SCI FI PI

For many Sci Fi fans, Iain M Banks is one of the foremost authors living today. His Culture novels combine a scintillating imagination, cheeky humour and fond regard for the grand conventions of Sci Fi - be they used, parodied - or upgraded. As a source of entertainment, Banks' novels are almost universally enjoyed, and as such, are a great place to start for any Sci Fi reader entering the world of Sci Fi literature.


Consdider Phlebas (1987)

Iain M Banks is Scottish, born in Dumferline, Fife, in 1954. He has a unique habit of creating one 'mainstream' novel, and a 'Sci Fi' novel in alternate turns, creating staunch followers in both fields. His 'mainstream' novels are written under Iain Banks - so if you see, Iain 'M' Banks, you know you've hit Sci Fi. That said, his first novel, 1984's 'The Wasp Factory' is astonishing, and several of his mainstream novels contain elements of the fantastical.



Player of Games (1988)


When it comes to Sci Fi, Banks has put most of efforts towards describing events in and around 'The Culture'. First glimpsed in 1987's Consider Phlebas, The Culture is, in essence, a utopia, the human race as we know it, but not as we know it, existing concurrently with our own present time. Only in one story (The State of the Art) does the Culture visit Earth.

People live in giant hollowed out asteroids, huge rings 'orbitals' floating in space around a star (as opposed to a Ring - that encloses a star) planets (of course) and gigantic space ships that wander the galaxy.


Use of Weapons (1990)


The Culture, whilst retaining an almost anarchic freedom, is guided by Artificial Intelligences, known as 'Minds', usually housed within giant ships such as GSV's (General Systems Vehicles) and GCUs (General Contact Units). These ships have rather quirky names, including 'Frank Exchange of Views', 'No More Mr Nice Guy', 'I Blame The Parents', 'Of Course I Still Love You' and 'Very Little Gravitas Indeed'. This last one so named in response to criticism that Banks' ship names lacked gravitas!

The culture's humans live for hundreds of years, and if they want, can download their consciousness into a computer and live indefinitely, either to be awakened at a specific time and placed back in a body, or even have their mind transferred into the body of an alien. A typical citizen of the culture will change sex several times during their lifetime, and have children as both mother and father. Drug glands inside their body can be used in any situation, providing super reflexes, or just a good time. Orgasms last minutes, not seconds.



The State of the Art (1991)



People are free to do what they want, whenever they want. If individuals show they have baser emotions (greed, jealousy, murderous intentions) they can be voluntarily adjusted, or shadowed by the drones that also make up a great part of the Culture.

Drones tend to look like suitcase shaped lumps of metal, floating about on energy fields that change colour according to their mood. They can either be individual sentient AI's or direct representation of the Mind running the orbital or ship that the drone lives on.



Excession (1996)


When it comes to organisational structures, the Culture tends to form diplomatic relations with other space-going races through Contact, the Culture's diplomatic arm. For more 'interesting' work, Special Circumstances is used, and many of Banks' novels revolve around characters in SC. Culture citizens in SC tend to be highly engineered, with all sorts of nifty biological 'upgrades' making them very efficient and highly dangerous when called to do some dirty work - often the case!



Inversions (1998)


Whilst Banks' Culture novels do tend to have familiar grand sweep of action, it is in the detail of alien, human, and social design that a singular imagination shines through. Take for example, one planet, from The Player of Games, which has a single landmass, running a ring around the planet. At regular intervals, the entire planet is subjected to bushfires that scour the earth, creating the need for very specific kinds of architecture.



Look to Windward (2000)

Other ideas include giant floating balls of water, drifting through space, home to an aquatic species, games where characters use real 'lives' as part of the game, and artificially created sphere worlds, which, sliced into sections, has an entirely different race on each level.

The world of the Culture is one highly recommended for fans of 'hard' science fiction (whilst much of Banks ideas seem fantastical, a great deal of detail and effort goes into the construction and explanation of the technology used) and those who just enjoy a rollicking good adventure.



Matter (2008)


The next Culture novel, Transition, is scheduled to be released this year.