Iain M. Banks has had two astoundingly great careers — with the middle initial, he's one of the most influential and brilliant science fiction authors of the past 25 years. Without it, he's a great literary author. And some people believe he did the science fiction to subsidize his literary work. If anything, it's the…

It's summer movie season, the time when blockbuster films come out every week and we pit Vin Diesel against Wolverine. But how do you keep that cineplex excitement alive when you're at home on the couch? With books! Here are 10 science fiction novels that pack more non-stop thrills than Fast & Furious 6. Really.

Iain M. Banks is without a doubt one of the greatest writers of the turn of the century, both for his science fiction Culture series and his literary thrillers. He's one of the architects of an idea that we take for granted in scifi now: the post-human who lives forever, aided by artificial intelligences, in a galaxy…

Welcome to the deep of winter, the time when the nights are longest and you basically never want to get out of your warm bed. This is the perfect time to get sucked into a long, complicated relationship with a book series. But what book series are worth getting hooked on? We did some digging and soul searching, to find …

Those who have been paying attention to the evolution of Iain M. Banks' Culture series over the past two decades may have noticed that they are getting darker. His previous entry in the series, the fantastically disturbing and bleak Surface Detail, was about civilizations that consigned their inhabitants to a virtual…

October brings an amazing horde of great books, to keep you reading way into the night. Lois Lowry concludes the Giver saga, Justin Cronin continues the Passage trilogy, and Iain M. Banks has a new story of the Culture. Plus Catherynne M. Valente's latest Fairyland novel, and Cory Doctorow's follow-up to Little…

This October, get ready for The Hydrogen Sonata, the new novel in Iain M. Banks' incredible Culture series. It's about what happens to an ancient civilization, the Gzilt, when they decide to sublime — and discover the dirty political underbelly of the singularity. We've got the first chapter for you right here.

What do science fiction and fantasy books have in store for you this fall? There are new fantasy series by Tad Williams and Jacqueline Carey. A brand new Culture novel by Iain M. Banks. Collaborations between Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, and Larry Niven and Gregory Benford. A classic Gene Wolfe novel. A massive…

There are just four months and change left to 2012 — and even if we don't get destroyed by a solar Maya neutrino asteroid, we'll still end the year with a bang. The final third of 2012 is going to be an exciting time to be a science fiction and fantasy lover — with tons of brilliant movies, must-watch television, plus…

Lots of science fiction and fantasy novels have twist endings — but a few of them have twists so startling, they actually change your understanding of what's been going on in the whole book. The coolest twist endings turn the whole reality of the story on its head and leave you rethinking everything you've read thus…