Iain M. Banks

I’ve been meaning to read Banks’s Culture series for more than two decades, so I was excited to finally get started. Unfortunately, Consider Phlebas was not a great introduction.

The Player of Games is the second novel in Iain M. Banks’s Culture series. It tells the story of Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a master game player who is recruited to play Azad, an incredibly complex game that serves as the basis for the Empire of Azad’s entire government.

Use of Weapons is the third novel in the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. It tells the story of a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe, who works for the Culture’s Special Circumstances division.

The State of the Art is a collection of short stories by Iain M. Banks. It contains some stories related to the Culture universe and some general science fiction tales. Although it has been considered utopian fiction, it comes across as rather bleak.

Excession is the fourth novel and fifth book in the Culture series. It follows the reaction of the Culture and other civilizations to an “excession”: an “Outside Context Problem” that is mysterious and enormously powerful.

Inversions, by Iain M. Banks, is the sixth Culture book, but it is very different from typical Culture novels: there are no spaceships and almost no advanced technology. Instead, it follows Culture citizens DeWar and Vosill as they manipulate a medieval society.

Look to Windward, by Iain M. Banks, is the seventh Culture book. It explores the aftermath of the Idiran–Culture War and Chelgrian civil war.

Matter, by Iain M. Banks, is the eighth Culture book. It begins with a tale of betrayal in an early-industrial kingdom housed within a shellworld, and ends with the unleashing of a cosmic horror.

Surface Detail, by Iain M. Banks, is the ninth Culture book. It follows Lededje Y’breq as she seeks revenge for her own murder, set against the backdrop of a galactic conflict over virtual hells.