Honestly, I'd take it a step further and skip Banks all together. I first read a bunch of Culture books roughly a decade ago, thought I'd give them another read

Honestly, I'd take it a step further and skip Banks all together. I first read a bunch of Culture books roughly a decade ago, thought I'd give them another read recently, and had lost all interest. Thin plots, boring characters, worlds that are mostly hinted at but poorly developed, and in his later books a deep sense of nihilism that reads more like a depressed teenager than an author finding his voice. Of the books, the two that manage to stand somewhat on their own as decent books are Player of Games, because what geek doesn't like a book about a planet where the government is based around whose best at board games, and Excession since it's the most Mind-heavy book, and frankly the Minds are Banks' most interesting characters.