It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. The Idirans fought for their Faith the Culture for its moral right to exist. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction – cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Consider Phlebas – The war raged across the galaxy.

The Culture Reading Order: The Culture in Publication Order: Even a reference is occasionally made to the events of previous novels, each novel of The Culture series is a self-contained story with new characters. The Culture series comprises nine novels and one short story collection. You can learn a lot more about it in the notes written by Banks.

More precisely, The Culture is a group-civilization formed from multiple humanoid species that established a loose federation approximately nine thousand years before the story of the series begins. Banks describes The Culture as “an expression of the idea that the nature of space itself determines the type of civilizations which will thrive there.” It is a space opera with a focus on the human and political aspects of its universe. The Culture series is a science fiction series written by Scottish author Iain M. Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.Ī Classic Sci-Fi series! What is The Culture series about?

Consider phlebas series