RIP Iain (M) Banks

Iain Banks died earlier today. He was only 59. I don't have the words for this. We all knew it was coming, that it would be soon -- but not this soon. Two months to get used to the idea, but it's not enough. Nothing would have been enough.

I'm sitting here typing through tears, and I didn't even know the man. But I know his books, both with and without the M. Angry, humane, a mirror held up to ourselves, with a message engraved therein that we can and should do better. They are part of my life, have been for over twenty years, and always will be.

The world is a better place because he was in it.