 First edition cover | |
| Author | Iain Banks |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
Publication date | 2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 408 |
| ISBN | 0-316-86055-7 |
| OCLC | 248896541 |
| 823/.914 22 | |
| LC Class | PR6052.A485 D43 2002 |
Dead Air is a Scottish novel by Iain Banks, published in 2002.
The book revolves around the life of Kenneth Nott, a radio DJ on a London station called Capital Live!
The first person narrative begins on 11 September 2001, and Banks uses the protagonist's conversations - both on the radio and off - to discuss the consequences of the terrorist attacks in the United States on that day. Ken Nott is at a loft party in London at the crucial moment.
The reader hears many of Nott's shock-jock lines ("Guns for nutters only; makes sense.") and sees him described as a sexually promiscuous party animal fuelled by alcohol and other drugs. His politics are left-wing and libertarian, and he rants at every chance.
Nott's various girlfriends (including Jo, who does public relations for an indie band called Addicta), his long-suffering radio show colleague Phil, and his black DJ friend Ed are described. Apart from the expected difficulties associated with being a politically controversial radio DJ, everything is going smoothly for Ken until he meets Celia (or "Ceel"), a gangster's wife, whom he falls in love with. An indiscretion with a mobile phone and an answering machine leads him into some difficult and frightening situations.
The book was not generally well received by critics. While Banks' story-telling skills were acknowledged, some felt that this was less satisfying, in contrast to Look to Windward , his previous book (under the Iain M Banks guise). Like The Business , Dead Air is very topical, with much detailed background on technology and contemporary political issues.
"Major rethink on format after the events of September the eleventh," Phil says, about a delay to a television show they are planning. "What a brilliant excuse that's turned out to be, for so many things." The cover of the novel conjures images of the attack as it shows an old picture of two of the chimneys of London's Battersea Power Station with an aeroplane above them. Critics charged that Banks used the dramatic events of 9/11, and other features of the early 21st century, more as wallpaper than in any meaningful or resonant way.[ citation needed ]
Critics also felt that Banks did not successfully establish a distance between his own voice and that of the protagonist.[ citation needed ] Nott's rants are often passionate and articulate; this book was written at the time Banks was building up to cutting up his passport and taking part in the campaign to impeach Tony Blair. [1] [2] Some of these political ideas are developed further in Raw Spirit .
Ken Nott resembles a happier version of Cameron Colley, the main character in Banks' earlier novel Complicity .
Iain Banks was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. After the success of The Wasp Factory (1984), he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, appeared in 1987, marking the start of the Culture series. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
The Angry Brigade was a far-left British terrorist group responsible for a series of bomb attacks in England between 1970 and 1972. Using small bombs, they targeted banks, embassies, a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle, and the homes of Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs). In total, police attributed 25 bombings to the Angry Brigade. The bombings mostly caused property damage; one person was slightly injured. Of the eight people who stood trial, known as the Stoke Newington Eight, four were acquitted. John Barker, along with Hilary Creek, Anna Mendelssohn and Jim Greenfield, were convicted on majority verdicts, and sentenced to ten years. In a 2014 interview, Barker described the trial as political, but acknowledged that "they framed a guilty man".
The Wasp Factory is the first novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1984. Before the publication of The Wasp Factory, Banks had written several science fiction novels that had not been accepted for publication. Banks decided to try a more mainstream novel in the hopes that it would be more readily accepted, and wrote about a psychopathic teenager living on a remote Scottish island. According to Banks, this allowed him to treat the story as something resembling science fiction – the island could be envisaged as a planet, and Frank, the protagonist, almost as an alien. Following the success of The Wasp Factory, Banks began to write full-time.
Use of Weapons is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1990. It is the third novel in the Culture series.
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Iain Campbell Dale is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. In 2005, he became the first openly gay Conservative candidate to contest a parliamentary election. He was the publisher of the Total Politics magazine between 2008 and 2012, and the managing director of Biteback Publishing until May 2018. Since September 2010, he has hosted a regular discussion show on the radio station LBC. He was named Radio Presenter of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards in both 2013 and 2016.
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The Culture series is a science fiction series written by Scottish author Iain M. Banks and released from 1987 through to 2012. The stories centre on The Culture, a utopian, post-scarcity space society of humanoid aliens, and advanced superintelligent artificial intelligences living in artificial habitats spread across the Milky Way galaxy. The main themes of the series are the dilemmas that an idealistic, more-advanced civilization faces in dealing with smaller, less-advanced civilizations that do not share its ideals, and whose behaviour it sometimes finds barbaric. In some of the stories action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture in its plans to civilize the galaxy. Each novel is a self-contained story with new characters, although reference is occasionally made to the events of previous novels.
The Hydrogen Sonata is a science fiction novel by Scottish author Iain M. Banks, set in his techno-utopian Culture universe. The hardcover edition was released on 4 October 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 9 October in the United States. The book's release marked 25 years since the publication of Banks' first Culture novel. A paperback edition of the book was released on 5 September 2013 in the United Kingdom, and on 10 September in the United States. The Hydrogen Sonata was Banks' last science fiction novel, as he died of gall bladder cancer in June 2013.
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