7 ms·
By a large margin my favourite author. The Wasp Factory was the first novel of his I read and it was great, but Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games utterly
by anu_gupta 14y ago
By a large margin my favourite author. The Wasp Factory was the first novel of his I read and it was great, but Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games utterly blew my mind.
- satori99 14y agoAgreed. I became a fan of his after reading just a few chapters of The Player of Games, and have since read almost everything he has ever published. He is an author of extraordinary skill.
- xradionut 14y agoThe Player of Games is one of the few sci-fi books I recommend to readers interested in the genre.
- StavrosK 14y agoWhich Banks book should I start with? I was going to start with the Player of Games after your comment, but it turns out it's part of a series, and Consider Phlebas is the first one. Does it matter?
- jvzr 14y agoI've read in a Amazon review that it is recommended to start with Consider Phlebas, then The Player of Games and finally Use of Weapons (as a first start into the Culture, that is). I've bought them three myself and will read them in this order.
- StavrosK 14y agoI will too, thank you.
- swombat 14y agoI'd actually consider starting with one of the latter two. Consider Phlebas is great still, but distinctly less mind blowing than PoG or UoW..
- StavrosK 14y agoAha, well, Player of Games it is, then! Especially since, like ceejayoz said, they don't really depend on each other. Thanks for the recommendation.
- codeulike 14y agoI wouldn't start with Consider Phlebas.
- engtech 14y agoRead this: http://nuwen.net/culture.html http://nuwen.net/culture.html then: The Player of Games Consider Phlebas Use of Weapons Use of Weapons is great, but the writing is poorer than the other two.
- adrianhoward 14y agoUse of Weapons is great, but the writing is poorer than the other two. Heh. Interesting. I'd say exactly the opposite myself. Not that I dislike the other two - PoG is one of my faves of his SF work - but to me UoW is a vastly better work of literature, both in structure and character development. Less full of SFnal goodies than some of his later work, but all the better for that in some ways.
- ceejayoz 14y agoNo, it doesn't really matter. Each of the Culture novels is basically standalone. They occasionally reference events amongst each other, but more in an "this is an interesting story too" manner.
- archangel_one 14y agoI'd suggest Player of Games first; I found it better as an introduction to the Culture. They're not really a series as such; his Culture novels share a setting but don't share any characters (well, almost none) or any particular plot continuity, so you certainly don't have to read them in order. I'd suggest PoG as a starting point to explain what the Culture's about, which I think it does better than CP because the main character in that is not of the Culture. YMMV though.
- StavrosK 14y agoYeah, that seems to be the consensus. I'll go with that, thank you.
- engtech 14y agoActually, don't start with the books. Read this webpage to get an introduction to the Culture. It's great, and it helps you get through some of the "rougher" edges in the earlier books. http://nuwen.net/culture.html http://nuwen.net/culture.html
- deadairspace 14y agoThanks! That was really well-written.
- jtbigwoo 14y agoI'd suggest not starting with the Culture novels. The Algebraist is more accessible because it's not constantly referring to a mysterious super-organization that's driving the plot.
- marssaxman 14y agoThe Culture books are not really a series so much as a collection of stories all taking place in a single imaginary universe. Plots and characters from one book occasionally turn up as background details in another, but there is no reason to read them in order.
- abraininavat 14y agoTo everyone who enjoyed Player of Games, I ask.. why? I'm not suggesting your opinions are wrong, of course, but I had a much different impression. Obviously Player of Games is well regarded by many people, so I'm curious to know what I missed. --- SPOILERS BELOW --- My general impression was that the Empire of Azad was that its conception lacked imagination. The peculiarities of the species (the three sexes, the society built around a board game, etc) could have made for a very interesting culture, but those instead the peculiarities were mostly left untouched and the culture was recognizable as human in every way. The greatest offense, in my opinion, is that the most interesting part of the book (the game Azad) was left almost entirely undescribed. An alien species should be different. Vastly different. These were humans painted green on Star Trek.
- xradionut 14y agoThe point of the book is obvious, once completely read. In fact it's wickedly delightful and has nothing to do with Azad.
- nooneelse 14y agoIn Player of Games, the Culture doesn't represent we humans on Earth. The Azad do. They aren't alien and different because of that.
- abraininavat 14y agoYou're missing my point. The Culture and the Azadians were very anatomically similar. That's silly and lacks imagination.
- lobster_johnson 14y agoBanks explains, in one the books, how the universe somehow produces humanoids all over the place, for unknown reasons; probably it's simply an optimal shape in a certain type of gravity and atmosphere; and that this is why many of the species in the books are humanoid. It's a writer's way out, really, and a perfectly adequate one. Banks has other weird and interesting species appearing in the periphery. But the books are ultimately not about weird aliens.
- arethuza 14y agoI read Consider Phlebas in one go during a day off between finishing my final year project at Uni and starting revising for my finals - would have been May '88. Left a bit of an impression on me....