Banks, Iain (1987) ‘Consider Phlebas’, UK signed and inscribed first edition

Iain M. Banks (1987) ‘Consider Phlebas‘, UK first edition, first printing, published by Macmillan. Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page: “To Michael from Iain M Banks 11/4/87“. Inscribed in the year and month of publication. In recent years a number of forged Banks signatures have emerged. Most of those are ‘flat signed’. Inscribed copies are prefered by the collector due to the additional security and comparability of the handwriting.

Condition: a lovely, near fine copy for the harshesst of judges. No previous owners’ inscriptions, no bookplates, no stamps. Book is aquare and yellow boards are clean. Natural toning of the paper commensurate with age and light pushes to spine tips. The dust jacket is NOT price clipped showing the correct £10.95 net price. A touch of fading to the spine, but otherwise in excellent shape.

The first Iain M. Banks sci-fi novel and the first in the seminal ‘Culture’ universe. It is noteworthy that Elon Musk of Space-X and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin are fans of Iain Banks’ sci-fi stories. Musk even named a number of the landing platforms for the Falcon boosters after Banks’ spaceships (‘Just Read the Insctructions’; ‘Of Course I Still Love You’). A recent Amazon attempt of a TV adaptation was cancelled in 2020, probably due to the pandemic. However, it is only a question of time before a TV-adaptation will be done since the Culture novels have broad appeal.