edited and introduces this collection.

A fascinating journey through Scotland''s famous distilleries with legendary author Iain Banks No true Scotsman can resist the allure of the nation''s whisky distilleries. In an absorbing voyage as interesting to non-drinkers as to true whisky connoisseurs, sci-fi and literary author Iain Banks explores the rich heritage of Scottish whisky, from the largest and most famous distilleries to the smallest, most obscure operations. Whisky is more than a drink: it''s a culture, a binder that joins together people, places and products far across Scotland''s rugged terrain. Switching from cars to ferries to bicycles, Banks crisscrosses his homeland, weaving an engrossing narrative from the strange people, fascinating traditions, and downright bizarre places he encounters on his journey down Scotland''s great golden road.

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.

Iain Banks'' daring new novel opens in a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be knocked down in a few days. Ken Nott is a devoutly contrarian vaguely left wing radio shock-jock living in London. After a wedding breakfast people start dropping fruits from a balcony on to a deserted carpark ten storeys below, then they start dropping other things; an old TV that doesn''t work, a blown loudspeaker, beanbags, other unwanted furniture...Then they get carried away and start dropping things that are still working, while wrecking the rest of the apartment. But mobile phones start ringing and they''re told to turn on a TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Centre...

Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother''s identity is another matter. Now, though, his father''s dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time. "Uncle" Paul''s a media lawyer now; Rob and Ali are upwardly mobile corporate bunnies; pretty, hopeful Pris is a single mother; Haze is still living up to his drug-inspired name twenty years on; and fierce, protective Hol is a gifted if acerbic critic. As young film students they lived at Willoughtree House with Guy, and they''ve all come back because they want something. Kit, too, has his own ulterior motives. Before his father dies he wants to know who his mother is, and what''s on the mysterious tape they''re all looking for. But most of all he wants to stop time and keep his father alive. Fast-paced, gripping and savagely funny, "The Quarry" is a virtuoso performance whose soaring riffs on the inexhaustible marvel of human perception and rage against the dying of the light will stand among Iain Banks'' greatest work.

A desperate young man becomes entangled with a Scottish crime family in this “brilliant, irresistible” novel from the author of The Wasp Factory (The New York Times). Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth, Scotland. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth has a beach that can be beautiful on a sunny day. But on a bleak day, Stonemouth seems to have nothing to offer but fog, cheap drugs, and gangsters—and a suspension bridge that promises a permanent way out. Stewart got out five years ago. He didn’t jump, he just ran—escaping the Murstons, a local family of mobsters. But now their patriarch has died, and in an uneasy truce, Stewart has returned home for the funeral. His long exile has also kept him away from Ellie Murston, and if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll avoid a reunion—and the topic of his old classmate Callum Murston’s untimely death. But once he’s back, Stewart steps squarely into the minefield of his past, and as he wrestles with feelings of guilt and loss, he makes some dark discoveries and his homecoming takes a lethal turn. A quick drop into the cold, gray Stoun is starting to look like an option worth considering. The basis for a BBC series, Stonemouth is a darkly witty, “beguiling” tale of warring clans, broken hearts, brotherhood, and the long, hard process of growing up—if you can stay alive long enough to try (The Guardian).

''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

The man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn''t seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams... Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality. Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn''t be much fun, you''d think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you''ve left behind. Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, THE BRIDGE is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities. Why customers are loving The Bridge: "Banks'' Wasp Factory is frequently called ''One of the 20th century''s 100 greatest novels''. It pales in comparison to The Bridge!" - Amazon Reviewer, 5 stars "Mindblowing! This is the first Iain Banks novel I have read and needless to say I''ll be back for more." - Amazon Reviewer, 5 stars

''Banks once again demonstrates his extraordinary dark powers of imagination'' Sunday Times Hisako Onada, world-famous cellist, refuses to fly. And so she travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal. But Panama is a country whose politics are as volatile as the local freedom fighters. When Hisako''s ship is captured, it is not long before the atmosphere is as flammable as an oxy-acetylene torch, and the tension as sharp as the spike on the cello... 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

Daniel Weir used to be a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe still is. At thirty-one he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He''s made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he''ll regret forever (however long that turns out to be). Daniel Weir has gone from rags to riches and back, and managed to hold onto them both, though not much else. His friends all seem to be dead, fed up with him or just disgusted - and who can blame them? And now Daniel Weir is all alone. As he contemplates his life, Daniel realises he only has two problems: the past and the future. He knows how bad the past has been. But the future - well, the future is something else.

''Fierce contemporaneity, an acrobat imagination, social comment, sardonic wit... the peculiar sub-culture of cult religion is a natural for Banks'' The Times A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing... Innocent in the ways of the world, an ingenue when it comes to pop and fashion, the Elect of God of a small but committed Stirlingshire religious cult, Isis Whit is no ordinary teenager. When her cousin Morag - Guest of Honour at the Luskentyrian''s four-yearly Festival of Love - disappears after renouncing her faith, Isis is marked out to venture among the Unsaved and bring the apostate back into the fold. But the road to Babylondon (as Sister Angela puts it) is a treacherous one, particularly when Isis discovers that Morag appears to have embraced the ways of the Unsaved with spectacular abandon... 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

When Prentice McHoan returns to his home town of Gallanach he meets a former girlfriend of his missing uncle Rory, who provides him with a folder of Rory''s writings that inspires him to seek out the man who had disappeared eight years earlier.

Dark family secrets, a long-lost love affair and a multi-million pound gaming business lie at the heart of Iain Banks'' fabulous new novel. The Wopuld family built their fortune on a board game called Empire! - now a wildly successful computer game. So successful the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the Wopulds out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family tentacles for the last few years, thinks Spraint should be treated with suspicion - but he also has other things on his mind. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he yet over Sophie, his bewitching cousin and teenage love, who''ll be present at the forthcoming family gathering - part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting - at Garbadale, their highland castle?

"Fielding expects his cousin to help convince the rest of the Wopulds not to sell their shares, but Alban knows that his first obligation at Garbadale, the family''s Scottish Highlands estate, is to confront two painful events from his past: his ill-fated love affair with his beautiful cousin Sophie and his mother''s suicide. An unexpected revelation by Grandma Win, however, will forever alter Alban''s perspective."--BOOK JACKET.

"Classic Galmour Photography" takes you behind the scenes of a fascinatingorld to reveal the secrets of the world''s top professional glamourhotographers. Glamour photography is one of the most popular genres todaynd many professionals have made their reputation in this field. The purposef this book is to examine the work and creative processes of the classiclamour photographers and then to explain what equipment, approach, settingsnd techniques are required to follow in their footsteps.

In Scotland, a self-appointed executioner dispenses justice to fit the crime. Thus the lenient judge who let a rapist go is punished by being raped, while a man who killed is killed in turn. By the author of The Wasp Factory.

In this work, 20 leading Scottish authorities and new researchers on the Iron Age provide a wide-ranging account of our present knowledge of the period.

Sur l''orbitale Masaq'' s''est réfugié Ziller, un compositeur chelgrien dont le peuple a été récemment vaincu par la Culture, cette société galactique tolérante, anarchiste, cynique et par-dessus tout hédoniste. Ziller, le plus fameux musicien de son temps, a fui les mondes chelgriens pour des raisons politiques : il ne supportait plus le système de castes de sa patrie, raison même du conflit entre Chelgria et la Culture. Il compose, à la demande de Masaq'', un opéra symphonique en souvenir d''une guerre ancienne entre la Culture et les Idirans durant laquelle ces derniers ont fait exploser des étoiles huit cents ans auparavant. La symphonie de Ziller doit être jouée au moment précis où la lumière fulgurante de ces nova atteindra Masaq''. Un émissaire chelgrien, Quilan, est envoyé sur l''orbitale pour tenter de convaincre Ziller de revenir dans sa patrie. C''est la partie officielle de sa mission. L''autre est plus ténébreuse. Comme toujours avec Iain M. Banks, le plus brillant des auteurs anglais de sa génération, les choses ne sont pas ce qu''elles semblent et il convient de prendre le sens du vent. Un nouveau volet du cycle de la Culture, qui a renouvelé la science-fiction.

A beautiful, ambitious woman pursues the ultimate prize in a wickedly satirical novel about a highly secretive transglobal organization.

Who Do "You" Work For? The Business, a nearly omnipotent enterprise, is so infinitely discreet that even its top executives are vague about its actual business. It predates the Christian church and counts among its vast riches dozens of Michelangelo''s pornographic paintings and several sets of Crown jewels. The only thing it lacks is political clout, a problem the Business plans to solve by buying a nation and joining the United Nations. Kate Telman, the Business''s foremost expert on emerging technologies, is chosen to lead the effort. As this beautiful, ambitious American woman pursues the ultimate prize for her highly secretive transglobal employer, Iain Banks -- whom "The Times" of London calls "the most imaginative British novelist of his generation" -- offers a portrait of today''s ubiquitous multinational corporations. Already a bestseller in England, "The Business" paints a picture that is at once wickedly satirical and frighteningly familiar.