[brindy]

Frederik Pohl had digital assistants in his 1970s Heechee Saga books (but mainly in Beyond the Blue Horizon and after). Not only that but they would emulate different personalities depending on the need, eg spitballing with Einstein. However Pohl was a lot less expositional; in his novels the technology existed and he didn’t feel the need to get meta about why or how. Much more accessible than Banks, in my humble opinion.

[stevekemp]

Greg Bear's Eon also had the characters using "search programs" which were autonomous agents to collect data for consumption, which seems like something that's obviously coming soon.

Although that's a more recent work, coming out in 1985.

[lproven]

I adore Pohl's work, but I am (very) surprised to hear Banks described as inaccessible.

May I ask, where are you from?

[YeGoblynQueenne]

>> May I ask, where are you from?

Not the OP, but I'm curious (sorry). What does provenance have to do with finding Banks accessible?

For the record, I'm Greek and I read most of my Sci-Fi in Greek translations. Banks was one of the first writers whose work I read entirely in the original English (the other two were Terry Pratchett and Jeff Noon, both of which I started reading around the same time as Banks). I don't remember ever feeling that his writing was inaccessible, not even Feersum Engine, discussed in the sibling comments, and which was his first I ever read. At the time my English was not too good, so, like I say, I'm curious, why do you ask the OP where they're from? Is it because of the Scottish thing you mention below?

Reading your other comments here you say you met him many times. I'm envious! Me and my friend who have both read all his books (and all the M-less books also) managed to mix up the dates and miss his visit to the town we lived at the time. That was a couple of years before he died. I hate being a fan girl but I've always felt a certain regret for never having met the guy. Or Pratchett. I'm the worlds' worst fan :)

[brindy]

UK, living in Scotland since 2005.

I found there were too many new concepts just thrown about with little or no exposition. Where some authors would go on and on, I found Banks to be too light on the background. I realise the books would have likely been much longer had every piece of tech or new planet had been elaborated, and for the most part much of it was minor detail, but it disconnected me from his stories.

(Edit: fixed typo)

[gilleain]

Well, there is 'Feersum Endjinn' which you have to tune your ear to the language. 'Excession' had a lot of talk between Minds/Ships which was quite dense.

Also there is a lot of descriptions of hyper-advanced weaponry, drones, etc - even though I enjoy the books, it can be a bit much sometimes.

Of course, most are more readable in the original Marain :)

[manarth]

Iain Banks, or Iain M Banks?

I've never got on well with the Iain Banks novels, and devoured the Iain M Banks novels.