A couple of questions about Iain M Banks Culture novels
October 25, 2015 4:58 AM Subscribe
Someone gave me "The Player of Games" by Iain M Banks and, having recently read it, I have a couple of questions about the Culture novels.
I really enjoyed both the story, and his sentence and paragraph construction, although I found the reason for the trip to play the game a bit obvious, and had figured that out before I got to the end. There was also a bit in the middle, when Flere-Imsaho takes Gurgeh around the city and shows him the bad side of Ea that seemed sorta irrelevant to the whole thing, although a lovely bit of worldbuilding. So my questions are:
1) Do I need to read them in order, or are they stand-alone novels?
2) Do the events in The Player of Games impact on any of the other novels? Is this part of an ongoing plot?
3) If you like the Culture novels, which other Sci-fi authors would you recommend?
One thing I found interesting which never seemed to be followed up much was Gurgeh's interaction with Contact, and I was hoping there would be more of that, so if you have any Sci-fi recommendations which have more of that sort of thing, please let me know. (If you understand what I mean by this.)
I really enjoyed both the story, and his sentence and paragraph construction, although I found the reason for the trip to play the game a bit obvious, and had figured that out before I got to the end. There was also a bit in the middle, when Flere-Imsaho takes Gurgeh around the city and shows him the bad side of Ea that seemed sorta irrelevant to the whole thing, although a lovely bit of worldbuilding. So my questions are:
1) Do I need to read them in order, or are they stand-alone novels?
2) Do the events in The Player of Games impact on any of the other novels? Is this part of an ongoing plot?
3) If you like the Culture novels, which other Sci-fi authors would you recommend?
One thing I found interesting which never seemed to be followed up much was Gurgeh's interaction with Contact, and I was hoping there would be more of that, so if you have any Sci-fi recommendations which have more of that sort of thing, please let me know. (If you understand what I mean by this.)
well, with the qualifications that (1) it's been some time since i read his stuff and (2) these are books i've read lately, so i am biased, but (3) these threads always seem like a crap-shoot anyway, my answer to your last question would be ann leckie's ancillary series (which give a very different spin to the idea of ship AIs).
and responding to farce_first's comment, if you're looking for better writing, look at m john harrison's light (but it's not really answering your 3 - it includes some ideas from "hard" sf, while also breaking a lot of rules).
posted by andrewcooke at 5:30 AM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
and responding to farce_first's comment, if you're looking for better writing, look at m john harrison's light (but it's not really answering your 3 - it includes some ideas from "hard" sf, while also breaking a lot of rules).
posted by andrewcooke at 5:30 AM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ooh, an Iain M. Banks thread when I'm up early? Yes, please.
1- While there isn't really an order, you can tell how his writing progresses. I usually tell people to start at Consider Phlebas, and move on from there. That's really the only one someone should read first. I'm close to Farce_First above, but I go Use, Excession, then Phlebas.
2- Not as such. It just goes to show the randomness and lack of randomness that is a thread in his novels.
3- If you haven't read his non scf-fi stuff as Iain Banks without the M, read it. That being said, I always felt Banks cribbed a bit from Douglas Adams. The universe is big, and you have no fucking idea what's going on out there.
posted by Sphinx at 5:42 AM on October 25, 2015
1- While there isn't really an order, you can tell how his writing progresses. I usually tell people to start at Consider Phlebas, and move on from there. That's really the only one someone should read first. I'm close to Farce_First above, but I go Use, Excession, then Phlebas.
2- Not as such. It just goes to show the randomness and lack of randomness that is a thread in his novels.
3- If you haven't read his non scf-fi stuff as Iain Banks without the M, read it. That being said, I always felt Banks cribbed a bit from Douglas Adams. The universe is big, and you have no fucking idea what's going on out there.
posted by Sphinx at 5:42 AM on October 25, 2015
I don't think the events in Player come up again but thematically the other novels revisit the same concept of ethical (haha) intervention from different viewpoints. Any ongoing "plot" in the novels is more like an examination of theme on an enormous, universe-spanning scale.
I would say the books are stand-alone to the extent that the characters and locales are generally vastly different (with only a few exceptions, callbacks, and references that I don't recommend researching in advance—part of the joy of the grand span of the novels is teasing those little pieces out yourself) but it makes sense to read them roughly in publication order so your knowledge of the world-building expands the way it was intended.
For instance (and I'm going to leave out all of the much more major and obvious "for instances" so you won't be spoiled on anything)—if you don't know much about Special Circumstances yet, it would be weird to jump ahead to Surface Detail since it delves a bit into the nature of some of the sub-groups inside the "organization." Look to Windward is somewhat linked to Consider Phlebas via the Idiran war, even though it takes place hundreds of years later. A character from Use of Weapons* also appears in a story in State of the Art. That kind of thing.
And yes, there is way more about Contact and Special Circumstances and it is all awesome. Plus you'll come to understand about 35 previously confusing usernames on MetaFilter!
* Definitely agree with others above that you should read Use of Weapons before you read too many others.
posted by bcwinters at 5:52 AM on October 25, 2015 [6 favorites]
I would say the books are stand-alone to the extent that the characters and locales are generally vastly different (with only a few exceptions, callbacks, and references that I don't recommend researching in advance—part of the joy of the grand span of the novels is teasing those little pieces out yourself) but it makes sense to read them roughly in publication order so your knowledge of the world-building expands the way it was intended.
For instance (and I'm going to leave out all of the much more major and obvious "for instances" so you won't be spoiled on anything)—if you don't know much about Special Circumstances yet, it would be weird to jump ahead to Surface Detail since it delves a bit into the nature of some of the sub-groups inside the "organization." Look to Windward is somewhat linked to Consider Phlebas via the Idiran war, even though it takes place hundreds of years later. A character from Use of Weapons* also appears in a story in State of the Art. That kind of thing.
And yes, there is way more about Contact and Special Circumstances and it is all awesome. Plus you'll come to understand about 35 previously confusing usernames on MetaFilter!
* Definitely agree with others above that you should read Use of Weapons before you read too many others.
posted by bcwinters at 5:52 AM on October 25, 2015 [6 favorites]
1) They're essentially stand-alone novels.
Off the top of my head I think that each story takes place anywhere from twenty to hundreds of years past the previous one. The human characters are always (I'm 99.99% sure) new and different. In some of his later works some of the Ships and other AI's (Minds) appear in more than one novel, and events from previous novels may be referred to obliquely or in passing, but it's not crucial to read them in order, IMO. On the other hand, if you re-read them (as I and I'm sure many other MeFites have, more than once), you'll pick up these various references, and events from earlier novels will gain depth and resonance as you compare them to later novels, and you'll get a picture of how and why the Culture transforms in the time between one novel and the next and over the course of the series.
Having said that, I would suggest you read the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, next, because it's about a major event that resonates throughout the entire series.
2) So, no, The Player of Games is not part of an ongoing plot, the next book will not pick up where that one left off. Whether the events have an impact on the events in later books is kind of another question - see above sentence about the transformation of the Culture over time.
3) From a writing standpoint, try Gene Wolfe. From a thematic/adventure standpoint, try the Takeshi Kovacs novels of Richard K. Morgan (those you should read in order.)
One thing I found interesting which never seemed to be followed up much was Gurgeh's interaction with Contact, and I was hoping there would be more of that, so if you have any Sci-fi recommendations which have more of that sort of thing, please let me know. (If you understand what I mean by this.)
I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by this, but taking a stab at it, most (if not all) of the Culture novels revolve around humans working for Contact/Special Circumstances, with varying degrees of reluctance or enthusiasm, so there's plenty more interaction in the other Culture novels.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:57 AM on October 25, 2015
Off the top of my head I think that each story takes place anywhere from twenty to hundreds of years past the previous one. The human characters are always (I'm 99.99% sure) new and different. In some of his later works some of the Ships and other AI's (Minds) appear in more than one novel, and events from previous novels may be referred to obliquely or in passing, but it's not crucial to read them in order, IMO. On the other hand, if you re-read them (as I and I'm sure many other MeFites have, more than once), you'll pick up these various references, and events from earlier novels will gain depth and resonance as you compare them to later novels, and you'll get a picture of how and why the Culture transforms in the time between one novel and the next and over the course of the series.
Having said that, I would suggest you read the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, next, because it's about a major event that resonates throughout the entire series.
2) So, no, The Player of Games is not part of an ongoing plot, the next book will not pick up where that one left off. Whether the events have an impact on the events in later books is kind of another question - see above sentence about the transformation of the Culture over time.
3) From a writing standpoint, try Gene Wolfe. From a thematic/adventure standpoint, try the Takeshi Kovacs novels of Richard K. Morgan (those you should read in order.)
One thing I found interesting which never seemed to be followed up much was Gurgeh's interaction with Contact, and I was hoping there would be more of that, so if you have any Sci-fi recommendations which have more of that sort of thing, please let me know. (If you understand what I mean by this.)
I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by this, but taking a stab at it, most (if not all) of the Culture novels revolve around humans working for Contact/Special Circumstances, with varying degrees of reluctance or enthusiasm, so there's plenty more interaction in the other Culture novels.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:57 AM on October 25, 2015
For (3): I love the Culture books and I also love Peter F Hamilton's work, which I find somewhat similar. YMMV
posted by richb at 6:14 AM on October 25, 2015
posted by richb at 6:14 AM on October 25, 2015
1. I think you can divide the Culture books into two parts - the first part consists of the books up to and including Excession, which together establish the universe and themes, and then the rest of the books follow and extend threads from the first four in various directions. A good way to approach the series is to start with the first three (in any order), then Excession, then the rest (in any order as well, although the ship names get sillier with each book).
3. You could try A Fire Upon the Deep, which may have *ahem* inspired some of the ideas that Banks introduces in Excession and that kind of cause problems for the coherence of the Culture universe in the later books (e.g.transcende- sublimation).
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 6:34 AM on October 25, 2015
3. You could try A Fire Upon the Deep, which may have *ahem* inspired some of the ideas that Banks introduces in Excession and that kind of cause problems for the coherence of the Culture universe in the later books (e.g.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 6:34 AM on October 25, 2015
1) It makes sense to read them in a rough order -- Consider Phlebas and Use of Weapons before Look to Windward and Surface Detail, for instance.
2) I don't think Azad comes up again but could be misremembering.
3) Varley's "eight worlds" books, Ann Leckie. If you don't mind a pretty silly take on some of the same themes -- think James Bond movies as opposed to a LeCarre novel -- there's always Neal Asher's Polity books that start with Gridlinked. But... silly. I like Douglas Adams but don't see any similarity to Banks at all.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:05 AM on October 25, 2015
2) I don't think Azad comes up again but could be misremembering.
3) Varley's "eight worlds" books, Ann Leckie. If you don't mind a pretty silly take on some of the same themes -- think James Bond movies as opposed to a LeCarre novel -- there's always Neal Asher's Polity books that start with Gridlinked. But... silly. I like Douglas Adams but don't see any similarity to Banks at all.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:05 AM on October 25, 2015
One piece of advice I've seen is _not_ to read consider phlebas first, because it's not nearly as good as other options. Even though many other books refer to the Idiran war, you don't really need to know the details. Other than that, you can read them in any order. I did it pretty much randomly
Other possibilities for similar themes ideas (no one is quite up there with Banks unfortunately, and none of these authors hit every button): Vernor Vinge (a fire upon the deep, deepness in the sky), Alistair Reynolds (especially House of Suns, but just about anything he's written), Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy, some Charlie Stross (Neptune's Brood, the eschaton books), Hannu Rajaniemi, Karl Schroeder (esp. Ventus).
posted by advil at 7:18 AM on October 25, 2015
Other possibilities for similar themes ideas (no one is quite up there with Banks unfortunately, and none of these authors hit every button): Vernor Vinge (a fire upon the deep, deepness in the sky), Alistair Reynolds (especially House of Suns, but just about anything he's written), Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy, some Charlie Stross (Neptune's Brood, the eschaton books), Hannu Rajaniemi, Karl Schroeder (esp. Ventus).
posted by advil at 7:18 AM on October 25, 2015
1) Nothing terrible if you read them in any order, but I suggest reading in order of writing. My favorite is Excession, followed by The Algebraist.
2) Don't think it influences the other stories.
3) As other suggest, Peter Hamilton is great. Vernor Vinge starting with Fire in the Deep is superb. Most of Charlie Stross's stuff is excellent. Mainly 'space opera' stuff.
Enjoy!
posted by Argyle at 7:50 AM on October 25, 2015
2) Don't think it influences the other stories.
3) As other suggest, Peter Hamilton is great. Vernor Vinge starting with Fire in the Deep is superb. Most of Charlie Stross's stuff is excellent. Mainly 'space opera' stuff.
Enjoy!
posted by Argyle at 7:50 AM on October 25, 2015
Mr Kariebookish here, dragged into this thread to give my considered opinion:
1) As pretty much everyone says above, there's no set order as they jump around a bit on the Culture's own timeline. In order of publication, perhaps, but don't sweat it - Consider Phlebas kind of breaks you in gently to the Culture, though.
Also, at least one of the books is completely separate from the Culture, so just jump in to The Algebraist whenever you feel like it.
2) Nope.
3) as Advil mentions above, Alistair Reynolds is a good shout, as is Adam Roberts' Glass, though these are a little more... gristly than Banks on the whole.
posted by kariebookish at 8:07 AM on October 25, 2015
1) As pretty much everyone says above, there's no set order as they jump around a bit on the Culture's own timeline. In order of publication, perhaps, but don't sweat it - Consider Phlebas kind of breaks you in gently to the Culture, though.
Also, at least one of the books is completely separate from the Culture, so just jump in to The Algebraist whenever you feel like it.
2) Nope.
3) as Advil mentions above, Alistair Reynolds is a good shout, as is Adam Roberts' Glass, though these are a little more... gristly than Banks on the whole.
posted by kariebookish at 8:07 AM on October 25, 2015
I once asked for author recommendations based on me loving Iain M Banks, and someone recommended Alistair Reynolds. Now I love his stuff too.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:31 AM on October 25, 2015
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:31 AM on October 25, 2015
followed by The Algebraist
Good but not Culture.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:08 AM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Good but not Culture.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:08 AM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
There are three non-Culture Iain M. Banks books (all of the Iain Banks books are non-Culture, but that's besides the point at the moment): The Algebraist, Feersum Endjinn and Against a Dark Background. All three are excellent, but skip them for now if you want to dive into the Culture universe.
Inversions is a Culture book, but don't read it until much later, you won't see the Culture there otherwise.
Gurgeh getting taken around the city was to force him to realize what the society that he was starting to enjoy was really like. It convinced him that having the judge neutered was not as terrible a thing as he thought it was.
posted by Hactar at 9:56 AM on October 25, 2015
Inversions is a Culture book, but don't read it until much later, you won't see the Culture there otherwise.
Gurgeh getting taken around the city was to force him to realize what the society that he was starting to enjoy was really like. It convinced him that having the judge neutered was not as terrible a thing as he thought it was.
posted by Hactar at 9:56 AM on October 25, 2015
1) Do I need to read them in order, or are they stand-alone novels?
You don't need to read them in order, but there's nothing wrong with doing so. Starting with Excession though, I would read the books that follow in order.
2) Do the events in The Player of Games impact on any of the other novels? Is this part of an ongoing plot?
Not really.
3) If you like the Culture novels, which other Sci-fi authors would you recommend?
Neal Asher has a number of books set in the Polity, which is a human-populated, AI operated society of the nextish millennium. The society itself is a lot harsher than the Culture, and he weaves most of his books together to some degree either through characters or settings. I found them as satisfying as the Culture novels, although they scratched a slightly different itch.
Gotta unrecommend Peter Hamilton. His work is nothing like the Culture, at least what I've read. It's actually downright silly. I'll sum up one of his sci-fi series here for you: The spirits of the dead decide to return to seize control of the living. One of the possessed converts his possessor into the devil through his love of Satanism. Al Capone's ghost attempts to take over the universe. The whole mess is only thwarted by a magical black hole that turns a person into a temporary god. Throughout it all there is lovingly detailed weird sex between anyone and everyone, including space ships. This story takes about three thousand pages to tell, and is told straight-faced the whole way through.
posted by Sternmeyer at 10:05 AM on October 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
You don't need to read them in order, but there's nothing wrong with doing so. Starting with Excession though, I would read the books that follow in order.
2) Do the events in The Player of Games impact on any of the other novels? Is this part of an ongoing plot?
Not really.
3) If you like the Culture novels, which other Sci-fi authors would you recommend?
Neal Asher has a number of books set in the Polity, which is a human-populated, AI operated society of the nextish millennium. The society itself is a lot harsher than the Culture, and he weaves most of his books together to some degree either through characters or settings. I found them as satisfying as the Culture novels, although they scratched a slightly different itch.
Gotta unrecommend Peter Hamilton. His work is nothing like the Culture, at least what I've read. It's actually downright silly. I'll sum up one of his sci-fi series here for you: The spirits of the dead decide to return to seize control of the living. One of the possessed converts his possessor into the devil through his love of Satanism. Al Capone's ghost attempts to take over the universe. The whole mess is only thwarted by a magical black hole that turns a person into a temporary god. Throughout it all there is lovingly detailed weird sex between anyone and everyone, including space ships. This story takes about three thousand pages to tell, and is told straight-faced the whole way through.
posted by Sternmeyer at 10:05 AM on October 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
Gotta unrecommend Peter Hamilton. His work is nothing like the Culture, at least what I've read. It's actually downright silly.
I almost did this too -- there may well be a lot of variance on this, but the things that make me like Banks so much also caused me to really, really not enjoy the Hamilton that I've read.
posted by advil at 11:24 AM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I almost did this too -- there may well be a lot of variance on this, but the things that make me like Banks so much also caused me to really, really not enjoy the Hamilton that I've read.
posted by advil at 11:24 AM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Gotta unrecommend Peter Hamilton. His work is nothing like the Culture, at least what I've read. It's actually downright silly.
I like them both, but agree that Hamilton is really not like Banks. Hamilton is like Star Wars. But with fucking. Except not gay fucking except as a MARK! OF! EEEEVIL! Also, in any fictional universe Hamilton creates, everywhere in the entire universe will be southern England.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:30 AM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I like them both, but agree that Hamilton is really not like Banks. Hamilton is like Star Wars. But with fucking. Except not gay fucking except as a MARK! OF! EEEEVIL! Also, in any fictional universe Hamilton creates, everywhere in the entire universe will be southern England.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:30 AM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ken MacLeod was a friend of Banks' and his work shares some similar themes.
posted by neushoorn at 12:11 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by neushoorn at 12:11 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
@Sternmeyer -- that summary of The Night's Dawn Trilogy is very accurate. (I still really enjoyed that series, although I can see why many might not.) Hamilton's later work is a bit better and maybe the Commonwealth Saga is more Iain M Banks-y in style. Or maybe not and I just like them both :-)
posted by richb at 2:07 PM on October 25, 2015
posted by richb at 2:07 PM on October 25, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers everyone. How I am going to choose a "best answer" with this question I just don't know!
Will give them a go, and will start with Consider Phlebas, as I am a bit of a "things should be read in order written" type or reader.
posted by marienbad at 2:09 PM on October 25, 2015
Will give them a go, and will start with Consider Phlebas, as I am a bit of a "things should be read in order written" type or reader.
posted by marienbad at 2:09 PM on October 25, 2015
As a Banks fan since all there was was The Wasp Factory, I always tell people to read Consider Phlebas first, since it gives you a view of the Culture you don't get from the other books, before you really get to know the Culture from the other side, as it were. Plus it's a load of fun to read.
posted by biscotti at 5:03 PM on October 25, 2015
posted by biscotti at 5:03 PM on October 25, 2015
There actually are repeating characters, but they can be a bit of an Easter egg for people who have read all the books. None the less, read them in publication order and you'll be safe.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:36 PM on October 25, 2015
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:36 PM on October 25, 2015
YMMV, but I love The Culture novels, and got precisely nothing from either Alistair Reynolds or Peter F. Hamilton. There were superficial similarities with the wide ranging space-opera-y ness, but what was missing for me was:
* Excellent prose
* Genuinely funny and charismatic characters with wit.
* Some exploration of culture and philosophy.
If those are the things that float your boat, rather than just crazy space and Ship antics, then I would recommend:
* Ursula K. Le Guin. Now is probably an excellent time for you to read The Dispossessed. There are so many parallels between it and The Player Of Games. The Left Hand Of Darkness is also beautiful.
* Ann Leckie - Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Justice are books that answer the rough question "What If The Culture Was Much More Like The Borg?".
Like Banks, both writers are gifted prose stylists, with a knack for creating an alien culture then following through on extrapolating the consequences throughout a society in a way that feels solid and believable.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:04 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
* Excellent prose
* Genuinely funny and charismatic characters with wit.
* Some exploration of culture and philosophy.
If those are the things that float your boat, rather than just crazy space and Ship antics, then I would recommend:
* Ursula K. Le Guin. Now is probably an excellent time for you to read The Dispossessed. There are so many parallels between it and The Player Of Games. The Left Hand Of Darkness is also beautiful.
* Ann Leckie - Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Justice are books that answer the rough question "What If The Culture Was Much More Like The Borg?".
Like Banks, both writers are gifted prose stylists, with a knack for creating an alien culture then following through on extrapolating the consequences throughout a society in a way that feels solid and believable.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:04 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I like Douglas Adams but don't see any similarity to Banks at all.
It's there, kind of. I always got a bit of an Adams-ey vibe from some of the sillier Ship and Culture-person banter. A lot of the more hedonistic Culture characters are basically Ford Prefect or Zaphod Beeblebrox, and there is something of an argument to be made that the Culture as a whole is made up of billions of Fords Prefect and Zaphods Beeblebrox hedonistically drinking and carousing and drug-glanding their way through the cosmos, while much more well adjusted Marvins keep the whole show on the road.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:10 PM on October 25, 2015
It's there, kind of. I always got a bit of an Adams-ey vibe from some of the sillier Ship and Culture-person banter. A lot of the more hedonistic Culture characters are basically Ford Prefect or Zaphod Beeblebrox, and there is something of an argument to be made that the Culture as a whole is made up of billions of Fords Prefect and Zaphods Beeblebrox hedonistically drinking and carousing and drug-glanding their way through the cosmos, while much more well adjusted Marvins keep the whole show on the road.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:10 PM on October 25, 2015
One piece of advice I've seen is _not_ to read consider phlebas first, because it's not nearly as good as other options.
see, I think Consider Phlebas to be the most interesting of the books... also I think the quality goes down for the last couple of ones.
Ken MacLeod. As a bonus, you get a reoccuring character clearly based on Iain Banks... they were close friends.
posted by ennui.bz at 12:34 AM on October 26, 2015
see, I think Consider Phlebas to be the most interesting of the books... also I think the quality goes down for the last couple of ones.
Ken MacLeod. As a bonus, you get a reoccuring character clearly based on Iain Banks... they were close friends.
posted by ennui.bz at 12:34 AM on October 26, 2015
I think this is the passage in Player Of Games that seemed most clearly indebted to Ford Prefect - The ludicrously named, worldly, charming ,Shohobohaum Za is instructing the cloistered, uptight Gurgeh in a manner very similar to a Prefect/Dent conversation:
"You do drink?" Za said, looking suddenly alarmed.
"I've been bypassing the stuff," Gurgeh told him.
Za shook his head emphatically. "Don't do that with grif," he said, patting Gurgeh's hand. "Would be tragic. Ought to be a treasonable offence, in fact. Gland Crystal Fugue State instead. Brilliant combination; blows your neurons out your ass. Grif is stunning stuff. Comes from Echronedal you know; shipped over for the games. Only make it during the Oxygen Season; stuff we're getting should be two Great Years old. Costs a fortune. Opened more legs than a cosmetic laser. Anyway." Za sat back, clasping his hands and looking seriously at Gurgeh. "What do you think of the Empire? Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it? I mean, vicious but sexy, right?" He jumped forward as a male servant carrying a tray with a couple of small, stoppered jugs came up to them. "Ah-ha!"
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:28 AM on October 26, 2015
"You do drink?" Za said, looking suddenly alarmed.
"I've been bypassing the stuff," Gurgeh told him.
Za shook his head emphatically. "Don't do that with grif," he said, patting Gurgeh's hand. "Would be tragic. Ought to be a treasonable offence, in fact. Gland Crystal Fugue State instead. Brilliant combination; blows your neurons out your ass. Grif is stunning stuff. Comes from Echronedal you know; shipped over for the games. Only make it during the Oxygen Season; stuff we're getting should be two Great Years old. Costs a fortune. Opened more legs than a cosmetic laser. Anyway." Za sat back, clasping his hands and looking seriously at Gurgeh. "What do you think of the Empire? Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it? I mean, vicious but sexy, right?" He jumped forward as a male servant carrying a tray with a couple of small, stoppered jugs came up to them. "Ah-ha!"
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:28 AM on October 26, 2015
1) Do I need to read them in order, or are they stand-alone novels?
Some things, events, themes carry over from novel to novel, including one particularly uninteresting SC tool. Excession works better if you understand more about The Culture. I particularly liked Look to Windward.
2) Do the events in The Player of Games impact on any of the other novels? Is this part of an ongoing plot?
We don't see the named characters or target civilization again, but the core problem - what to do with those pesky neighbors - pops up again.
3) If you like the Culture novels, which other Sci-fi authors would you recommend?
Le Guinn, Stross, Wolfe.
One thing I found interesting which never seemed to be followed up much was Gurgeh's interaction with Contact,
Special Circumstances shows up a lot, ref. answer #2.
posted by Shohobohaum Za at 11:57 AM on November 3, 2015
Some things, events, themes carry over from novel to novel, including one particularly uninteresting SC tool. Excession works better if you understand more about The Culture. I particularly liked Look to Windward.
2) Do the events in The Player of Games impact on any of the other novels? Is this part of an ongoing plot?
We don't see the named characters or target civilization again, but the core problem - what to do with those pesky neighbors - pops up again.
3) If you like the Culture novels, which other Sci-fi authors would you recommend?
Le Guinn, Stross, Wolfe.
One thing I found interesting which never seemed to be followed up much was Gurgeh's interaction with Contact,
Special Circumstances shows up a lot, ref. answer #2.
posted by Shohobohaum Za at 11:57 AM on November 3, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
1. No - there's no real order that I can discern, someone else can correct me. I've read them all, some events turn up a few times, but they're all far in the past.
2. Not that I'm aware - none of the characters show up anywhere else as far as I recall.
3. Beats the hell out of me. No one writes as well as Banks.
Not all of Banks's sci-fi is Culture based, so keep that in mind as you search.
posted by Farce_First at 5:26 AM on October 25, 2015