Scottish author Iain Banks revealed in April he'd got terminal cancer.<br/> <br />He's died at the age of 59, just days before the release of his 27th and final novel, The Quarry.<br/> <br />Banks made his literary debut with The Wasp Factory in 1984.<br/> <br />Fellow author Christopher Brookmyre said he had a rare talent.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (English) AUTHOR, CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE, SAYING:<br/> <br />"He's someone who not only straddled genres, you know, he wrote books that could be described as crime..., lots of science fiction. I think his legacy will be that he was one of the most modern and accessible voices, an authentically Scottish voice, an authentically Scottish point of view."<br/> <br />Banks began writing The Quarry when he was first diagnosed with gall bladder cancer in March.
