Surface Detail by Iain M Banks

Destination

Destination

Destination

Soldato
Joined
31 May 2009
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Anyone else read his most recent Culture work?
I must say i enjoyed the book a great deal, likeing his portrayal of his characters, and loved the somewhat psychopathical ship.

I've always enjoyed Banks' sci-fi work, his culture work especially.
Look forward to his next one.


Where's a good chairmaker when you need one? ;)
 
mmm i've seen this guy mentioned a few times, and have been meaning to get into the more mainstream sci fi literature scene. My experience is limited to expanded universe novels from Star wars and the odd game series now and then :p.

I see his first culture book is available for just over £5, worth picking up?
 
Consider Phelbas, good book, main charater is anti-culture, makes it a good read

then go for Use of Weapons, and Excession and Player of Games

then follow with whatever you like :P
 
I really enjoyed it, Mr Banks is one of the few authors whose books I tend to pre-order as soon as the hardback is announced :)

He's able to tell what is sometimes a quite complicated story with a number of twists in a way that is still very enjoyable/readable, and his characterisations can be great.
I love the idea that the ships often have personalities that really suit the role they have - not to mention the ship classes such as torturer, abominator etc that describe very succinctly what the ship is intended for, whilst providing a bit of a disconnect from the general ethos of the Culture as a whole :) (and that's before you get into the individual ship names which can be very funny given the ships personality/role such as "not invented here yet" as a contact ship, or "frank exchange of views" and "killing time" for more combat specialised ships)


Demoniser, I'd highly recommend his sci-fi, I'm not such a fan of his general fiction which I find harder to get into, Iain M Banks = Sci-fi, Iain Banks = Fiction as a general rule (although I think Transition is/was marketed as Fiction here for some reason, whilst it's very definitely Sci-fi/fantasy and marketed as such elsewhere).
 
Spit said:
Never read him before, is there a reading order?
Click to expand...

Not particularly, but some books are best to read before others.

I'd recommend Consider Phlebas first (which also happens to be the first one he wrote), then probably Use of Weapons; these two are my favourite. After that, whatever you like really.

Don't read Excession until you've read at least two though, as it's best to have a general understanding of the Culture setting before reading it.
 
Of his Iain M. Banks stuff I've only read Consider Phlebas which I quite liked. Really enjoyed Transition which is kind of in between his sci-fi and normal stuff. Might go back and read Matter which I started months ago but stopped reading for something else. Don't think I was enjoying it all that much.
 
Almost finished the Algebraist whih isnt a 'Culture' novel which im enjoying a lot. Only outstanding of his sci-fi works for me now are Surface Detail and Feersum Endjin

His mind is simply awesome to conjur up what he does in the Culture universe and beyond! Well worth reading.

If you can read the Culture series in some order it will help with the understanding of the setup a little. If not, everything is explained in each book to a degree so theres no real confusion and its not a 'series' anyway!

£5 = bargain!

Release orderfrom wiki:
Consider Phlebas (1987)
The Player of Games (1988)
Use of Weapons (1990)
Excession (1996) - Really enjoyed this one!
Inversions (1998)
Look to Windward (2000)
Matter (2008)
Surface detail (2010)
 
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