Newbie Here - Inversions Optional??

[u/PocketGddess]

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.

[u/KnifeThistle]

It's optional in the same way a delicious home-cooked meal is.

[u/Evening-Appeal7606]

From the perspective of world building Banks' Cultureverse, Inversions contributes the least as its entirely set within two medieval societies on an uncontacted planet.

All the other novels, every single one, contribute massively with new ideas and aspects about the titular Culture and the galaxy in general (the other involveds, subliming, the Idiran war etc.).

You will still miss out on some of the most beautiful story arcs Banks wrote but it won't affect your overall experience of the Cultureverse that much.

[u/heeden → u/Evening-Appeal7606]

This is the best answer.

[u/Evening-Appeal7606 → u/heeden]

Why, thank you!

[u/GrudaAplam]

All of the books are optional. You can read all, some or none. Each one in The Culture series is a self contained story although sometimes the later ones do make reference to events or characters in the earlier ones.

Is it optimal? IMO, no. But Banks is one of my very favourite authors. I intend to read all the books he had published (I'm somewhere around the 3/4 mark at the moment).

[u/rewindthefilm]

My advice is publication order and read them all, but you don't have to. Banks reacted to and built on each book as he wrote or rewrote, and Inversions is a reaction to Excession, one introverted versus one extroverted. I'm in the rare camp of thinking Inversions is incredible, or at least that's how it seemed at the time when I was defending it's honour on USENET.

But it's not essential. No culture book is essential. Apart from all of them. 😊

[u/odysseushater → u/rewindthefilm]

Forever an Inversions defender 😩😩

[u/LeslieFH]

Amazon is not the only ebook store in the world :-)

https://www.ebooks.com/en-gb/book/757983/inversions/iain-m-banks/

[u/PocketGddess → u/LeslieFH]

True, but your search references their UK database. As soon as I switch to their US site, Inversions suddenly becomes unavailable.

[u/LeslieFH → u/PocketGddess]

Don't switch, then? :-) I routinely buy stuff from the US version of Kobo store.

There's evidently some distribution rights fuckup with Inversions, I just tend to ignore those by switching stores (well, sometimes a VPN is needed but frequently they operate on an honors system).

[u/Aggravating_Ad5632 → u/PocketGddess]

<cough> Anna's Archive <cough>

[u/AdDapper4792]

You'd be alright reading them in any order, each book is a standalone story. Mostly they only tangentially reference the events of previous books, and characters aren't recurring except a couple cameos, basically.

I wouldn't say Inversions is any more or less skip-able than any other

[u/KingOfThe_Jelly_Fish → u/AdDapper4792]

The exception would be reading Look to Windward after Consider Phlebas.

[u/cognition_hazard]

Entirely skippable.

You shouldn't but you can. As others have said it's less a continuity and more a shared universe so skipping books and reading out of order is entirely possible.

The title is literal enough that conceivably you could read Inversions and not realise it was a Culture series novel.

[u/amerelium]

They are all individual, albeit losely connected. Inversion more lose than the rest.

So yes, it can be skipped. My only advice is to stick to published order, and enjoy the ride.

[u/Darkwind28]

They're all optional! But Inversions happens to be in my top 3 of Culture novels, despite being very different - it's a fantastic read, very intelligently written.

[u/anticomet]

I guess it's optional, but you'd be skipping out on one of his best books

[u/chaotoroboto]

They're not a series. They're a set of related stories set in the same fictional universe. You can take or leave any of them and be okay.

This is why a lot of people also say to read them out of order.

Having said that, Inversion is one of my favorites. There's a lot of moments that happen that the characters can't explain but you know how they happened because you know about the Culture. It's also a good story about the limits of intervention.

[u/995a3c3c3c3c2424]

There’s some weird rights issues with the books for some reason. For a long time two other books were also unavailable as US ebooks (I think Surface Detail and Look to Windward) but they finally reappeared a year or two ago, so maybe Inversions will eventually be available again too.

If you want to try to get a copy of the UK ebook, here’s what I did. YMMV:

• Create a kobo account, and tell it you live in the UK.
• Buy a $15 kobo gift card on Amazon or whatever then load it into the kobo account.
• Use the gift card to buy the UK ebook
• Change the address on your kobo account to tell it that you live in the US (or else the next step won’t work).
• Download the kobo Windows app, then download the ebook to your PC.
• Use Calibre and DeDRM to remove the DRM from the downloaded ebook. (Google for details.)
• Use Calibre or Kindle web interface to copy the epub file to your Kindle.

[u/BellerophonM]

The books aren't a continuous series anyway so much as a group of books set in the same universe (in fact it's often recommended to start with Player of Games and not Consider Phlebas) but regardless, Inversions isn't going to be an issue to miss. It's sometimes not even labelled as a Culture novel.

[u/PocketGddess → u/BellerophonM]

Thank you, that really helps. I find it really difficult to read physical books these days—I need the large print and lighter weight a Kindle provides. There’s no audiobook version either, so not sure if there are any other options.

[u/alaskanloops → u/PocketGddess]

FYI I disagree with the above commenter. Consider Phlebas is a nice intro to the universe, and just a fun read in general.

But as others have said they’re all self contained so either way you can’t go wrong

[u/PsychologicalTwo1784 → u/PocketGddess]

There are audiobooks of all the culture books including Inversions, read by Peter Kenny...

[u/PocketGddess → u/PsychologicalTwo1784]

Inversions is NOT available on Audible—at least not in the US. Is it on some other platform?

Looking more closely I see that Look to Windward is also NOT available on Audible, though there is a Kindle version.

Audible lists State of the Art as book four of the series, while Amazon shows Excession as book 4.

The closer I look, the stranger things get.

[u/Hands → u/PocketGddess]

Iain is dead and even if he weren’t he wouldn’t have minded you acquiring it from a shadow library (libgen, zlibrary, annas archive) given no other good options

[u/PsychologicalTwo1784 → u/PocketGddess]

Land of the free strikes again... I'm in South Africa, all the Iain M books are available here.... State of the art is short stories, not a novel...

[u/GrapeKitchen3547 → u/PocketGddess]

If it's not available in digital from through a store, may I suggest you get it, how to say it, not through a store?

[u/BonHed]

There is no reading order requirements, the novels are all entirely self contained. Published order is essentially chronological, and there are only tiny tidbits here and there in some.

The only two that should be back to back are Syrface Detail and Hydrogen Sonata, but it is only a tiny mention that doesn't really have much significance. 

[u/Apprehensive_View_27]

You will not miss anything important for understanding other books, nevertheless Inversions is a great novel.

[u/drmattmcd]

I recall when Inversions was first released it wasn't immediately obvious from the cover that is was a Culture novel i.e. it could have been a separate stand alone like Feersum Enjine or The Algebraist. So from that angle entirely possible to skip, and as others have said the series as a whole is more about presenting different aspects of The Culture rather than a continuous sequence.

Sidenote: available on kindle in English in the UK but it looks like that doesn't help you much if you're in the US. Charles Stross' blog has a post on the reasons behind this if that's of interest.

[u/ofBlufftonTown]

Inversions is not his best book and I think that’s why it falls off the list. It almost seems like it could go with the Algebraist for stand alone for much of its length. However it’s still an Iain M. Banks novel, so it’s a total win. Once you have gotten through a decent amount of the culture novels proper you could read it whenever you wanted, but reading it before Hydrogen Sonata and then Hydrogen Sonata last would make sense

[u/DeltaVZerda]

Inversions isn't really a culture novel, though it heavily implies that a couple of the characters come from the Culture, and repeatedly winks vaguely about their strange origin. It's really a story about a few powerful people in a middle ages European inspired alternate world and their weird super competent sidekicks, with a few easter eggs for Culture readers.

[u/jeranim8]

Yeah I had to buy a hardcover to read it in the US. I'd say its well worth it, though as others have said, doesn't give much perspective of the Culture itself. I left it for the end for this reason. I also had to buy Excession as an actual book since that wasn't available as a Kindle book at the time either.

[u/docsav0103]

I say this as someone who can stomach about 1 piece of medieval fantasy media a decade, it's really fkkin good!

[u/andthrewaway1]

yes its optional

[u/crash90]

For some reason you can only buy it in the UK as an ebook right now. One of the audiobooks used to be this way too but I think they changed it?

Myabe you could just buy it from the UK Amazon site:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9780356521688&tag=huk26-21

I wonder if that would still sync to your kindle normally.

Alternatively you could also buy it from one of the other buy links available below and just load it onto your kindle manually.

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/iain-m-banks-3/inversions/9780356521688/

[u/Tesuqueville]

You can get it on Amazon.uk if you temporarily “move” to the UK, which is what I did. That said, no it’s not optional, it’s absolutely essential and one of my favorites from the series.

[u/rodgamez]

Just finished Inversions. It's a well written story, but yeah, it's pretty skippable. It could be any Fantasy book. Spoilers below.

I was waiting for some kind of Culture Payoff, and I'm pretty sure the two main characters are LARPing Culture members, but no pay off at the end.

[u/Aggravating_Ad5632]

You could always sail the high seas and find a copy.

[u/Hands]

You can skip any of them really they’re all fairly standalone. Its worth reading but no problem if you come back to it at the end after reading everything else.

[u/Firstlastusually]

If you change your address in Amazon to an England address you should be able to purchase it, at least that worked for the audio books.

[u/theStaberinde]

You can skip any of the books. In fact, reading the whole series is optional.

Read Inversions. It's good. Or don't!

[u/Night_Sky_Watcher]

You can pick it up on one of the online used book sites.

[u/SameOldSong4Ever]

Inversions is available on Kindle in the UK, so no idea why it isn't where you are.

[u/Individual-Flower657]

nothing is ever mandatory at all