With the tragic death of Iain Banks
- I wanted to share how he and I were finally linked a few hours too late for
him to ever know.
For
as long as I can remember I've wanted to write science fiction. I wanted to
write about alien species, galactic journeys and space-faring adventurers. At
school they said I was a good writer but I needed to grow up and write about
the real world. Eventually I listened. First I stopped writing sci-fi and then
I stopped reading it.
That
was a huge mistake. Now I'm older I realise everyone should follow their own
path.
But
it was only when I picked up Consider Phlebas and read the opening line ‘The
ship didn't even have a name' that the upside-down world I'd inhabited for
years finally righted itself. With his original brand of sci-fi, full of
incredible new species, intelligent spacecraft and underhand galactic politics,
Iain Banks brought me back to the genre after years in exile. First I returned
to reading it and then - tentatively with one look over my shoulder for my
English teacher - I went back to writing it.
I
have Iain Banks solely to thank for my reintroduction to sci-fi but that's not
my only link with him. We used to live around the corner from each other in
Edinburgh, he used to drink in the same pub as me and when I moved to Fife he
moved there too, just a mile or two away. I used to joke that he was stalking
me.
The
tenuous links continued when I wrote a couple of my own science fiction books,
one of which – Convergent Space – was mildly successful and was compared to
Banks by one or two very kind reviewers. I often wondered whether Banks would
one day hear about me or maybe read one of my books. What an accolade that
would be.
To
Iain Banks of course, I am the ship that didn't even have a name. He didn't
know we used to drink in the same pub, live around the corner from each other
or that we both chose to move from one place to another place at the same time.
He didn't know me from Adam. Nor is he likely to have read any of my books.
But
on the day he died the BBC News picked up the tweet I'd written in tribute to
him and used it in their main article announcing his death. Finally, too late
for him to ever know, my name was momentarily linked with his - and for real
this time.
You can still read the BBC article where my quote appears. My dedication (quite rightly) is just above Alex Salmond's. If you want to sample
my pale imitation books, they're here on Amazon - Convergent Space Series
