Fun adventure story, really good idea to view the Culture from the eyes of an outsider, but in my view Banks skill at writing wasn't as well-developed when he w

Fun adventure story, really good idea to view the Culture from the eyes of an outsider, but in my view Banks skill at writing wasn't as well-developed when he wrote CP. Too much "and then this and then this and then this" compared to his other work. Obviously YMMV. I do think stating CP is the best of the series is also quite definitively a contrarian take.