Iain M Banks explains how his science fiction novel grew out of a quite different kind of story – and a misunderstanding of structuralism

As the latest novel in the Culture series hits the bookshops, we look at the third of Iain M Banks's best-selling SF novels, The Use of Weapons. Known for writing in two separate strands – science fiction and literary novels – Banks explains how the two inspired each other, with the Culture emerging from his work on the first draft of his debut novel, The Wasp Factory.

He also explains the role that a misunderstanding of structuralism played in the construction of his fictional multiverse, and reveals that the dual chronology he uses in the novel was not in fact his idea at all …

Reading list:

The Use of Weapons (Orbit)

The Hydrogen Sonata (Orbit)