We need the Culture, now!

Iain Banks has terminal liver cancer.

I don’t even know what to say. I have never been one of those fans who get autographs and attend cons and generally want a personal connection with their favourite author, but having read almost everything he has written - certainly all the Culture books, published as Iain M. Banks - I will feel his loss keenly. I suspect we would have disagreed on very much if we had ever met, but regardless, he patently has a bright sparkling mind, and I wish him well wherever he goes next.

Over at Charles Stross’s blog, commenters suggest that now would be a good time for the Culture to show up with advanced medical technology, not just for Banks himself, but also for Terry Pratchett. I particularly liked the suggestion that since whatever god or gods are out there are so keen on good company, we should start burying our dead with good weapons, dwarven style…

Either way, requiescat in pacem, and I hope nobody has the poor taste to simulate his state in a Hell, à la Surface Detail.