Iain Banks Books In Order

Novels

The Wasp Factory (1984)
Walking on Glass (1985)
The Bridge (1986)
Espedair Street (1987)
Canal Dreams (1989)
The Crow Road (1992)
Complicity (1993)
Whit (1995)
A Song of Stone (1996)
The Business (1999)
Dead Air (2002)
The Steep Approach to Garbadale (2007)
Stonemouth (2012)
The Quarry (2013)

Collections

Non fiction

Raw Spirit (2003)
The Culture: Notes and Drawings (2021)

Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Iain Banks Books Overview

The Wasp Factory

Frank, no ordinary sixteen year old, lives with his father outsIde a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank’s mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric’s escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother’s inevitable return an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly. Iain Banks’ celebrated first novel is a work of extraordinary originality, imagination and horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because it enters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of life and death are alien to our society; and compulsive, because the humour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all.

Walking on Glass

‘Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life.’ 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.

The Bridge

In The Bridge, master storyteller and weaver of worlds, Iain Banks creates a mysterious structure that leads from nowhere to nowhere. Everyone lives on The Bridge, including a man named Orr, devoid of personality or memory, and haunted by dreams of war. Banks’ engaging blend of the cutting edge hypothetical and blistering reality collide in The Bridge . The Bridge is like none other: A multi layered society of incredible cities, terrible war zones, humor, horror and lust. Now that John Orr victim of a terrible car accident has reached it, the question remains of what lies on the other side.’Banks is a phenomenon. Wildly successful, fearlessly creative…
with gnarly energy and elegance!’ William Gibson, author of Neuromancer’Banks never does the same thing twice. But he always does it sublimely.’ Los Angeles Times

Espedair Street

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.

The Crow Road

From its bravura opening onwards, The Crow Road is justly regarded as an outstanding contemporary novel. ‘It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.’ Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God and illegal substances.

Complicity

Complicity n. 1. the fact of being an accomplice, esp. in a criminal act A few spliffs, a spot of mild S&M, phone through the copy for tomorrow’s front page, catch up with the latest from your mystery source could be big, could be very big in fact, just a regular day at the office for free wheeling, substance abusing Cameron Colley, a fully paid up Gonzo hack on an Edinburgh newspaper. The source is pretty thin, but Cameron senses a scoop and checks out a series of bizarre deaths from a few years ago only to find that the police are checking out a series of bizarre deaths that are happening right now. And Cameron just might know more about it than he’d care to admit…
Involvement; connection; liability Complicity is a stunting exploration of the morality of greed, corruption and violence, venturing fearlessly into the darker recesses of human purpose.

Whit

A little knowledge can be a very 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. Truth and falsehood; kinship and betrayal; ‘herbal’ cigarettes and compact discs Whit is an exploration of the techno ridden barrenness of modern Britain from a unique perspective.

A Song of Stone

A European nation not unlike Bosnia: Armed forces roam the lawless land where dark columns of smoke rise up from the surrounding farms and houses. The war is ending, perhaps ended. But for the castle and its occupants, a young lord and lady, the trouble is just beginning. Fearing an invasion of soldiers, the amorous couple take to the roads with the other refugees, disguised in rags. But the sad*istic female lieutenant of an outlaw band of guerrillas has other ideas. Just hours into their escape, the fleeing aristocrats are delivered back to the castle, where, now prisoners in their own home, they become pawns in the lieutenant’s dangerous game of desire, deceit, and death. The physical, sexual, and political tensions that ensue catapult the narrative from war story to universal morality tale. Already a number one bestseller in England, A Song of Stone demonstrates Iain Banks’s unique ability to combine gripping narrative with a soaring, voyaging imagination. As he did in his widely acclaimed novel The Wasp Factory, Banks once again addresses the timeless questions of truth, betrayal, duty, and loyalty, weaving them around a complex plot and into a seamless, spellbinding whole. Banks has been hailed by The Times of London as the most imaginative British novelist of his generation; this noir fable confirms his reputation as the master of things dark and debauched. Singular, haunting, and viciously wry, A Song of Stone is a tour de force of contemporary fiction.

The Business

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 po*rnographic 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.

Dead Air

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. At ease with the volatility of modernity, Iain Banks is also our most accomplished literary writer of narrative driven adventure stories that never ignore the injustices and moral conundrums of the real world. His new novel, displays his trademark dark wit, buoyancy and momentum.

The Steep Approach to Garbadale

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 its fortune on a board game called Empire! ? now a hugely successful computer game. So successful, the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the firm out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family clutches for years, is run to ground and persuaded to attend the forthcoming family gathering part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting convened by Win, Wopuld matriarch and most powerful member of the board, at Garbadale, the family’s highland castle. Being drawn back into the bosom of the clan brings an inevitable and disconcerting confrontation with Alban’s past. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he yet ready to see Sophie, his beautiful, enchanting cousin and teenage love, at the EGM? Grandmother Win’s revelations will radically alter Alban’s perspective for ever.