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   13 barn owls in a trenchcoat (hauntedowlbear@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2024 03:51:35 JST 13 barn owls in a trenchcoat

   in reply to

   • Lien Rag
   • myrmepropagandist
   • 🚲
   • zachary jean paradis

   @dx @lienrag @futurebird @zjp I think The Player of Games is a great starting points, although The Use of Weapons and Surface Detail are perhaps my favourite entries in the series (hard call, though).

   • Embed this notice
     🚲 (dx@social.ridetrans.it)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2024 03:51:36 JST 🚲

     in reply to

     • Lien Rag
     • myrmepropagandist
     • zachary jean paradis

     @lienrag @futurebird @zjp I think reading them in order would be a bad idea actually. I like them all, but Consider Phlebas (the first book by publication and ?maybe? the first chronologically in-universe) is not very representative of the series.

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     Lien Rag (lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2024 03:51:38 JST Lien Rag

     in reply to

     • myrmepropagandist
     • zachary jean paradis

     @futurebird

     I've always wanted to read him, but never knew whether his "culture" series can be read in any order...
     (I hate to read a book, and then discover that it references another book I hadn't read)

     @zjp

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     zachary jean paradis (zjp@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2024 03:51:40 JST zachary jean paradis

     in reply to

     • myrmepropagandist

     @futurebird got a recommendation for a first read? Shockingly not come across him yet.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2024 03:51:40 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • zachary jean paradis

     @zjp

     This is a hard question! I want to say "just grab any book!" because it's that good.

     Look to Windward: An optimistic and at times funny romp focused on "the culture"

     The Player of Games: about political freedom, masculinity, power.

     The Hydrogen Sonata: haunting, about civilizations dying.

     Excession: Personal favorite, though it gets very abstract. About pacifism & what *real* super intelligent AIs might do.

     Use of Weapons: Don't read this one first. It's confusing but good.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2024 03:51:42 JST myrmepropagandist

     I love Ian Banks' books because he frequently takes the time to imagine a utopia, not as an allegory for why utopias are impossible (and in the extreme sense they are, we all get that, it's not interesting) but rather as an exercise in seeing how close one could get to a society with real freedom and few contradictions.

     I think it's a good exercise. OK fine so how would a world without hunger or unwanted suffering work?

     He took on the topic of gender in this spirit and it's glorious.