When all wars are done : the transcendent humanity of Iain M. Banks

Though we may all hope that war on a massive scale is behind our species, our continued existence is a precarious balance on the edge of risk: on one side a vital urge to enlightenment, and, on the other, a complex obsession with exploration of our world and our own existence. Literary scholar I.F. Clarke (1918–2009), noted for his expertise in future-war fiction, once claimed that the end of the Cold War was problematic to fiction authors who now needed to locate a new enemy with whom to contest. It is in the light of Clarke’s prescient comment that this essay considers the works of Iain M. Banks.