Iain (M) Banks Related Art...

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-03 07:31pm

Is there any related art or sketches related to Banks’ Culture setting? For example what would GSVs, GCUs and ROUs look like? If not, it would good to see Culture related art here since the setting is so diverse and appealing. I mean it cool to see drawings of Idiran warriors in full battle armour with their medjel auxiliary soldiers. Or sketches and paintings of the Empire of Azad's locations and people (or Culture characters like Gurgeh, Zakalwe and Sma and Culture locations like a big town set on a orbital or GSV). I don't know, but some reason Culture related art out there seems pretty low on the ground, despite the amazing characters and settings.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2006-11-04 04:16am

I have looked for about two years for Culture related art, and there is Nothing, all that's been see is the artwork on the front of the books.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 05:54am

Dartzap wrote:I have looked for about two years for Culture related art, and there is Nothing, all that's been see is the artwork on the front of the books.

It's rather strange since art work related to Iain M. Banks' Culture-verse locations, ships and characters has so much potential.

Anyway here's the book artwork:

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-11-04 05:57am

Those are incredibly blah, though rather typical for science fiction book cover art.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 06:35am

Well at least they are honest book covers and have images that are totally related to the plot - I mean how does this book cover here relate to the Japanese/German occupation of North America?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-11-04 06:39am

Nah man, that's an awesome cover. Totally different period and aesthetic aspects...

Those other ones are just blah because they're literally nothing.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2006-11-04 06:40am

Big Orange wrote:Well at least they are honest book covers and have images that are totally unrelated to the plot - I mean how does this book cover here relate to the Japanese/German occupation of North America?

<snip>

Yes but since there is no fucking castle and the climax of the book is a fucking cocktail party in a detatched house in fucking suburbia...I'm rather happy they dont have an accurate picture, though I'd prefer the book didnt exist instead

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-11-04 06:46am

Big Orange wrote:Well at least they are honest book covers and have images that are totally unrelated to the plot -

Er, the cover of "Use of weapons" is Incredibly well related to the plot [the second cover with the array of weapons, a chair and a hand-gun)

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 06:50am

SHIT SHIT SHIT! I fucking meant related to the plot! RELATED!!!

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 06:57am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Nah man, that's an awesome cover. Totally different period and aesthetic aspects...

Those other ones are just blah because they're literally nothing.

Bullshit, the Consider Phlebas cover shows the Clear Air Turbulence coming in to orbit the oribital where Horza and the other characters raid the uber-cruise liner that sails the orbital's ocean.

The Man in the High Castle on the otherhand just shows totally unrelated psychedelic trippy gibberish that has nothing to do with the Japanese Empire or the Third Reich.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 07:02am

Keevan_Colton wrote: Yes but since there is no fucking castle and the climax of the book is a fucking cocktail party in a detatched house in fucking suburbia...I'm rather happy they dont have an accurate picture, though I'd prefer the book didnt exist instead

I mostly agree with you, The Man in the High Castle has a original (at the time) premise but Robert Harris' Fatherland is a far superior alternative history novel and is not written by somebody who is drugged out his skull.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-11-04 07:03am

Big Orange wrote:Bullshit, the Consider Phlebas cover shows the Clear Air Turbulence coming in to orbit the oribital where Horza and the other characters raid the uber-cruise liner that sails the orbital's ocean.

I was specifically refering to the second Use of Weapons and Player of Games covers. They just simply scream "generic no-name 1980s sci-fi."

The Man in the High Castle on the otherhand just shows totally unrelated psychedelic trippy gibberish that has nothing to do with the Japanese Empire or the Third Reich.

Yeah, but it's cool and old and nobody does them like that anymore.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2006-11-04 07:08am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Big Orange wrote:Bullshit, the Consider Phlebas cover shows the Clear Air Turbulence coming in to orbit the oribital where Horza and the other characters raid the uber-cruise liner that sails the orbital's ocean.
I was specifically refering to the second Use of Weapons and Player of Games covers. They just simply scream "generic no-name 1980s sci-fi."

Actually the PoG cover is appropriate, since it is meant to be depicting Azad, the game that is central to most of the events of the book.

...nobody does them like that anymore.

With bloody good reason.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-11-04 07:14am

Keevan_Colton wrote:
...nobody does them like that anymore.
With bloody good reason.

A shame. We have truly become tarnished from a golden age...

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2006-11-04 07:19am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Keevan_Colton wrote:
...nobody does them like that anymore.
With bloody good reason.
A shame. We have truly become tarnished from a golden age...

Golden shower age more like.

The book was shite and so was the cover.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 08:21am

Keevan_Colton wrote: The book was shite and so was the cover.

I thought The Man in the High Castle was a flawed book, but it was not totally awful - but I thought most of the characters were weak, whiney and unlikable (I mean there was that Italian guy who was also a German spy and then he had his throat cut for no reason. The book was generally silly in tone - no wonder Blade Runner made no real sense).

EDIT: I thought it would be a good idea if I could sketch out somthing Culture related like a Contact drone or Azad warship.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2006-11-04 08:53am

Banks doesn't really describe culture stuff, so I can understand why it would be a ball ache to draw it.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 11:52am

Rye wrote:Banks doesn't really describe culture stuff, so I can understand why it would be a ball ache to draw it.

I think Banks descriptive enough and I can visualise the characters and locations sufficiently enough in my mind’s eye.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-11-04 11:56am

Big Orange wrote:
Rye wrote:Banks doesn't really describe culture stuff, so I can understand why it would be a ball ache to draw it.
I think Banks descriptive enough and I can visualise the characters and locations sufficiently enough in my mind’s eye.

Yes, but how florid are his actual descriptions? Just because you have the imagination to visualize his characters and locations doesn't mean that there's actually enough information there to accurately depict Banks' creations; it could just as easily indicate that you're good at filling in the blanks.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2006-11-04 12:38pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Big Orange wrote:Bullshit, the Consider Phlebas cover shows the Clear Air Turbulence coming in to orbit the oribital where Horza and the other characters raid the uber-cruise liner that sails the orbital's ocean.
I was specifically refering to the second Use of Weapons and Player of Games covers. They just simply scream "generic no-name 1980s sci-fi."

Umm..the PoG cover shows Azad, the game that is central to the plot. The Use of Weapons cover shows a gun, a chair, and the gun array of the Staberinde, all of which are also central to the plot. They are not generic covers.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 01:02pm

Surlethe wrote: Yes, but how florid are his actual descriptions? Just because you have the imagination to visualize his characters and locations doesn't mean that there's actually enough information there to accurately depict Banks' creations; it could just as easily indicate that you're good at filling in the blanks.

Well I'd say Banks is florrid enough, but his descriptions are not dumbed down and you can fill in the descriptive blanks without being wide off the mark.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-11-04 01:21pm

Big Orange wrote:Well I'd say Banks is florrid enough, but his descriptions are not dumbed down and you can fill in the descriptive blanks without being wide off the mark.

That's just the problem: the descriptive blanks themselves mean that there's lots of room for interpretation, and hence you're unable to judge when you've actually hit the mark! You're doing nothing to dispel my remark that the reader's ability to visualize the Culture and its artifacts does not mean Banks' descriptions are sufficient for an artist to actually paint or draw them.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-04 02:11pm

Surlethe wrote: That's just the problem: the descriptive blanks themselves mean that there's lots of room for interpretation, and hence you're unable to judge when you've actually hit the mark! You're doing nothing to dispel my remark that the reader's ability to visualize the Culture and its artifacts does not mean Banks' descriptions are sufficient for an artist to actually paint or draw them.

It's pretty much a non-issue when Banks can be quite florrid on occasion and you could piece together what a GSV looks like, what some of the characters look like and what being on a Culture orbital is like.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2006-11-04 09:17pm

The (Demilitarised) General Offensive Unit Limiting Factor had arrived under Ikroh that afternoon. Gurgeh had gone down to the transit gallery to inspect it. The craft was a third of a kilometre long, very sleek and simple looking; a pointed nose, three long blisters like vast aircraft cockpits leading to the nose, and another five fat blisters circling the vessel's waist; its rear was blunt and flat.

'Orbitals are on a different scale from our own space habitats; Masaq', like most Culture Orbitals, has a diameter of approximately three million kilometres and therefore a circumference of nearly ten million kilometres. Its width at the foot of its containing walls is about six thousand kilometres. Those walls are about a thousand kilometres high, and open at the top; the atmosphere is held in by the apparent gravity created by the world's spin.
'The size of the structure is not arbitrary; Culture Orbitals are built so that the same speed of revolution which produces one standard gravity also creates a day-night cycle of one of their standard days. Local night is produced when any given part of the Orbital's interior is facing directly away from the sun. They are made from exotic materials and held together principally by force fields.

The average fully grown Affronter consisted of a mass the shape of a slightly flattened ball about two metres in girth and one and a half in height, suspended under a veined, frilled gas sac which varied in diameter between one and five metres according to the Affronter's desired buoyancy and which was topped by a small sensor bump. When an Affronter was in aggressive/defensive mode, the whole sac could be deflated and covered by protective plates on the top of the central body mass. The principal eyes and ears were carried on two stalks above the fore beak covering the creature's mouth; a rear beak protected the genitals. The anus/gas vent was positioned centrally under the main body.

To the central mass were attached, congenitally, between six and eleven tentacles of varying thicknesses and lengths, at least four of which normally ended in flattened, leaf-shaped paddles. The actual number of limbs possessed by any particular adult male Affronter one encountered entirely depended on how many fights and/or hunts it had taken part in and how successful a part in them it had played; an Affronter with an impressive array of scars and more stumps than limbs was considered either an admirably dedicated sportsman or a brave but stupid and probably dangerous incompetent, depending entirely on the individual's reputation.

There used to be a page of Banks related artwork here but it's down now. I remember seeing a newer version somewhere else but I can't find it right now.

Here's a picture I made in paint a few years ago based on the description of Affronters there.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2006-11-05 07:06am

See that is how I almost exactly picture a Affronter to look like so I don't understand what Surlethe is getting at with Banks not being florrid enough in describing aliens, planets or ships.