What books do you think are a good read for BLAME! fans?

What books could have inspired Tsutomu Nihei and what books really did?

I also read somewhere that he is inspired by some kind of French comics. I don't know anymore about this, though. Do you know what kind of comics, what makes them so special - perhaps from a certain epoch (era) of French literature and art? Do you happen to know what comics exactly?




I'll start with a layout which I think is pretty clear and still very informative:

Original title:
German / your language title:
author:
date:
read:
connection to BLAME!:
links:



Original title: Great Sky River
German title: Himmelsfluss
author: Gregory Benford
date: 1987
read: not yet, but I will
connection to BLAME!:
Allegedly in the Artbook it says that Tsutomu was in fact inspired by it. Quite obvious since - protagonists' names are: Killeen and Shibo! It does not take place inside a megastructure, but it's about a struggle between humans and intelligent mechs, which seem to bear a remarkable resemblance to BLAME!'s silicon lifeforms.

links:
http://www.epilog.de/PersData/B/Benford ... ss_kAC.htm (german)
http://www.sfreviews.net/greatskyriver.html
http://www.chronicles-network.com/book- ... y-benford/


Original title: Feersum Endjinn
German title: ?
author: Iain M. Banks
date: 1994
read: not yet
connection to BLAME!:
Allegedly in the artbook it says that Tsutomu was in fact inspired by it. I don't know more details. I think the netsphere is similiar to something that takes place in this book. Please add more, if you know the book or have the artbook.

links:
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/sto ... 35-8546167
http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton/endjinn.htm
http://www.iainbanks.net/sf06.htm
http://www.scwu.com/bookreviews/h/Banks ... jinn.shtml



Please feel free to add further books and to add further information to already listed books.

About Feersum Endjinn [THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS IF YOU WANT TO READ THE BOOK]:

it is set in a futuristic world where humans live in an enormous tower, reaching the sky. This tower was actually a kind of orbital elevator when the starships of humanity left the planet to reach the stars. Now the tower hosts an enormous network (the Crypt, similar to the Netsphere in Blame) where the consciousness and memories of humans are stored after the death. In fact , even the living people can access this world, in a kind of virtual reality. Anyway, a large part of the Crypt has been contaminated by the so-called Chaos. In addition, a catastrophe is about to destroy the planet, and the main characters are fighting to avoid this activating the forgotten defence systems of the tower.

Not sure on any specific French comic, but some of Nihei's art somewhat reminds me of French artist Moebius. I know Moebius sometimes does fantastic landscapes and some cyber-ish art. Plus he also has some of fantastic detail in his works.

-Xenos

Oh yeah you're right I recently read an interview on the net where he says he's inspired by Moebius ("l'Incal"), Bilal and Shuitten ("Les Cités Obscures")