What is the best Culture ship name?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Matter is out this week!



Let's celebrate its release by choosing the best ship name from Iain M. Banks' Culture series!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_(The_Culture)

[Cormacaroni]

no Size Isn't Everything?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Sorrry ;_;

I know everyone has their favorites

[Cormacaroni]

omg, the list is full of lol

'What Are the Civilian Applications?'

[Cormacaroni]

Matter is hardback only now, right?

I pretty much can't buy hardbacks anymore (impossible to read on the train, limited bookshelf space...) but for Culture, i'm tempted.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Hardback only, yeah.

It's the first big-honking hardbook I've bought, uh ... well if you don't count Harry Potter books, like, ever.

I know what it's like to try to read on the train in Japan with even a trade paperback, though. :'(

[Cormacaroni]

I have about 6 Banks books in HB (Look to Windward being the most recent), and while they look nice, i don't re-read them like I've done with all the ones I have in paperback. I've actually re-bought some for this reason. It pisses me off when I accidentally order a trade paperback from amazon thinking it's a regular paperback.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

that reminds me, my ex girlfriend still has my UK copy of Use of Weapons!!



GIVE IT BACK YOU WHORRRRE

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Cheradenine Zakalwe

The Chairmaker 

Nothing on Earth is more frightening than The Chair

[Howard Alan Treesong]

LET'S RANK THE CULTURE NOVELS

Use of Weapons > Player of Games > Consider Phlebas > Excession > Look to Windward

I still need to read Inversions, which is like 20% a Culture novel.

Sadly, that ranking does not give me high hopes for Matter. :'( But even the worst Culture novel is still better than 99% of what passes for Science Fiction!

[Madrun Badrun]

I'd start reading this series if I could get it in hardcover.  I really hate softcovers.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

It's not really a "series" per se--well, none of the books are connected to any of the others by anything except taking place in the same universe.

You can get em used in hardcover off amazon pretty easily.

[Madrun Badrun]

used on amazon is really expensive for me because of the shipping.

Maybe I might look on amazon.ca.


so I could just jump into Matter and I'd be fine?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

if you want to, sure. though Player of Games or Consider Phlebas would probably be better starting points.

Quick summaries; Cormacaroni, feel free to correct or expand.

Consider Phlebas - Hyper-epic space opera on a frankly ridiculous scale. Galaxies collide, civilizations fall, trillions die, etc.
Player of Games - Political intrigue about a professional games player who's sent on a special mission by the Culture to WIN IT ALL. The "rompiest" of the Culture books.
Use of Weapons - Incredibly complex psychological drama that focuses on an ex-member of "Special Circumstances" coming to grips with his past. My favorite, but possibly a difficult starting point.
Inversions - More of a political fantasy novel than a Culture novel, though events transpire that make it clear this world is set in the Culture universe (and that the Culture may have played a part in how things transpire.
Excession - A probe enters our universe from outside our universe. Then it leaves. Then it comes back. The Culture and The Affront (the hilarious warmongering anti-Culture) both vie for supremacy. What happens when an unstoppable cannonball hits an immovable post?
Look to Windward - The Culture intervened in a planetary war, thinking they Knew Best, and caused a massive genocide. Oops. They feel really bad about this.
Matter - Not sure yet, just started!

The Culture is awesome, awesome is The Culture.

http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~stefan/culture.html

The Culture

[Cormacaroni]

it's a minor entry into the Culture ouevre, but The State of the Art has 1 Culture-based novella and 2 short stories.

Patel, are you a bit disappointed to see that Matter is focused on Special Circumstances again? Yes, they get to have all the fun but still...

[Ichirou]

ha ha nerds

[Cormacaroni]

Excession was my first Iain M. Banks book, and I loved it. I should read more... I think I've only read Player of Games besides that. Read a couple of his non sci-fi books too. Has he ever written a bad book? Everything I've read by him has been awesome.

Edit: no, it may have been Feersum Endjinn, not Player of Games.

His biggest problem is that he's a bit of a slacker (he only works 2 months a year) and writes on auto-pilot sometimes. This seems to affect his 'lit fiction' more than his sci-fi though. It's stuff like 'Whit' and 'Dead Air' that annoys me most for its inconsequentiality, but it's usually still fairly entertaining.

Excession is FAR from his best sci-fi book. You should definitely read more. No real duds in the sci-fi stuff, except maybe Inversions (which Patel just spoiled for you anyway...the best thing about it is the slow dawning that this is actually a Culture novel, not a sword n' sorcery fantasy).

I still have some affection for Inversions tho - i went to a reading by Banks about 16yrs ago and asked him if he had any tolerance for fantasy. He said not really, but there was this one idea I had for a book that would sort of be fantasy - turned out that was 'Inversions'.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

oops, I wasn't aware Inversions being a culture novel was a spoiler. I mean, it's filed under Culture novels in his bibliography

I'm also on the same page as you re: Special Circumstances. Yes, they're totally awesome...but it would be nice to see something else once in a while.

[Cormacaroni]

i shall order some of these 'books', they sound interesting

(sound of Cormacaroni collapsing)

fixed!