h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello

Just letting you know I'll be your sub for both these entries:
A87878524 The Culture Novels of Iain M Banks
A87877417 The Non-Culture Science Fiction of Iain M Banks

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Thanks BB

The image that was done for entry A87815604 ( ringworld_promo.jpg) is actually a good picture of a Culture orbital.

I was going to ask if you had a picture of these novels, or did you read them as ebooks? Since you wrote these entries I've since bought 3 books by Ian M Banks so I'll see what I make of them.

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Talking of the Culture Novels – I take it that the book mentioned in the first footnote should be 'Transition' rather than 'Transitions'?

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Yes the name of the book is "Transition", not "Transitions".

I did own all his science fiction, both Culture and non-Culture, but I cleared out my bookshelf and got rid of a lot of it. I still have a few books so I can probably make up a suitable photo if you need one.

Sorry about the delay – I got confused by 'I cleared out my bookshelf'.
Nope, still don't get it. My wife has tried to introduce me to the concept on a fair few occasions, but somehow it passes me by.

I'll look forward to seeing the picture

I did have a couple of Culture novel questions:
You write 'It is true science fiction' – this implies that you mean 'hard' science fiction, yet later you mention 'his first Sci-Fi book' and 'sci-fi' implies he writes 'soft' science fiction. So would you describe this as hard or soft science fiction?

'The final book, The State of the Art, is a collection of short stories' – this implies that 'The State of the Art' was the last book he published. Would you consider rewording this?

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I don't fully understand your first question.

I should probably say "hard science fiction" rather than "true science fiction" - Banks certainly examines the impact of science and technology on society rather than just using it as a background for the sort of issues that a person could encounter in normal life as in Star Wars.

But on the other hand, he doesn't attempt to explain how any of it works. One of the characters even asks a drone "how do you manage to float around like that" and the drone replies "With ease".

What confuses me about your question is that you seem to be saying that sci-fi is an abbreviation for "soft" science fiction. I thought it just meant science fiction.

Your second question, about the use of the word "final"... valid point. I meant "other book" or "remaining book" rather than "final book".

What confuses me about your question is that you seem to be saying that sci-fi is an abbreviation for "soft" science fiction. I thought it just meant science fiction.
There are those who believe that hard science fiction should be abbreviated to 'SF' while 'sci fi' or 'sci-fi' stands only for soft science fiction instead. Others have proposed that SF should stand for 'Speculative Fiction' which would include serious fantasy as well as (hard) science fiction, while 'sci fi' should again be used as a term for soft science fiction.
To be honest, this never-ending debate which a few fans believe is incredibly important all gets a bit tedious and pedantic. Yet while well over 99% of people don't really care, the less than 1% who do seem to do so an incredible amount.

I tweaked 'final' book – let me know what you think of the entries and if you think they can be returned.

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A typo in "the Culture novels":

have discovered the sectet -- that should be "secret"

A mistake in punctuation in "the Non-Culture novels":

this becomes 'Feersum Endjinn; in the author's bad spelling

That semicolon should be a quote to match the quote before Feersum.

Other than that, they're fine.

I've pressed the button now

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Congratulations! The Non-Culture Novels are on the Front Page today

Congratulations! The Culture Novels are on the Front Page today