Details as follows:

Friday 15 October 2010 at 7.30pm

Venue: Morley Town Hall, Leeds LS27 9BD

Tickets: £5

Box Office: 0844 848 2706

As always, contact the event organisers for ticket details and don't forget to double-check before travelling, in case of last-minute alteration or cancellation.

The first, a talk on Monday August 16th, is already sold out according to the EIBF website, but tickets are still available (at time of posting) for a second event, called 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger?' on Saturday August 28th, from 7.00 - 8.15 p.m.

Here's the event description from the Festival brochure:

In his guise as a science fiction writer, Iain M Banks has created a utopian interstellar civilisation known as the Culture. This imaginary community populated by 'transhumans' has real-life parallels in the work of Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University. The subject of Warwick's research is his own body, and he has transformed himself into the world’s first Cyborg. In this event Warwick and Banks are joined by Steve Yearley, Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, to contemplate the future of human beings.

Tickets are £10 / £8 (concessions) and can be booked via www.edbookfest.co.uk.

'An Evening With Iain Banks' will be chaired by Professor Rory Watson, retired from Stirling University and is part of Off the Page, the Stirling Book Festival (see pages 16-17 of the online Tolbooth brochure for more details of the festival).

Tickets for the event are £7.00 each and can be booked via www.ticketsoup.com.

We've just updated the appearances page of the site with details of a number of talks and signing events that Iain will be participating in this Autumn to support the publication of his brand new Culture novel, Surface Detail.

Confirmed events so far include:

• Wed 06.10.10 - The Roundhouse, London
• Thu 07.10.10 - Forbidden Planet, London
• Sat 16.10.10 & Sun 17.10.10 - Cheltenham Literary Festival
• Tue 19.10.10 - The Paragon, Bath (with Toppings Books) REARRANGED - SEE BELOW
• Wed 20.10.10 - Chepstow Library (with Chepstow Bookshop)
• Thu 21.10.10 - De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill (with The Bexhill Bookshop)
• Mon 01.11.10 - The Paragon, Bath (with Toppings Books)
• Tue 02.11.10 - Toppings Books, Ely
• Wed 03.11.20 - Assembly House, Norwich (with Waterstone's Norwich)
• Fri 12.11.10 - Sun 14.11.10 - Guest of Honour at Novacon 40, Nottingham

Check the appearances page for more details and then follow the links for relevant contact details and booking information (the majority of these events will be ticket only, so advance booking is highly recommended).

Iain's response? "My own app... how deeply cool. This pleases as much as seeing my first novel in print."

The release of the app is timed to coincide with the publication of the paperback edition of Transition and will act as a companion to the novel, offering exclusive material including: unseen chapters, character biographies, commentary from Iain and his original notes and plan for the novel.

A unique barcode printed in the back of the paperback edition will unlock the exclusive content. Just point your iPhone's camera at the code for scanning, and the companion features for the book will be transmitted to your App screen. Fans who already own the hardback edition of Transition can unlock this content as well, by following the simple instructions contained within the app.

And this App won't stop with Transition. Content and features on future titles will be added as the App develops, Banks fans will have ongoing access to the most up to date news and features.

The App has been developed for Little,Brown by New Zealand & UK based digital agency TradeMobile. Founder Jen Porter said of the project: "At TradeMobile, we believe mobile technology must enhance and enrich the user's experience. So unlocking the 'story beyond the story' with one of the world's leading publishers is an extraordinary project and a UK first that will quite simply transform the reading experience for ever."

The readings and conversations at the Prague Writers' Festival were recorded and are now online via www.pwf.cz.

Iain participates in the Tuesday evening conversation about Heresy, and the Wednesday evening readings.

More details on the forum.

From the Orbit announcement post: "The title is Surface Detail, which refers to a number of things, not least one of the principal characters, who is covered, externally and internally, with congenitally administered tattoos."

Here's the cover in all its glory:

And here's the back cover blurb:

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.

It begins with a murder.

And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.

Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.

Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching – is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.

It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the centre of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.

October 2010, folks. Don't miss it.

Edit 24.06.10

Here's the US cover variant with alternate font / logo:

From the announcement on the Awards website:

The Award will be presented during the Campbell Conference Awards Banquet at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, as the focal point of a weekend of discussions about the writing, illustration, publishing, teaching, and criticism of science fiction.

It looks like a particularly strong Finalists list this year, although of course we're all rooting for a Transition win.

The deadline for submitting a question is Tuesday, June 15th. Details of how to submit can be found at www.sfx.co.uk.

Venue: Verulamium Museum, St Albans
Time: Wednesday, 16 June 2010, 7:30PM
Tickets: £5, available from the museum

For more more information or to reserve tickets online, see the festival website: www.stalbansfestival.com.

The show will be broadcast next Wednesday, 19th May, at 11.30 GMT BST and repeated the following Sunday at 10.30 BST. More info at the BBC Radio Scotland website. The show should also be available post-broadcast, via the BBC's iPlayer service.

Thanks to David H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up.

• Prague Writers' Festival 2010 from June 6th-10th 2010
• Literary Dundee 2010 on Saturday June 26th, 2010
• Novacon 40 from November 12th-14th 2010

See the Appearances page for a bit more information on these and other events that Iain will be attending.

Thanks (as always!) to Dave H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up on these events.

David H, editor of the Bansksoniain fanzine, has been in touch to let us know about some of the Banks-related events taking place at the convention:

• David himself will be giving a talk called "Iain Banks: Before The Wasp Factory" on Friday at 13:00
• Iain is on a panel called "Utopia - How the Concept Has Developed in Philosophy and SF" on Friday at 16:00
• Iain is being interviewed by Jane Killick on Saturday at 11:00 (and in an autograph session afterwards)
• Iain is hosting a whisky tasting on Saturday at 16:00
• Iain is on a panel called "Language and Dialect in Writing" on Monday at 11:00

Full details are available in the Eastercon events programme. David has also suggested that we remind everyone that you can pay for a full weekend Convention membership on the door, and day-memberships are also available. See the Odyssey 2010 website for full details.

And if you're going to be at Eastercon and end up taking any photos of Iain, or manage to capture any decent audio or video footage (assuming that it's allowed under Convention rules, of course) then do feel free to upload your stuff to a suitable online sharing service and then send in a link (to webguy [at] iain-banks.net) and I'll post a selection of the best examples to the site next week.

Iain will be reading from his latest novel Transition and taking questions from the audience. The event starts at 19.30 and is scheduled to last for two hours. Tickets are £2.50.

More information from www.fife.gov.uk.

[Thanks again to David H of The Banksonian for the heads-up]

Tickets are £6, and are available from www.thebooth.co.uk, but also by post or in person.

The event listing says: "Join Iain as he gives us an exclusive preview from his new and unpublished Science Fiction work and take the opportunity to ask him a question or two."

More information from: www.ullapoolbookfestival.co.uk.

[Thanks to David H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up]

David tells us: "Banksoniain #15 looks back at 2009, the publication of Transition and Iain's appearances during the year, including his My Planet Rocks musical choices and interview. It also assess the 2008 theatre production of The Wasp Factory and talks to director Ed Robson. Looking forward there is news of his next book's working title, and some movement of the film front."

Download a pdf copy of Banksonian #15 from the Banksoniain website.

Iain will be discussing his career and work with Alan Taylor, writer and journalist, as well as reading from Transition and taking questions from the audience. The event is free, complimentary drinks will be served and pre-booking is essential. See www.edinburghcityreads.net for details or email events@edinburghcityreads.net for details.

Thanks to David H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up.

Various websites carry versions of the news: www.slashfilm.com, screendaily.com and hollywoodreporter.com included. At the moment there really isn't anything to add to those announcements. I'll certainly try to post fresh updates as and when they become available (hopefully with a little more alacrity...) and in the meantime, do feel free to join in the discussion of the project over at the Iain Banks Fan Forum (you'll need to be a forum member in order to post replies to the thread).

The site is back in action now, as you'll have noticed if you're reading this article on the Latest News page. On the other hand, if you're reading on RSS, do click on over to the website, take a quick look around, maybe let us know what you think of the new look.

We've added a bit more functionality to the news items. If you regulalry use one of the major bookmark and / or link-sharing apps or online services then you'll hopefully find an appropriate shortcut button at the end of each item to help you post and share a link. There's also a link on each news item to a suitable section of the Iain Banks Forum, to make it quicker and easier for you to talk things over with your fellow Banks fans and readers (although you'll still need to register as a forum member before you'll be able to join or start a conversation thread).

Alternatively, if you have something useful and relevant to add to a news item, then you can do so via the Comments form on the article in question. We are going to be quite strict with the comments submitted to the site to make sure that irritations from spammers (zero-tolerance there) and time-wasters are kept to an absolute minimum. So: all comments will be moderated (for the time being, anyhow) and anything non-relevant will be politely declined.

We've also improved the main bibliography section, merging Iain's SF and non-SF titles into a single list and then providing chronological listings of his SF, non-sf and Culture books, as well as his entire output to-date.

Anyhow, do have a look around, and if you feel like letting us know what you think of the new site, please do so over on the Forum or via the contact page.

Hopefully everything will be working smoothly, although it's fairly inevitable that gremlins will have messed with something during the switch-over. If you spot a problem, please do let us know and we'll fix it as soon as we can. One thing we do already know about is that the extracts are temporarily missing from the site. That's because we had a bit of an issue with a database backup a while ago and some of the content was unfortunately truncated. We'll get the extracts back up and properly linked in before too long, all being well.

Cheers!

Darren Turpin, Site Admin
pp the Iain Banks website team

Here's a round-up of some of the pieces of online coverage that have caught our eye in the past few weeks:

John O'Connell, in a lead review in The Times, hailed Transition as "a reminder of how intelligent and imaginative [Banks] is ... Baroque, digressive, kinetic, teeming with big ideas and grand theories, it's a novel to get lost in ... a gripping, thought-provoking experiment."

Michael Marshall, reviewing for The New Scientist commented on Transition high-quality construction: "Banks deploys his usual complex structure, using multiple narrators, variously in the first and third person, and intricately nested flashbacks. In some of his books these structural gymnastics seem precious, but here they heighten the alien mood and help build the tension, leading to a nail-biting finale."

Liviu Suciu said, in the course of a review for fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com: "As core sf, its subtlety will be appreciated only on the reread when much more will make sense, though the novel raises more questions than brings answers and offers a great opportunity for a Culture-like cycle of novels in this extraordinary milieu."

Aaron Lavery's review for metro.co.uk concludes that the genre-crossover works well: "Fans of Banks's more conventional work might be initially put off, but they shouldn't be; it's an engrossing, futuristic fable with plenty to say about the here and now."

'ZS' covered Transition in a review column for business website cityam.com, saying "what this book offers is a disturbing, sweeping and customarily imaginative foray into the most sinister reaches of possibility" whilst also lamenting an apparent randomness and incoherency to the plot (you have to wonder at this point whether 'ZS' has encountered much of Iain's fiction before..?)

Brian J. Robb, reviewing for totalscifionline.com found a few parallels with recent TV sci-fi tropes, but still appreciated the mental gymnastics involved: "Banks presents an imagined series of worlds and puts his characters through the wringer. There are some nice games with chronology and point-of-view, which would certainly reward a sustained reading of the book in as few sessions as possible."

Nat Smith, writing for theskinny.co.uk gives Transition four stars, saying "initially a complicated book, [it] quickly becomes a fascinating one."

The Ex-Communicator, writing on LiveJournal said: "It's the best SF novel I have read (listened to) this year."

Patrick Ness reviewing for The Guardian on 26th Sept muses on the wasn't quite as impressed, concluding "this is an airport novel ... You're welcome to take that for as much of a recommendation as you choose." Ah well, each to their own, eh?

Do feel free to let us know if you've spotted any reviews online that we haven't mentioned here.

Yes, that Ken Livignstone, the former Mayor of London. Turns out he's something of an sf fan: he name-checks David Brin and mentions putting in an appearance at the Brighton SF Festival in 1987, and says he reads sf classics. You live and learn, eh?

Read the full piece at www.newstatesman.com.

Good reading over at www.guardian.co.uk.

Well worth a visit to www.independent.co.uk to read the full article.

Read the full interview at news.scotsman.com.

That is all.

Thanks yet again to Dave H of the Banksoniain for the heads-up!

More info at the BBC Radio 6 website.

Thanks to Dave H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up!

To access the free podcast episodes, you'll need to download and install the iTunes software. The podcast files (three episodes are available so far) should then be free to access, although you'll need to sign up to the iTunes store in order to leave a rating.

Don't forget to subscribe to the channel as well - let's get Transition into the top ten!

N.B. The US / Canadian iTunes store won't be carrying the podcast until the US / Canadian edition of Transition is published, on September 23rd.

Episode I will be shown tonight, Wednesday, 9th September 2009, at 22:00 and will be repeated on Sunday 13th at 23:50.

More details on the series website at www.bbc.co.uk.

Update: Sorry folks, doesn't look like the series will be available via the BBC iPlayer.

Not entirely sure if the programme will be available to viewers outside Scotland at the time of broadcast, but you should be able to view the show online via STV's catch-up player once the show has gone out.

Thanks to DaveH of The Banksoniain for the heads-up!

Update 09.09 STV's Andrew Coyle has been in touch to let us know that the footage of Ian's appearance on the Hour has been posted at entertainment.stv.tv. Cheers Andrew!

The show is currently available to listen to via the the BBC website / iPlayer console.

Check out the end of the segment for a quick mention of Iain's plans for his next book...

"Transition is a book that makes you think, one that makes you look at the world around you in a different light, and it's also a properly thrilling read. If only more contemporary fiction was like it."

Read the full review (although be warned: there are a couple of spoilers in there) at www.independent.co.uk.

"Iain Banks will be the guest on Clive James in Conversation on Tuesday 18th August (i.e. TODAY!) at the Assembly Rooms George Street, Edinburgh."

See www.clivejamesguests.com for more information.

You can find out more about the programme at www.bbc.co.uk and can book free tickets for the recording via www.venue150.com.

[Thanks to Dave H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up]

And sincere apologies for any confusion caused by last week's post (since removed from the site) about the Forbidden Planet signing. It turned out that FP had posted the wrong details on their website (which is where I got the info from) and in my rush to let everyone know about the event I neglected to double-check the details with the publicity people here at Little, Brown. My fault entirely... apologies again.

The correct date for that signing event is most definitely Saturday, October 3rd, as per the updated appearances page and the revised Forbidden Planet events listing.

DT, webguy

And here, for your visual edification, are the UK, US and UK Audio covers:

Click on a cover to see a larger image.

Unfortunately you can't read the full piece on the Prospect website unless you're a magazine subscriber, but the first couple of paragraphs are available and non-subscribers can take it from us that the rest of the piece draws some very favourable conclusions indeed, with novelist Naomi Alderman saying:

"Transition is a clever novel: an exhilarating read that leaves a timebomb of philosophical engagement ticking in the reader's mind."

This particular ticking timebomb is set to explode into a bookstore near you (or through your letterbox via your online retailer-of-choice) early next month...

If you missed the show, you can listen again via the BBC website until Saturday August 1st.

Not strictly an Iain appearance but Gary Lloyd who created an audio version of The Bridge and is working with Iain on a tribute album for Frozen Gold has used a recording of Iain reading a poem by Luke Pell in the music that Gary has written for a dance group.

The first of this year's performances of Nocturne by the Marc Brew Company are free and will be taking place as part of the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival this weekend. The piece lasts approximately twenty minutes.

• Friday June 26th, 13:45 & 18:45
• Saturday June 27th, 13:45 & 18:45
• Sunday June 28th, 13:45 & 15:45

at Monument Gardens, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

There will also be performances at:

• Winchester Hat Fair - 3rd and 4th July
• Penrith Dance Daze - 26th July
• Stockton International Riverside Festival - 31st July, 2nd August
• Liberty Festival 2009 - Trafalgar Square, London - 5th September
• Manchester International Festival - 18th to 20th September (TBC)

The first will be a reading for the Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series, on Monday 17th August, from 5.30 - 6.15 p.m.

Immediately afterwards, Iain will be reading from and discussing his latest work in the National Library of Scotland event, which runs from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m.

More details are available on the EIBF ticket booking website.

When asked about forthcoming brand new novel Transition's placement in the M / non-M spectrum of his work, Iain said:

"The template I had in mind was The Bridge, my third novel, from 1986. I still think very highly of it, and I liked the way its structure let me use different voices and approaches. So, for Transition, I was trying to come up with something as different and challenging. I still think of Transition as basically mainstream, but I guess there's enough sci-fi in there to justify publishing it as such in a market where my sci-fi has generally done better."

Visit www.praguepost.com to read the rest of the interview.

Many thanks to Joe G of FPI Blog fame for the heads-up!

Iain is doing two signings. The first at the Big Ben Bookshop at 12:00 on Monday, 8 June. The second is at the Academia Bookstore at 17:00 the same day.

Then he is part of the Guardian Conversation called "The Freedom to Lie" at 18:00 on Tuesday, 9 June in the Laterna Magika Theatre, along with Wolf Biermann, Ma Jian, Jaroslav Rudiš, moderated by Max Rudin.

Later that evening he is part of the International Reading session in the same location at 20:00 along with Jaroslav Rudiš, Jaromir Švejdík and Yang Lian.

Both these events are listed as having simultaneous translation.

Tickets are available at the Laterna Magika, from Ticketpro or reservations can be made by email at info@pwf.cz.

The full Festival Programme is available at www.pwf.cz/en.

We are very pleased to announce that Iain Banks / Iain M Banks, author of The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road, Consider Phlebas, The State of the Art, and many more, will be signing in Chapters Bookstore, Parnell Street, Dublin 1 on Friday 15th of May from 5pm to 6pm.

Please contact Chapters for more information on the signing and if you plan to attend, don't forget to check with them before you travel, in case of last-minute alterations or a cancellation.

The discussion ranges across Iain's love of Risk!, the 'anorak' label as applied to science fiction fans, the possibility of a Wasp Factory movie, Iain's reaction to reviews, his taken on the publishing industry and more.

This award is given by the Libertarian Futurist Society in recognition of the best pro-freedom novel published during the previous year.

The award will be presented during Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention, which takes place from August 6-10, 2009, in Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

Congratulations to Iain on his nomination!

In the course of describing his general approach to the degree of scientific realism he includes in his different writing modes, Iain also lets slip a tantalising hint about his next novel:

My new book is a mainstream novel that borrows science fiction tropes. It plays with the idea that there are an infinite number of different worlds.

So it's using speculative hard science. And it's important to the book that there's a degree of respectability about the idea of the multiverse, or the many-worlds theory.

You can discuss the implications of this little snippet over on the Iain [M] Banks fan forum, should you be so inclined...

Here's the info from the BBC Radio4 website:

Writer China Miéville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer - writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain Banks and Margaret Atwood.

[Thanks to The Banksoniain's David H for the heads-up]

[via the FPI Blog and Dave H]

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Wasp Factory we revisit Banks's first published novel. The timeline of Paul Cornell's radio adaptation of The State of the Art is examined and the production is reviewed, along with a trip to Diziet Sma's Paris. We also look back on Banks appearances at Gateshead Library, Lincoln Book Festival and Newcon4, and a quick look at the geography of chapter 2 of Complicity, along with the usual chronicling of Banks's media coverage.