Author Iain Banks has terminal cancer
Source: BBC
Author Iain Banks has revealed that he has late stage cancer and is unlikely to live for more than a year.
The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel The Quarry, due to be published later this year, would be his last.
The 59-year-old's novels include The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road, Complicity and the Culture series.
The statement said his health problems came to light when he saw his doctor, suffering from a sore back.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175
Loved the Culture-series.
"The Algebraist" was also really good. (Spoiler: In the novel everyone is after the original script of a theater-play named "The Algebraist". If you take your time to solve the puzzle of the useless secret, you know how the story will end.)
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)It was a bit dense and intimidating, to be honest. I found it hard to keep the nomenclature straight though now I think I should have just powered through.
Lol, that did it for me with Feersum Endjinn.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Go in Peace Iain, you wrote a good read.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)I return to his novels like old, brilliant, friends.
Sharrow in Against A Dark Background, I will always be in her corner.
The Player of Games, a thrilling ride like a Jason Bourne movie, a near cinematic experience for me.
Ah, Horza (Consider Phlebas), you idealistic rebel, you holdout.
Excession and its sense of wonder.
I could go on and on.
You know, Surface Detail, with its further exploration of what Banks started in Look to Windward had me wondering if Mr. Banks was considering the afterlife, and his latest Culture novel, The Hydrogen Sonata removed any doubt for me.
Well, if Mr. Banks is to Sail Beyond the Sunset anytime soon he'll get a pleasant welcoming. He has earned it. I hope when I meet him he'll have readied some fresh tales.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)One of the best SF writers out there. He definitely was not afraid to explore the dark side of life in his work.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)Especially in science fiction, but his non-SF books are good too. Yes, very dark at times, but there's marvellous humanity there too (even though the people of The Culture aren't, strictly speaking, human). His statement - in full on the BBC and elsewhere, so I don't think it's copyright :
After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that - it turns out - is the least of my problems.
"I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I'd started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day. When it hadn't gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice. Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.
"I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.
"The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.
"As a result, I've withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry - but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we'll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.
"There is a possibility that it might be worth undergoing a course of chemotherapy to extend the amount of time available. However that is still something we're balancing the pros and cons of, and anyway it is out of the question until my jaundice has further and significantly, reduced.
"Lastly, I'd like to add that from my GP onwards, the professionalism of the medics involved - and the speed with which the resources of the NHS in Scotland have been deployed - has been exemplary, and the standard of care deeply impressive. We're all just sorry the outcome hasn't been more cheerful.
"A website is being set up where friends, family and fans can leave messages for me and check on my progress. It should be up and running during this week and a link to it will be here on my official website as soon as it's ready."
Iain Banks
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)"I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow."
That's the kind of thing that drew me to his writing when I first read "The Wasp Factory" many years ago. Like most science fiction fans, I love the Culture, but Iain Banks will always be the guy who wrote "The Wasp Factory" and "The Crow Road" to me.