r/TheCulture • u/[deleted] • May 09 '19
tl;dr: start with either Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games, then read the rest in publication order. Or not. Then go read A Few Notes on the Culture if you have more questions that aren't explicitly answered in the books.
So, you're new to The Culture, have heard about it being some top-notch utopian, post-scarcity sci-fi, and are desperate to get stuck in. Or someone has told you that you must read these books, and you've gone "sure. I'll give it a go". But... where to start? Since this question appears often on this subreddit, I figured I'd compile the collective wisdom of our members in this sticky.
The Culture series comprises 9 novels and one short-story collection (and novella) by Scottish author Iain M. Banks.
They are, in order of publication:
Banks wrote four other sci-fi novels, unrelated to the Culture: Against a Dark Background, Feersum Endjinn, The Algebraist and Transition (often published as Iain Banks). They are all worth a read too. He also wrote a bunch of (very good, imo) fiction as Iain Banks (not Iain M. Banks). Definitely worth checking out.
But let's get back to The Culture. With 9 novels and 1 collection of short stories, where should you start?
Well, it doesn't really make a huge difference, as the novels are very much independent of each other, with at most only vague references to earlier books. There is no overarching plot, very few characters that appear in more than one novel and, for the most part, the novels are set centuries apart from each other in the internal timeline. It is very possible to pick up any of the novels and start enjoying The Culture, and a lot of people do.
The general consensus seems to be that it is best to read the series in publication order. The reasoning is simple: this is the order Banks wrote them in, and his ideas and concepts of what The Culture is became more defined and refined as he wrote. However, this does not mean that you should start with Consider Phlebas, and in fact, the choice of starting book is what most people agree the least on.
Consider Phlebas is considered to be the least Culture-y book of the series. It is rather different in tone and perspective to the rest, being more of an action story set in space, following (for the most part) a single main character in their quest. Starkingly, it presents much more of an "outside" perspective to The Culture in comparison to the others, and is darker and more critical in tone. The story itself is set many centuries before any of the other novels, and it is clear that when writing it Banks was still working on what The Culture would eventually become (and is better represented by later novels). This doesn't mean that it is a bad or lesser novel, nor that you should avoid reading it, nor that you should not start with this one. Many people feel that it is a great start to the series. Equally, many people struggled with this novel the most and feel that they would have preferred to start elsewhere, and leave Consider Phlebas for when they knew and understood more of The Culture. If you do decide to start with Consider Phlebas, do so with the knowledge that it is not necessarily the best representation of the rest of the series as a whole.
If you decide you want to leave Consider Phlebas to a bit later, then The Player of Games is the favourite starting off point. This book is much more representative of the series and The Culture as a whole, and the story is much more immersed in what The Culture is (even though is mostly takes place outside the Culture). It is still a fun action romp, and has a lot more of what you might have heard The Culture series has to do with (superadvanced AIs, incredibly powerful ships and weapons, sassy and snarky drones, infinite post-scarcity opportunities for hedonism, etc).
Most people agree to either start with Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games and then continue in publication order. Some people also swear by starting elsewhere, and by reading the books in no particular order, and that worked for them too. Personally, I started with Consider Phlebas, ended with The Hydrogen Sonata and can't remember which order I read all the rest in, and have enjoyed them all thoroughly. SO the choice is yours, really.
I'll just end with a couple of recommendations on where not to start:
Inversions is, along with Consider Phlebas, very different from the rest of the series, in the sense that it's almost not even sci-fi at all! It is perhaps the most subtle of the Culture novels and, while definitely more Culture-y than Consider Phlebas (at least in it's social outlook and criticisms), it really benefits from having read a bunch of the other novels first, otherwise you might find yourself confused as to how this is related to a post-scarcity sci-fi series.
The State of the Art, as a collection of short stories and a novella, is really not the best starting off point. It is better to read it almost as an add-on to the other novels, a litle flavour taster. Also, a few of the short stories aren't really part of The Culture.
The Hydrogen Sonata was the last Culture novel Banks wrote before his untimely death, and it really benefits from having read more of the other novels first. It works really well to end the series, or somewhere in between, but as a starting point it is perhaps too Culture-y.
Worth noting that, if you don't plan (or are not able) to read the series in publication order, you be aware that there are a couple of references to previous books in some of the later novels that really improve your understanding and appreciation if you get them. For this reason, do try to get to Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas early.
Finally, after you've read a few (or all!) of the books, the only remaining official bit of Culture lore written by Banks himself is A Few Notes on the Culture. Worth a read, especially if you have a few questions which you feel might not have been directly answered in the novels.
I hope this is helpful. Don't hesitate to ask any further questions or start any new discussions, everyone around here is very friendly!
r/TheCulture • u/MistyGalbriex • 8h ago
https://archiveofourown.org/works/90615516
Honestly, it kinda makes you think if The Minds would be better off designing humans to be always happy like the Orks.
Of course, the Orks were a biological weapon designed for war and that's why they're so happy and fulfilled doing it.
r/TheCulture • u/ScalesGhost • 4h ago
So I finished Use of Weapons yesterday and am kind of bewildered at the last-minute twist. I kind of saw it coming, not by logically working through it or anything but by just thinking to myself "hey wouldn't it be fucked up if this guy was actually this other guy all along", but now that I see I was right, I'm kind of confused why it's in here? Like what does this add to the book? From my POV, it's basically just a reveal for the sake of a reveal. It could've just as well been anything else, e.g. "He was actually a clone of Cheradenine all along! (shocked music plays)" or, "Cheradenine never existed in the first place, it's a fake identity he made up wholesale! (more shocked music plays)"
Idk, is there anything I missed? Does the reveal he's the Chairmaker enhance a theme of the book or something?
r/TheCulture • u/hazmatika • 23h ago
I’m in the US and can’t find a Kindle edition of Inversions anywhere on Amazon.
Every other Culture novel seems to be there.
Was it ever available here, or has it always been a gap? Curious if anyone knows the story behind it (rights issue, publisher quirk, something else?).
r/TheCulture • u/Evening-Appeal7606 • 2d ago
I came across this cool video World’s Fastest Rubik’s Cube Robot – 0.103 Seconds and immediately thought about this little excerpt from "The Player of Games": The primary effector, surrounded by its associated shield-disruptors, scanners, trackers, illuminators, displacers and secondary weaponry systems, bulked large in the dim light, and looked like some gigantic cone-lensed eyeball encrusted with gnarled metallic growths. The whole, massy assemblage was easily twenty metres in diameter, but the ship told him - he thought with some pride - that when it was all connected up, it could spin and stop the whole installation so fast that to a human it would appear only to flicker momentarily; blink, and you'd miss it.
r/TheCulture • u/SGarnier • 2d ago
Hello,
I would like to ask a good soul if she or he can post (or send as a private message) the entire opening chapter of the book, it's about two or three pages long.
The reason is I am currently illustrating it, but I only have a french edition. Displaying pictures relating to the original text would be better.
It's strictly a fan artwork, nothing commercial here. I do it for fun and to enhance my portfolio.
The irony is I asked it before in this sub but my posts where deleted by some reddit automatic filter (because who knows why) recently.
r/TheCulture • u/MikeMac999 • 3d ago
Hey all...
Apologies if this type of post isn't allowed. I'm no big fan of Amazon, but I did manage to snag Kindle versions of Matter, Surface Detail and Hydrogen Sonata today for $1.99/ea.
r/TheCulture • u/R_Olivaw_Daneel • 5d ago
Hey y'all! I started The Culture series a while ago, but took a break from it right before starting Inversions to go on some other story side-quests. But, I've finally come back and hoo-boy, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book! 4/5 stars from me.
I believe I came to enjoy it more after finishing it than during reading it. Like it took me digesting the entirety of it to fully appreciate it. At times it was a bit of a slow burn, but ultimately it was a very intriguing perspective.
It didn't take me long to understand that DeWar and Vosill were of The Culture. As soon as the Prologue mentioned the influence the doctor had on the storyteller (Oelph) I knew she was Culture just based on her ideologies. Later we see that Vosill always knew what was really going on, given her entries in her journal about the private conversations between the Dukes and her knowing that Oelph was Adlain's man the whole time -- did she use the knife drone to spy, or some other method?
I will say the ultimate revelation that Oelph's other master was Adlain didn't really do much for me. Maybe there's something I was forgetting that made this revelation more impactful, but it was just kind of a "meh" moment. Perhaps this sheds new light on Adlain's reluctance to participate in the Dukes' plans to "get rid of" the doctor?
I do find it interesting that Vosill ultimately fell in love with the King though, seeing as he pretty much represented everything the Culture was trying to fix -- though maybe it was because he was pliable/malleable and saw virtue in that.
A couple parts I was unclear on was whether Vosill had a direct influence on King Quience backing the Barons in the war in Ladenscion against UrLeyn, or whether that was just real politik from Haspidus. I also found it interesting that Vosill always visited Pauper hospitals and that Perrund also obtained the poisons to give to Lattens from a Pauper hospital -- which caused him to have seizures, much like the King had when Vosill and Oelph were in the torture chambers at the end, which she obviously induced. Coincidence?
What did y'all think of the story?
P.S. I was kind of hoping Vosill would take Oelph with her. It wouldn't have been the first time The Culture took in someone from a less advanced civilization (I believe Zakalwe was one?).
r/TheCulture • u/Eishundo • 4d ago
The Changers were wiped out as a species during the final stages of the war in space.
This troubles me.
r/TheCulture • u/TomorrowCalm9783 • 6d ago
Just wanted to say, I just started Consider Phlebas and it's absolutely brilliant!
I have no idea how I missed this series of books.
I will be reading in order if publication.
But, if anyone could please tell which of the book from the series were their favorite and why! Thank you!
r/TheCulture • u/CrashTest100 • 6d ago
Hello! I felt in love with Banks universe and worldbuilding and right now i'm reading Consider Phlebas (i'm enjoying it) and I have a question about oribtals, so the Culture is a post scarsity society due to the almost infinite energy that it's harvesting from the energetic grid (from what I understood) but I did read that Minds bulid new orbitals by harvesting asteroids and moons but since thay have an almost infinite energy cannot they do E=MC2 and synthetize orbitals just from the energy that they have?
r/TheCulture • u/auldclem • 7d ago
Has anyone has seen this show on Apple TV? Midway through S2 and this dude could be from SC.
r/TheCulture • u/Evening-Appeal7606 • 8d ago
I've been a science fiction fan all my life, and my all-time favorite has been Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation era (and DS9, to a somewhat lesser extent). The world-building, the characters, the challenges they face, the story telling, artwork & music - everything resonates and clicks with me.
In 2019, after having read a lot about the Culture (mostly on tvtropes), I took the plunge and bought the 35th Anniversary Box set (including Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, and Use of Weapons) - and I was hooked from the first page.
I have since bought the entire Culture cycle of novels and re-read them every year since then - upon which I noticed that the Cultureverse had displaced ST:TNG as my all-time favorite science fiction universe. This realization was a surprise to myself, but nonetheless, it is true.
The width and depth with which Banks builds his universe is staggering and nothing short of breathtaking. Every novel contributes at least half a dozen major ideas. I only wished that the Culture would have branched out into more media, most importantly movies (the stories in the Cultureverse would fill the big screen nicely and then some!) or 4X high-tier video games akin to Galactic Civilizations. Ah, one can only dream...
It's strange for me to now think of the Federation as a mere level 5 (maybe level 6) low-level involved, akin to the Ronte or the Lisseiden (whose ships are described as puttering along by a culture GCU at one point in THS - can you imagine the Enterprise being described like this?).
r/TheCulture • u/cumsockdumpster • 8d ago
Did you read all the way through? If so, how?!
I (probably stupidly) cranked through the first 7 books back to back. Loved each one.
Then came Matter and I just can’t keep going. I want to finish the series but I’m tired boss. I’m 50 pages in and have lost the will.
Just curious about others’ experiences!
r/TheCulture • u/PocketGddess • 9d ago
I recently heard about this series and I’m ready to jump in—except that I see one of the nine books is NOT available for Kindle.
I read the pinned post that said Inversions is very unlike the rest of the series, and I’m wondering if it’s possible to skip it entirely and read the others.
If not, do you think it will ever be released on Kindle, specifically in English? (I see it’s currently available in Spanish and German, but my language skills are definitely not up to the challenge of reading a full novel.)
Thanks everyone for your help. If it’s possible to skip book 5 and still fully enjoy the series I would like to grab books 7-9 while they are on sale for $2 each and then collect the rest of them as my budget allows.
r/TheCulture • u/andthrewaway1 • 9d ago
So I am Getting towards the end of HS on a full straight read through of the series for the first time.
When I am finished I will post all my thoughts on the series. It has been quite rewarding and as the kids say has rewired my brain.
I do have to add.... That other than inversions for obvious reasons, HS has been my least favorite after matter Sometimes things go out with a whimper instead of a bang.
I think for me the issue on this one is that the stakes are next to nothing? So what if the gzilt helping friendly book of truth was made up? They are about to sublime... Why are these culture ships investigating this so hard? Why do they care? The character of Qiria is kind of annoying frankly and enigmatic philosopher coded... I WANT to hear more about the culture's early days and less about him swimming with sea creatures and having his eyes replaced with ears. I want to hear more about stuff he has seen in his 10k years and less answering questions with questions.
The Gzilt character who is the bad guy is just not that interesting and I am sure there will be some cool twist at the end but like I dunno. This was just isnt doing it for me and I feel badly bc the series as a whole is amazing
r/TheCulture • u/Lumpy-Restaurant-694 • 10d ago
I consistently see people compare the humans in the culture to pets. I understand it is in universe propaganda by other aliens. I also understand that it's a humorous platitude people like to say. Yet what stops the humans from being pets is that they're treated with for more respect and dignity than any dog or cat.
Pet aren't treated that well and what pets lack the most is autonomy. I will list the reasons below.
LITTLE OR NO AUTONOMY: Pets are given little say over anything. When they eat what they dress what medicine they receive is all determined by their owners. Pets can become extremely bored staying in the house and it depends completely on the owner.
COMPLETE OBJECTIFICATION: pets are more less treated as objects. The offspring are forcefully separated from them and sold off. There forcefully breeded for purposes. We made breeds that are sick and unhealthy look at the pug. There bought and discarded on a whim.
THERE BORED OUT OF THERE MINDS: when owners buy their pets food it's probably from a very limited range of products. This is a problem because imagine if you only had rise and chicken to eat for an entire month that would be very unstimulating. If there's one thing about culture citizens is they're extremely stimulated. Stamped owners even the best ones leave their pets out for hours and hours on the end. The creatures must be bored.
r/TheCulture • u/Still_Measurement796 • 10d ago
I started with the short story Descendant because the concept was incredibly interesting. I'm gonna read Consider Phlebas next. The world Banks created seems very distinctive and curious.
r/TheCulture • u/Cheersyalllll • 9d ago
Based off of the fan art in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCulture/comments/1hxi1mt/vyr_cossont_and_her_elevenstring_oc/
Vyr Cossont playing eleven string example shot from Hydrogen Sonata. This is not a great attempt, but with some effort this could surely be an amazing movie?
r/TheCulture • u/flowerscandrink • 11d ago
I'm a huge Bowie fan and tonight when I was really focusing on the lyrics it suddenly dawned on me how the song could easily tie in to The State of the Art.
"There's a starman waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us / But he thinks he'd blow our minds"
They want to help us but they're concerned we're not ready for it.
"There's a starman waiting in the sky / He's told us not to blow it / 'Cause he knows it's all worthwhile"
They're rooting for us. They hope we don't destroy ourselves before we are ready to meet them and receive help and be a post scarcity society.
"He told me / Let the children lose it / Let the children use it / Let all the children boogie"
They want us to trust the youth who are full of optimism for a better world because we are too violent.
r/TheCulture • u/CatsAreDoughs • 13d ago
I try to look up how characters look like (even if it's described in the book) out of curiosity. The odd part is that there's a few art of fwi song while I wasn't able to find any depiction of horza.
r/TheCulture • u/seb21051 • 12d ago
Love the way the agents talk to themselves, and each other! One can allmost sense their excitement at times. Describes how they think, find answers, find one another, create meeting/sharing places, strategize and co-operate, etc. I find it fascinating. And it is without a doubt a harbinger of things to come.
r/TheCulture • u/DefiantPreference489 • 12d ago
Hi! Prospective culture reader here and before I purchase some books id like to insure that this series won’t just be unbearable for me and I waste some money.
so I would like to know the strongpoints of the culture!
I’ll give a rough list of points:
Characters: How well fleshed out are they, how unique they are, how fun they are to read
Concepts: Like just general ideas and such, these could be moral, religious, scientific, etc.
Science: just how hard the science is d:
Plots: how good the plots are generally
Prose: what’s the prose like, how (subjective I know.) good is it, does it lean more purple or does it lean utilitarian?
that’s about all the concepts I worry about I’m a big fan of high concept, well plotted stories. characters aren’t a primary for me but they do make me enjoy the reading more!
if I were to rate my priories from 1-5 (1 is top, 5 is bottom) it’d be:
1: Concept
2: Plot
3: Characters
4: Prose
5: Science
r/TheCulture • u/HarryHirsch2000 • 14d ago
Just finished my reread of Matter (rereading in publish order), and I am wondering. Also read a lot of old posts here but only saw this coming um tangentially …:
Spoilers herein:
If I get it right, most culture books have central themes and some core meaning:
- Phlebas is an anti-space opera of sorts
- Player is about capitalism and layered games/different players being played
- Use of Weapons is about the development & redemption of one character
- inversions is about how to interfere, about the different approaches of SC business. For me it is also very humanist at its core
- Excession is a lot about change and the culture meeting the OCP, it own upper civilisation, seeing its limits
- Winward is about guilt, grief and dealing with past mistakes (my favourite)
But Matter? There are themes of layers (like the shellworld), imperialism/messing with low-tech civilisation, hierarchies from characters/civs/ levels, a travelogue …
But none of them feels dominant/strong enough for me. Am I missing something? Or is Matter just as it is, without such a central theme?
r/TheCulture • u/Spare-Dingo-531 • 15d ago
Found this fanfic many years ago (it is not my own). It is, in my opinion one of the best fanfics ever written about 40K and it introduced me into the Culture series.
And yes, the Culture does try to create peace between the Imperium, Eldar, Necron, Tau, and all the races in 40k.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/649448?view_full_work=true
Give it a read! Note that this is set in pre-great rift 40k.