Would you listen to Excession again? Why? If we lose him it will be a big loss to our collective imagination, so my best wishes to the man. Hard to imagine it being a film, but I bet it is 'the way many people want the future to be', which is the function of good sci-fi to inspire. If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be? See above, but I also liked the conceit of giving the ship minds british regional ( and occasional colonial :-) ) accents that really rather suited their personalities. What about Peter Kenny’s performance did you like? Its up there with 'Consider Phlebas' in terms of breadth of story, large ideas and character detail.

What other book might you compare Excession to and why? I had to smile as he subtly changes the voice of a character as they moved between sexes. Mr Kenny is a superb complement to this excellent book. Would you consider the audio edition of Excession to be better than the print version? While I believe there are other readings by Mr Kenny as powerful as this, none are better and this will forever remain a performance not to be missed. I would encourage any fan of story telling, whether written word or film or stage play or photojournalism etc., who don't mind a bit of the ol' spec-fic to give this a go. His obvious skill, talent and intelligence as an actor, most essentially I believe with radio-play experience, has given him a gift permitting him to join Mr Banks in 'The Culture' in a way I think few others could hope to achieve.

Kubrick and Clarke created the universe of 2001 apart but together to be comparable, Mr Kenny was not a co-creator yet he is a collaborator. Mr Kenny seems to have a number of uncanny knacks of what I believe a true storyteller should have, an ancient art form that went out of favour with the invention of the printing press and now, thanks to audio books, is making a comeback. Peter Kenny has brought a whole new experience to my understanding the writing of Iain Banks. A perfect team(?) at the top of their game

Excession banks