Well, sure. I can't even remember Consider Phlebas because I read it fifteen years ago or more and never re-read it. So I can't really help you with that one. But more broadly, I can say this:
I didn't read them in any kind of order, which normally for me I would prefer reading them in the order in which the story-universe unfolds, but would settle for reading them in the order in which they were written. But for this series, though, it seems not to matter so much. And that's because:
They're all versions of the same book, in an important sense. That is, they all wrestle with the same political/moral questions, and thus have essentially the same plot: If the only limits on a sentient being's power are self-imposed, what are the consequences of observing those limits strictly? And what are the consequences of bending those rules occasionally, as circumstances seem to warrant?
So the most interesting figures in the books are the Minds, the machine intelligences which operate the FTL ships and orbital habitats in which more limited creatures like us are housed - the books are all about the Minds's moral and political choices. But the Minds are unimaginable to us in most relevant ways, being immortal, omnipotent, disembodied, and really really smart. And also having access to near-infinite amounts of information. They make impossibly bad central characters but their choices about how to use their power are always the center of the plot.
So in some Culture books Banks solves this problem, essentially, by refusing to give us central characters with whom to identify and sympathize - Consider Phlebas probably is one of those, and so is Excession, my least favorite of the ones I've read lately - and in others he lets us see how the effects of those decisions about the use of power play out in individual, human-scale lives. Surface Detail and Look to Windward, two of my favorites, are examples of this. Much more engaging characters (in my view.) Lots of harm to everybody in both of those, but not so much in close-up detail as done to children in Look to Windward. The main character of Surface Detail has awful things happen to her before she's even born, but by the time we meet her she's an adult and she's fighting back, so it might be less squicky?
But you know, if you're bouncing really hard off Consider Phlebas and still want to try reading Banks, you could pick up The Algebraist instead, which isn't set in The Culture universe at all but has some of my favorite aliens ever, who turn out to be - surprise! - nearly immortal and close to omnipotent. Or you could skip directly to Look to Windward.
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Date: 2011-08-17 09:14 am (UTC)I didn't read them in any kind of order, which normally for me I would prefer reading them in the order in which the story-universe unfolds, but would settle for reading them in the order in which they were written. But for this series, though, it seems not to matter so much. And that's because:
They're all versions of the same book, in an important sense. That is, they all wrestle with the same political/moral questions, and thus have essentially the same plot: If the only limits on a sentient being's power are self-imposed, what are the consequences of observing those limits strictly? And what are the consequences of bending those rules occasionally, as circumstances seem to warrant?
So the most interesting figures in the books are the Minds, the machine intelligences which operate the FTL ships and orbital habitats in which more limited creatures like us are housed - the books are all about the Minds's moral and political choices. But the Minds are unimaginable to us in most relevant ways, being immortal, omnipotent, disembodied, and really really smart. And also having access to near-infinite amounts of information. They make impossibly bad central characters but their choices about how to use their power are always the center of the plot.
So in some Culture books Banks solves this problem, essentially, by refusing to give us central characters with whom to identify and sympathize - Consider Phlebas probably is one of those, and so is Excession, my least favorite of the ones I've read lately - and in others he lets us see how the effects of those decisions about the use of power play out in individual, human-scale lives. Surface Detail and Look to Windward, two of my favorites, are examples of this. Much more engaging characters (in my view.) Lots of harm to everybody in both of those, but not so much in close-up detail as done to children in Look to Windward. The main character of Surface Detail has awful things happen to her before she's even born, but by the time we meet her she's an adult and she's fighting back, so it might be less squicky?
But you know, if you're bouncing really hard off Consider Phlebas and still want to try reading Banks, you could pick up The Algebraist instead, which isn't set in The Culture universe at all but has some of my favorite aliens ever, who turn out to be - surprise! - nearly immortal and close to omnipotent. Or you could skip directly to Look to Windward.