Iain Banks discusses the Future of Science Fiction with the BBC

Iain has contributed to a BBC website column entitled How Sci-Fi Moves With the Times, along with fellow writers Ken MacLeod, Paul Cornell and Ian Watson.

In the course of describing his general approach to the degree of scientific realism he includes in his different writing modes, Iain also lets slip a tantalising hint about his next novel:

My new book is a mainstream novel that borrows science fiction tropes. It plays with the idea that there are an infinite number of different worlds.

So it’s using speculative hard science. And it’s important to the book that there’s a degree of respectability about the idea of the multiverse, or the many-worlds theory.

You can discuss the implications of this little snippet over on the Iain [M] Banks fan forum, should you be so inclined…