Iain M. Banks’ Culture

Iain M. Banks is my favorite white male SFF writer. (Samuel R. Delany is my favorite SFF writer period; I need to write something like this about him sometime.) His work is both witty and smart, both utterly science-fictional and sophisticated in literary craft, both playfully entertaining and philosophically rich, extremely nerdy but not just for nerds. The indispensible Annalee Newitz has a paen to these virtues and more.

I have a quick word about getting into his work.

The centerpiece of his SF is a utopian spacefaring human(ish) civilization with extremely advanced technology called The Culture, which provides a platform for returning to all of the things we like about oldschool science fiction with a fresh — and often critical — perspective. The Culture novels, like many SF series, are not one big story but rather set of independent stories in a big setting, so one can read them in any order.

But fans almost universally point to Player Of Games as the best place to start. All of the Culture novels are a complex stew, but Player is relatively straightforward, and it comes directly at What The Culture Is.

Damien Walter (whose SF podcast I highly recommend) disagrees with this pick; he says to start with Banks’ first Culture book, Consider Phlebas. He has a point. If like me you love but have outgrown SF classics like Asimov’s Foundation and Niven’s Ringworld, Banks plants a flag in Phlebas about how he wants to dialogue with that legacy. It may feel too much like a sprawling mess as a first taste if one is not That Kind Of Nerd, but if one is, I agree with Walter. (I recommend the audiobook which includes a musical soundtrack that is effective rather than just gimmicky.)

If you are already sold on Banks, I recommend saving his essay A Few Notes On The Culture for after reading one or two of the novels. It lays out a bunch of worldbuilding and talks directly about themes Banks finds interesting. I think it is tastiest if one has already encountered the Culture in practice, but if you are not quite sold yet, it may hook you.

Next up I recommend Use Of Weapons, which was my first Culture novel. It pulls a nifty structural move in service of supporting its thematic core and setting up its climax. (When Banks tells you There Is A Monster At The End Of This Book, believe him. Which is why I hesitate to recommend his amazing first novel, the not-science-fictional The Wasp Factory.)

If you love Phlebas you will also love my personal favorite, Excession, the most nerdy & playful Culture novel. It is also a good pick for fans of Star Trek: Discovery, since Excession has its fingerprints all over the storyline for the middle seasons. But if one is less a deep nerd, Excession is a lower priority.

After getting knee-deep, check out Look To Windward, probably the single most ambitious Culture novel. I very strongly recommend reading James Tiptree, Jr.’s underappreciated Brightness Falls From The Air immediately before; I am not alone in noticing how Banks was responding directly to it in Windward.

With those, you have hit the essentials. If you fall in love, as I did, there are plenty more.