You do NOT fuck with the Culture.
So I’ve finished Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas, and now Matter…
What should I read next?
Are they all good?
Feel free to add more rules about fucking with the Culture as the thread progresses.
How do you like the ones you’ve read? I’ve only read Consider Phlebas, and while the concept of Culture was interesting, the book seemed, well, pointless.
I probably enjoyed Matter the least, due to the ending and some loose plot points. I enjoyed Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas a lot more, although I can understand the “pointless” feeling, I still liked them.
The Culture itself seems to mostly serve as a useful counterpoint to the hellish conditions the members of Contact and Special Circumstances find themselves in (let’s go up against machines with antimatter bombs and access to the flames between the universes) and as a plot device that allows Banks to have his POV characters disproportionately influence the planets and societies they find themselves in. I’m not sure I’d want to read a book all about the Culture, but I like ones about the people the Culture sends to meddle in other societies.
The first rule is you don’t fuck with The Culture unless you have power over time itself.
Maybe read The Player of Games next. It’s good and it’s the next in the chronological order they were written.
“Player of Games” was my favorite. But it’s been years.
Too true; in general one should never fuck with a civilization that posesses knife missiles.
Love most of his work, but of the Culture novels I’ve read, Excession and Look to Windward left the least impression on me. Inversions, I guess, is technically a Culture novel, but the Culture has next to nothing to do with the actual story.
Don’t forget the non-Culture novels (but set in the more or less the same universe) Feersum Endjinn and Against a Dark Background. Both are of some interest. FE in particular is perhaps Banks’ most wildly inventive story, and is a personal favorite, although the fact that at least a third of the text is written in fonetik Ingleesh makes it a hard slog for most.
I’ve read Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons and The Player of Games and I think TPoG was my favorite of the three. It’s quite accessible and I’m a bit of a gamer so it really appealed to me.
I tried reading Feersum Endjinn but I couldn’t deal with the phonetic speaking. The other three are quite accessible, though.
I’m a fan of Banks’ work, especially the Culture novels, but Feersum Endjinn ‘wus to anoyink to reed’.
Those are my two favourites! So, basically, read them all.
Player of Games. By far his best book, as far as I’m concerned.
I enjoyed Excession, but not the other two culture novels I tried (can’t even remember their names now, something about a lazy gun?). I think he writes better as Iain Banks, but is still a bit hit and miss, with The Crow Road and Whit being my favorites.
I think The Crow Road is the best thing he’s written in either of his guises. I’ve a huge soft spot for Espedair Street too, but that’s a very atypical book for him.
I love The Crow Road. Have you seen the British-made miniseries?
Banks is my favourite author, but FE made me feel all stabby as a non-native reader. I think I threw the book at the wall a few times, though given the book looks to be in ok condition still I couldn’t have thrown it all that hard. I just wanted to add my AAAAARGHHHHHH!!! about that book - carry on about all things Culture-related.
Yes, on original broadcast, and not since. The lingering impression is that it was pretty well done, and pretty faithful, but the actor who played Prentice wasn’t very good.
Agreed.
I started with Consider Phlebas, and I will never forget the feeling of my mind being thoroughly blown as I got deeper and deeper into the Culture’s universe.
That’s Against a Dark Background, and it’s *not *a Culture novel.
I recommend Player of Games and Excession. If I were the OP, I’d have skipped *Matter *(did not like) and read Surface Detail (liked a lot). Both similar in the protaganists being from very backwards …ahem …cultures, but the latter had more satisfying story.
Another recommendation, non-Culture: The Algebraist. Loved the Dwellers.
Although - what is it with Banks and rape? His books have been a bit rape-y lately.
I liked:
You’re right, I knew it didn’t involve the culture directly, but I mistakenly thought it was set in the same universe. I was also conflating it with the first culture novel, Consider Phlebas, which caused me some confusion. In my mind, Horza was in alliance with Lady Sharrow.
Possibly I should give another one a try sometime, but I don’t think it’s worth my while to re-read either of those two.
To be fair, AaDB could be set in the Culture universe but the chances of the two even being aware of the other are extremely low.