Iain M Banks - where to start with Culture series

lucasisking

Im an SF fan (although not a big reader). I've been recommended Excession, and have been recently swatting up on the 'Culture'. Fascinating stuff, but should i start at the beginning with Consider Phlebas, or do the books stand alone?

FruitBat

I would recommend starting at the beginning. The stories do stand alone - they are set quite far apart chronologically, but you do get the odd reference. The war in Consider Phlebas (the Idiran War) is mentioned in some of the other books (including Excession IIRC).
I can't remember the exact details, but I suspect that a bit more time is devoted to explanations of the Minds and ships in the first novel. I've read them in the order that they were written, so perhaps someone that has read them "out of order" can comment.

Philly112

Yes, I've read most of them in completely random order. So I wouldn't worry too much about it; the stories are not connected and there are not even any common characters. But if you're starting off, I suppose it makes sense to start with the first one. Which I actually haven't read yet

Phil

andyk

I agree with starting with the early ones, but because I think that they are much better.
I have read them all and with the last few have thought "please be as good as Use of Weapons" before starting, only to be disappointed.

'Against a Dark Background' is also excellent, but not Culture.

richardb70

FruitBat pretty much said it all! Consider Phlebas is highly entertaining and a great intro to the Culture before the next two "proper" books (which haven't been equalled by his subsequent output ). Although the last one - Surface Detail - was pretty good, I thought.

You can safely skip "State Of The Art" IMHO.

And yes, some of the non-Culture books are excellent, Feersum Endjinn is frustrating at times but definitely worth it.

Smurfin

Strange, I was recommended to avoid Consider Phlebas to start with, as I was told it was one of the weaker Culture novels.  I wasn't overly impressed with it tbh, he seemed to lose his way in the writing.

I also have The Player of Games, The Algebraist and Matter...not sure what to read next but I fancy some more sci-fi

FruitBat

I didn't think Consider Phlebas was that bad. It didn't stop me continuing with Culture.

I've seen The Player of Games mentioned quite often in lists of recommended books, although I thought Use of Weapons was better.

The Algebraist (not Culture) was the first Iain M Banks that I read, and I only picked it because I studied quite a lot of algebra at university.

I thought Matter was OK, although I've seen negative opinions of it (especially the ending).

lucasisking

Now Im in two minds.  I might go with the most popular book of the series to start with and, if its for me, would then go back and read them all in sequence.

So... what is everyone's favourite?

FruitBat

My favourite is probably Use of Weapons. However, I'm not sure this is a good place to start with the Culture. The Culture is a little bit peripheral in this story.

After looking at the list of Culture novels that I've read (everything except Surface Detail):

Consider Phlebas (1987)
The Player of Games (1988)
Use of Weapons (1990)
The State of the Art (1991) (Short Stories)
Excession (1996)
Inversions (1998) (Superficially not a Culture novel, but there are some hints)
Look to Windward (2000)
Matter (2008)

I will stick to my recommendation of starting with Consider Phlebas.

richardb70

Use of Weapons is an absolutely classic book but requires a little bit of effort compared to the others.
Player of Games is very good too and if you skip CP then it's a great Culture intro.

But I'd read Consider Phlebas, PoG and then UoW personally. Then go for Excession just because it's very different.

P.S. I enjoyed Matter up until ... well, you know. Surface Detail was more interesting with a better resolution.