Iain M Banks - where to start with Culture series

Greg Hook

That's it. What an awful idea, talk about making it unpleasant to read!

GloopyJon

Player of Games was my first Banks book and I preferred it to Consider Phlebas.  My favourite out of all of his books, though, is Espedair Street.  Very funny, very human and just a brilliant tale.

I've found his latest books generally disappointing, and I don't think I've even read the latest one yet.

EarthRod

'Player Of Games' is excellent - one of his best sci-fi books. I recommend Lucasisking read that next!

Haven't come across 'Espedair Street', is that one of his sci-fi books or one of his 'normal' novels?

GloopyJon

It's one of the non-sci-fi books.  It's a first-person narrative by a guy who became a reluctant rock star, recounting his life and is sort of a redemption tale.  It's very funny, beautifully written and sweet - a lot gentler than most of Banks' writing, and only really marred by his usual over-the-top leftyism (which he at least has the good grace to mock in the book, but still!).

It's one of my all-time favourite books from any author.

lucasisking

Noted .  Is POG 'next' chronologically?  

As well as that one I'm also keen to get to Use of Weapons, Look to Windward and Excession; they seem to be recommended and I like the various synopses.

KiLLiNG-TiME

Shame as it a great little read i guess what makes it harder for most to read other than just being writtern phonetically is the fact that the main character  Bascule is Dyslexic.  

Woak up. Got dresd. Had brekfast.  

KiLLiNG-TiME

Yes indeed it is.

The Culture series

Consider Phlebas (1987)
The Player of Games (1988)
Use of Weapons (1990)
Excession (1996)
Inversions (1998)
Look to Windward (2000)
Matter (2008)
Surface Detail (2010)[12]
The Hydrogen Sonata (forthcoming October 2012)

EarthRod

Thanks for the info about 'The Hydrogen Sonata'.

Look forward to it's release.

Smurfin

I know this has been asked before, but does it matter if you read the Culture series out of order?  Only read Consider Phlebas but all this Iain M Banks talk is making me want to read another one!  I've recently finished The Wasp Factory and still don't know what to make of it - very twisted, slightly puzzling and completely different to the sci-fi stuff!

KiLLiNG-TiME

Me to have you read the synopsis? it about a civilization subliming