The State of the Art

Book Details

71.4% complete

Author(s):

Iain M Banks

First Pub:

1991

Genre(s):

Collected Stories; Science Fiction

First Read:

2022

Times Read:

1 time

Rating:

Chapters:

See 8

Road of Skulls

A Gift from the Culture

Odd Attachment

The Descendant

Cleaning Up

Piece

The State of the Art

Scratch

Internal ID:

1693

Series:

<- Use of Weapons - Excession ->

Culture Series*

#4 of 10

Culture Series*

A loosly related series of science fiction books that all take place in the same universe. Written by Iain M Banks.

View this series in the book list

1) Consider Phlebas
2) The Player of Games
3) Use of Weapons
4) The State of the Art
5) Excession
6) Inversions
7) Look to Windward
8) Matter
9) Surface Detail
10) The Hydrogen Sonata

Copyright:

Dedication:

For John Jarrold

First Sentence:

The ride's a little bumpy on the famous Road of Skulls...

Last Sentence:

May contain spoilers

The End

Comments:

Comments may contain spoilers

Road of Skulls first published in "20 under 35", Sceptre 1988
A Gift from the Culture first published in "Interzone", No 20, 1987
Odd Attachment first published in "Tales from the Forbidden Planet", Titan Books, 1987
The Descendant
Cleaning Up first published by the Birmingham Science Fiction Group on the occasion of NOVACON 17, October 1987
Piece first published by the "Observer" magazine in 1989
The State of the Art first published in the United States in 1989 by Mark V. ZAeising
Scratch first published by "Fiction" magazine, voume 6, No 6, in August 1987

Synopsis not on file
Extract not on file

Added: 14-Jun-2015

Last Updated: 10-May-2022

Publications

01-Jan-2011

Orbit

Trade Paperback

Date Issued:

Cir 01-Jan-2011

Format:

Trade Paperback

Cover Price:

£9.99

Pages*:

214

Read:

Once

Reading(s):

1) 2 May 2022 - 10 May 2022

Cover Link(s):

World Cat

amazon.com

Internal ID:

2487

Publisher:

Orbit

ISBN:

1-857-23030-2

ISBN-13:

978-1-857-23030-7

Printing:

Country:

United Kingdom

Language:

English

Credits:

Blacksheep - Cover Artist
Nick Day - Illustrator

State of the Art is the only collection of Iain Banks' short fiction, and includes the acclaimed Culture novella of the same name. From science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale, all bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks' staggering talent.

'Banks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.' William Gibson

'Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary bredth' THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION

'The standard by which the rest of SF is judged' GUARDIAN

'Captivating' TIME OUT

'A wild imagination' MAIL ON SUNDAY

'Spectacular... the field needs his energy, skill and invention.' THE SCOTSMAN

Cover:

Notes and Comments:

First published in Great Britain by Orbit in 1991
This paperback edition published by Orbit in 1993
Canada: $15.99
Eighteenth printing (perhaps)

Author(s)

Iain M Banks
Birth: 16 Feb 1959 Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK
Death: 09 Jun 2013 Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, UK

Awards

No awards found

I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.