11 ms·
Consider Phlebas Published by the Folio Society
- retrocryptid 4y agoMeh. Non-consensual cannibalism. Meh.
- danielodievich 4y agoIf you like high quality books, Folio Society editions are difficult to beat. I some recent releases bought direct and some older ones from Ebay at home. Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Anansi Boys are particularly lovely, great feeling paper, amazing illustrations, the cover design is incredible, and of course the typography is top notch. From the older releases, I have a few history books - like the history of Enigma machine, 700 year old biography Chenghiz Khan, and a book about Silk Road. From some of the more recent books, check out the Strugatsky brothers famous https://www.foliosociety.com/row/roadside-picnic.html https://www.foliosociety.com/row/roadside-picnic.html, also available in 500 copies limited edition for a lot more. So want! I need more book shelf space.
- iamacyborg 4y agoI'm still disappointed that Subterranean Press only published Use of Weapons. It's a fantastic publication, fwiw. https://subterraneanpress.com/use-of-weapons/ https://subterraneanpress.com/use-of-weapons/
- buserror 4y agoPossibly my favourite. My dog-eared copy is signed... twice... too. He used to come and read in Windsor, UK on occasion...
- dekhn 4y agomy least favorite. The Player of Games, Excession and the Hydrogen Sonata for me.
- taylorius 4y agoI'd agree with that - the out of order story line always put me off in Use of Weapons. Seemed unnecessary. As for his best, I'd add Look to Windward to your list. That's a beautiful, moving book.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y agoYes, it is. The couple going into the sunsets.
- dekhn 4y agoa remarkable number of books I've read recently are basically: a present day chapter, then a flashback chapter, eventually leading up to a tense moment in the present day that only makes sense once you have the flashback context. Gets boring quickly!
- r00fus 4y agoSurface Detail for me after Player of Games, though I've read all of his Culture series. The Mind of picket ship has got to be one of my favorite characters in the series. All by audiobook, which honestly is a completely different experience than a physical read - perhaps I should check out one of his books and re-experience via text?
- dekhn 4y agoThe ship AIs in the culture are clearly the most interesting characters. The exchanges between the AIs in Excession (the Interesting Times Gang) are absolutely hilarious.
- arglebargle123 4y agoMy favourite plot twist in the entire series is our friend wih a need for speed in Excession. That book is one of my all time favourite reads.
- mr_toad 4y agoThose are like a pleasant stroll in the park. Use of weapons is more like being chased through the park after dark by a madman.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y agoHave a chair. No, sit. We must talk about the Player of Games and your lack of gravitas.
- NikolaNovak 4y agoWhat was special / good about that publication? It's signed by somebody I can best understand as "Not Ian M. Banks", and the description doesn't really tell me anything about "hardware", nor do they have a photo of the product :-/
- Veen 4y agoYeah, I mean, Ken McLeod is a decent enough writer, but he's not in the same league as Banks. Can't imagine why I'd want to pay that much for a copy of a Banks book signed by him.
- Apocryphon 4y agoI wouldn't mind an edition of H.P. Lovecraft writings signed by August Derleth, or a Tolkien book signed by C.S. Lewis (or vice versa), and so on. A Discworld novel signed by Neil Gaiman.
- iamacyborg 4y agoIf you like Gaiman there are some very nice copies of his works from some smaller fine press publishers. https://www.arete-editions.com/artists-edition https://www.arete-editions.com/artists-edition https://www.lyrasbooks.com/shop/coraline/coraline-lettered-edition/ https://www.lyrasbooks.com/shop/coraline/coraline-lettered-e...
- iamacyborg 4y agoSubPress make very good, high quality books. Sometimes it's just quite nice to own a nicely made physical object for something you deeply enjoy.
- arglebargle123 4y agoI do most of my reading on a high end eink device these days and I still get excited when I can buy sub press epubs. Even their digital releases are great quality.
- 4y ago
- AndyMcConachie 4y agoOne of my favorite books of all time.
- jonathanlydall 4y agoUse of Weapons horrific big moment made it particularly memorable to me and definitely not unusual for Ian M Banks. Feersum Endjinn differently horrifying with its core premise of an actual hell and heaven existence for beings. And finally The Wasp Factory is all about a very disturbed individual.
- Snoken 4y agoUse of Weapons is my favorite book, and this edition may be well made, but I could not get past its cover - a Soviet submarine from the fifties, why? What does this have to do with the story? This seems like the publisher just did not care. Or is there some explanation in the foreword?
- lreeves 4y agoI can't think of an author I miss more but 155CAD for a book with 6 illustrations seems crazy, especially when Banks isn't exactly making profit from this.
- AndyMcConachie 4y agoI like reading and I own probably too many books, but I don't understand the Folio society. If you want art then go by art, if you want a book then get a paperback. These aren't coffee table books. It's just words.
- yamtaddle 4y agoThere's something to be said for presentation. Preaching's preaching, but a stone cathedral sure feels different than a strip-mall church.
- a4isms 4y agoPeople act like books are just words to read, but the fact is that handling a well-made artefact of any kind stimulates different neural pathways into your brain than just looking at it. Books can have heft. They can be pleasing to touch. The feel of each page as you turn it is part of the book's user experience, and different choices of paper, binding, and finish all affect that. Reading a physical book generates more "input" to your brain, and if you're going to go to the trouble, it can be stimulating and pleasurable to pick a book that adds physical joy to the experience of reading.
- nineplay 4y agoI "collect" books in that I sometimes buy physical copies of books when I only read e-books, but when I purchase something it's usually because I've found an paperback in a used bookstore and can't resist the fantastic cover art and old book smell. Whatever one may think looking at my overflowing bookshelves, a new pretty print edition doesn't do much for me.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
- blueridge 4y agoI love a properly made book, though I don't buy Folio Society books due to the illustrations. Don't get my wrong, they're beautiful, but any time a book has illustrations it feels like I don't get to use my imagination (as much) for world building. The drawings seem to overwrite my own image-making process for characters, environments, etc. I don't like it. Another example: I was re-reading the Lord of the Rings recently and I couldn't get Peter Jackson's big screen images out of my head while reading. Same thing with Gaiman's Norse Mythology—for the first few stories all I could see was Chris Hemsworth's Thor, running around in my head as I read Gaiman's interpretation. In time, my mind seems to come up with its own imagery that's a mash-up of all the worlds and art and images I've seen. But I still want to "do the work" while reading. It feels like illustrations alongside text rob my mind of that opportunity, and give me a ready-made world with details and characteristics and visuals that are not my own.
- lancesells 4y agoI feel exactly the same way. I would love to buy these books with the beautiful cover and production without the illustrations. The magic of a book of fiction is you get to imagine.
- nottorp 4y ago> I was re-reading the Lord of the Rings recently and I couldn't get Peter Jackson's big screen images out of my head while reading. Why? You shouldn't be able to get Alan Lee's illustrations out of your head while watching the movie :)
- dekhn 4y agoWhen I read norse mythology, I can't unsee this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159017125X https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159017125X (D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths)
- B1FF_PSUVM 4y agoVery nice, thank you. Tangent: "Originally, they used stone lithography for their illustrations. A single four-color illustration required four slabs of Bavarian limestone that weighed up to two hundred pounds apiece." (Stone stone-writing stimulates my department of redundancy department ...)
- jaqalopes 4y agoConsider Phlebas was such an odd entry point into the Culture series. In a way it makes more sense as a prequel, to be read after you understand the world and the general conceit of the series. In fact, I think Consider Phlebas is better upon rereading than it was going in cold. In this light, I'm kind of surprised I went on to read the other books after starting with this one. But, I'm incredibly glad I did, and I recommend them to anyone with an interest in far-future sociological sci-fi.
- substation13 4y agoIt's a fun action novel; I loved the part with the cult on the island. But yeah, it has nothing on Player of Games.
- gpderetta 4y agoConsider Phlebas was my third Culture novel after Use of Weapons and Player of Games. I very much enjoyed it, but definitely didn't enjoy the Island cult bit!
- PicassoCTs 4y agoIts a acquired taste.. it was a fascinating insight though, into a luxurious, post-scarcity societies tolerance for extremes, as long as they all did what they did out of choice, not even a machine could overrule them. I love, how the tragic choices of the "organics" are mirrored hinted as part of the PTSD of the orbital in "Look to the winward", which can "relive" the destruction of orbitals, ships and worlds in the idiran war in perfect detail. It could have zapped the mindstates of the mortals, like the meat-fucker (Sleeper Service), but choose to not do so out of respect for the choices. The whole book part of the orbital, was a careful flashed out testing of the extremes of a highly hedonistic, machine governed society thrown in a "culture" war against religious zealots and it explored those themes well.
- mr_toad 4y ago> meat-fucker (Sleeper Service) The GCU nicknamed meat fucker’s chosen name was the Grey Area. It was a protégé of the GSV Sleeper Service.
- goodlinks 4y agoSad i dont have more of his books signed. I did go to a signing, but the only books of his i had to hand were from the library.. so i got them signed and didnt say anything when i returned them incase i was charged for damaging the book. He just chuckled and did the dedication to the library directly.
- lxe 4y agoConsider Phlebas is probably my favorite Culture book. Arguably not the best intro to the Culture universe, but as a standalone space opera it's hard to put down.
- rsynnott 4y agoSlightly odd that they went for possibly the least-beloved Culture novel. I suppose it's the first published (though not the first written, IIRC), but it's not a _great_ representation of the series.
- thebooktocome 4y agoAmazon is theoretically making an adaptation of it Any Day Now (tm). So perhaps it has marginally more name recognition than Player of Games.
- Rzor 4y agoUnfortunately, it was cancelled in 2020. https://archive.ph/o9ZmR https://archive.ph/o9ZmR (Amazon cancels TV adaptation of Iain M. Banks’ sci-fi Culture series, The Verge)
- thebooktocome 4y agoIt's for the best, really.
- rsynnott 4y agoYeah, it's just really hard to imagine it not being extremely disappointing.
- mkehrt 4y agoSuch a weird choice. I'd love a copy of Use of Weapons or maybe Excession.
- dancemethis 4y ago...It's NOT the Polio Society...?
- tblt 4y agoAs a massive fan of the Culture series, does anyone have recommendations for other excellent sci-fi books?
- Symmetry 4y agoOk, for an Ian M Banks fan specifically. Alistair Reynolds has a number of good books which can capture some of the same darkness you'd find in part's of Banks's work. The Revelation Space books are great in their gothic way, and House of Suns has a lot of the galactic wonder aspects of the Culture books. Ken MacLeod as a friend of Bank's and a good writer. His Fall Revolution books are probably the best known and explore various radical leftish ideas for organizing society across the nearish future. And this last is a bit of an oddball but Leonard Richardson's Constellation Games was a book I really enjoyed that starts with aliens coming to Earth looking to help out and our protagonist, a video game reviewer, asking for alien games to review but ends up in a place that resonated with The Culture very strongly.
- exolymph 4y agoBlindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
- davecanderson 4y agoI just finished reading A Deepness in The Sky by Vernor Vinge which I totally enjoyed and as I read it reminded me of the scale and depth of Banks' Culture novels.
- webmaven 4y agoNeal Asher's Polity Universe will probably ring a lot of the same bells (realpolitik, AIs in charge, a dash of horror). Probably the biggest difference between the milieus is that in the Polity, machines are just as likely to be suffering from PTSD as organic intelligences.
- donohoe 4y agoFor those who loved Iain M. Banks culture books, what else did you find compelling?
- jimjimjim 4y agoConsider Phelbas is good but as the first culture book it would have been the introduction of the culture/ship ai ideas for people which would have made a big impact. unfortunately I read it after going through a lot of Iain Banks' books such as The State of the Art, The Crow Road, The Bridge and Feersum Endjinn, and found it to be just ok.
- YeGoblynQueenne 4y agoI always found it funny that the hero of the first Culture novel is a guy who hates the Culture and wants to destroy them. I liked Horza btw. I guess I have a thing for lost causes.
- tmoertel 4y ago"Set in Garamond with Scene as display" Does anyone know which Garamond?