Speaking (as we were) of the glamourour life of writers, Bookslut points to an interview with Iain Banks. If you're not familiar with Banks, he's a prolific author who alternates "mainstream" literary novels (as "Iain Banks") with genre SF novels (as "Iain M. Banks"). With a very few exceptions, his books are very smart, fairly bloody, and darkly comic.
He apparently sells very well in the UK, but hasn't really managed to crack the US market, to the point where his most recent SF novel (The Algebraist) is only available from a small press. It's a shame, because he's written some absolutely brilliant stuff-- Use of Weapons and Look to Windward are spectacularly good SF.
He has a mainstream novel coming out soon (The Steep Approach to Garbadale), so the interview mostly focusses on that. It also features some pretty sharp comments about the book, and his books in general, which is refreshingly unlike the soft-focus treatment inevitably given to interview subjects in the US. I'd say "Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?," but then I'd have to send Brad DeLong a nickel...
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Thanks, that was interesting. (I think I would have preferred an interview with Iain (M.) Banks, though.)
Totally and completely off topic (and I apologize profusely) but someone over at Galactic Interactions directed me over here regarding a post (or six?) about the recent NYTimes article about the inability of astronomers to find evidence of water on distant planets. Could someone direct me to any posts on that subject? Thanks profusely in advance.
"but hasn't really managed to crack the US market, to the point where his most recent SF novel (The Algebraist) is only available from a small press"
As a glance at Bookscan shows, that small press (Night Shade Books) is selling well over twice as many copies of The Algebraist as Simon & Schuster did of the previous Banks novel to be published in the US.
I've long thought that Banks' work wasn't so incompatible with US taste as it's sometimes made out to be. What he needed was publishers who loved his work enough to make it a priority. Good for Night Shade. (As for me, just yesterday I ordered The Steep Approach to Garbadale from Amazon UK, and was told that I might also like The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod. You think?)
As a glance at Bookscan shows, that small press (Night Shade Books) is selling well over twice as many copies of The Algebraist as Simon & Schuster did of the previous Banks novel to be published in the US.
Which one was the last S&S published Banks novel? We have British editions of most of his recent stuff (bought at cons, mostly). The most recent S&S Banks that we have is A Song of Stone, which was deeply unpleasant, but that's ten years old now, so it must've been more recent than that.
I've long thought that Banks' work wasn't so incompatible with US taste as it's sometimes made out to be. What he needed was publishers who loved his work enough to make it a priority. Good for Night Shade.
This is definitely the best thing about the increase in the number of small presses. I'm glad to hear they're doing well with it.
(Somebody on a panel at Boskone was grumbling about Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners being "only" a small press book, which I thought was pretty rich...)
(As for me, just yesterday I ordered The Steep Approach to Garbadale from Amazon UK, and was told that I might also like The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod. You think?)
I'll probably order the Banks from the UK when the next Steven Erikson book comes out. Can you get UK-only CD's that way, too, or are the record companies sufficiently obnoxious to get those blocked?
I got The Algebraist from the Science Fiction Book Club (very pleasently surprised that they offered it).
Banks is going to be interviewed on the BBC's weekly author-interview show this week (I think). The topic is going to be his non-genre first novel The Wasp Factory.