Dweller Diaspora in Iain M. Banks’s ‘The Algebraist’

The twentieth century science fiction was enriched, made magnificent and took the interest of the readers to the epoch with the rise of the most imaginative, belligerent and brilliant Scottish writer Iain M. Banks who took the science fiction to a great height and created tremendous curiosity among the readers about his writing. Iain Banks’s novels cover almost all parts of human life and world. Though he shows the darker side of the future world, he is hopeful about the positive fine future world. The film-makers and broadcasters also have focused their attention on his novels. The Algebraist, a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first appeared in print in 2004. The novel takes place in 4034 A.D. With the assistance of other species, humans have spread across the galaxy, which is largely ruled by the Mercatoria, a complex feudal hierarchy, with a religious zeal to rid the galaxy of artificial intelligences, which were blamed for a previous war. In center-stage Iain Banks portrays the human Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers. Taak's hunt for the Transform takes him on a dizzying journey, partly through the Dweller wormhole network itself. Banks lays out and layers his presentation of a civilized universe with consummate skill. One of the true pleasures of reading space opera is the reader's slowly unfolding understanding of the universe created by the author.

Iain M. Banks: A Versatile Luminary

Born on 16th February 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Iain Banks was educated at the Sterling University where he read English literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988, then returned to Fife where he lives now. Iain Banks is a very p...

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...the humane and not so humane angles of his characters, revealing their self-deceptions, weakness and complexity. The set-pieces in this novel are exciting, visually grand and quite inventive. In an interview in 2004 Banks stated that "It probably could become a trilogy, but for now it’s a standalone novel." It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2005. In 2011, the novel also was short-listed for the NPR Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles.

Works Cited

Banks, Iain M. The Algebraist. Orbit, 2004, ISBN 1-84149-155- www.guardian.co.uk/.../sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.iainbanks Davis, A.R. The Algebraist: A Review June, 23, 2012, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Group 2009-12 Sci-Fi Selection www.goodreads.com/book/show/12009.The_Algebraist trashotron.com/agony/reviews/2004/banks-the_algebraist.htm