Thanks for the info. Funny is very much a plus: Banks can be hilariously witty, but often gets into a grim mood that can be hard-going. His better stuff (I'm a particular fan of THE USE OF WEAPONS, THE BUSINESS and the not-mentioned-much collection THE STATE OF THE ART)combines black humor and real character comedy to vivid effect, enhancing the darker moments and serious themes.
'Retrograde Summer' is a John Varley, story (and quite a superb one!)but you certainly aren't the first to get the two confused. Vance was actually quite the influence on Mr. Varley. Vance is probably best known for his THE DYING EARTH story cycle, and the Hugo award winning "The Dragon Masters" and "The Last Castle". He writes what is often called 'baroque' science fiction (though I've heard people say that he goes beyond baroque to rococo!) and that's a fair term in light of his dense, complex but very elegant style. Quite a pleasure to read, but always in service to the story. Unlike many SF writers of his era (he published his first story in '45) he doesn't stint on character development, and he uses that beautiful, sensual language as a device to build and enhance character and personality detail. I highly recommend his work! He's 94 now and still spry, having published the aforementioned autobiography just last year.
(And I recommend Varley as well! :) My personal favorite novel by him is STEEL BEACH, which I think would make a superb six hour mini-series by a better adapter than me. Heh. I've tried several times and -- though I managed to get a pretty fair first two episodes from it, the extremely complex and twisty central section of the novel defies my skill.)
Re: A bad habit...
Thanks for the info. Funny is very much a plus: Banks can be hilariously witty, but often gets into a grim mood that can be hard-going. His better stuff (I'm a particular fan of THE USE OF WEAPONS, THE BUSINESS and the not-mentioned-much collection THE STATE OF THE ART)combines black humor and real character comedy to vivid effect, enhancing the darker moments and serious themes.
'Retrograde Summer' is a John Varley, story (and quite a superb one!)but you certainly aren't the first to get the two confused. Vance was actually quite the influence on Mr. Varley. Vance is probably best known for his THE DYING EARTH story cycle, and the Hugo award winning "The Dragon Masters" and "The Last Castle". He writes what is often called 'baroque' science fiction (though I've heard people say that he goes beyond baroque to rococo!) and that's a fair term in light of his dense, complex but very elegant style. Quite a pleasure to read, but always in service to the story. Unlike many SF writers of his era (he published his first story in '45) he doesn't stint on character development, and he uses that beautiful, sensual language as a device to build and enhance character and personality detail. I highly recommend his work! He's 94 now and still spry, having published the aforementioned autobiography just last year.
(And I recommend Varley as well! :) My personal favorite novel by him is STEEL BEACH, which I think would make a superb six hour mini-series by a better adapter than me. Heh. I've tried several times and -- though I managed to get a pretty fair first two episodes from it, the extremely complex and twisty central section of the novel defies my skill.)
Best,
-George