Comments on: MIND MELD: The Secret to the Success of Iain M. Banks’ Culture Novels

By: NeilM

NeilM — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 14:59:05 +0000

Yeah, lot of sour grapes there from some guy I’ve never heard of. Manages to fail to say anything good about Iain Banks other than something along the lines of “he got some stuff published in the mainstream so literary critics took notice of his scifi”.

Not only will I not buy his novels, I won’t even do him the honour of illegally downloading them.

By: col2001

col2001 — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:51:52 +0000

I much enjoyed the whining from Robert Buettner who told us that the Culture novels are successful principally because of Banks’s mainstream literary reputation gets him media coverage.

Nothing to do with the actual quality of the books, then.

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:40:31 +0000

As an IMB fan since Consider Phlebas from the eighties, I would definitely recommend reading in release sequence as each novel builds and expands upon the Culture as an entity and sometimes, in subtle ways, refers to the previous novels. I envy anyone coming to the Culture for the first time; it’s a wonderful journey.

By: Neal Asher

Neal Asher — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:37:24 +0000

I checked but no – too recent.

By: tam

tam — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:50:24 +0000

I’ve only finished Use of Weapons, but I thought of that as more of a mainstream war novel with an unusual narrative structure. I recently started Hydrogen Sonata, but it seems long. Those Minds sure are smart.

By: X2Eliah

X2Eliah — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:53:55 +0000

I just find it so amusing in that it follows straight after Scalzi’s perfectly brief descrip. Mr. Buettner has practically posted his whole CV, and right before him, Scalzi has done the literary equivalent of saying “Yeah, I’m Scalzi. Effing deal with it.”

By: Andrew Liptak

Andrew Liptak — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:09:22 +0000

I need to read more from the Culture series. I really enjoyed the first book, and have the second two, but haven’t read them yet.

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:25:09 +0000

Fair enough. Still smells of sour grapes.

By: Nick Sharps

Nick Sharps — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:24:27 +0000

Any self-aggrandizement would be my fault. I asked Rob for a bio and I didn’t specify how short or long and I didn’t want to cut any of it since I’m so appreciative of his participation.

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:21:37 +0000

@Robert Buettner

Your “argument” might carry more weight if it didn’t accompany one of the most self-aggrandizing author bios I have ever seen.

By: Nick Sharps

Nick Sharps — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:04:36 +0000

I’m going to go ahead and throw “Use of Weapons” into my cart. I might do the same with “The Player of Games” just because it sounds so cool. Thanks for participating in the discussion and for your recommendations!

By: John DeNardo

John DeNardo — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:27:51 +0000

@NealAsher: Was it Logos Run by William C. Dietz?

By: Paul (@princejvstin)

Paul (@princejvstin) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:02:52 +0000

I still need to read a real Culture novel.

By: X2Eliah

X2Eliah — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:52:23 +0000

a good start*. I’d kill for an edit function.

By: X2Eliah

X2Eliah — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:51:39 +0000

Aye, don’t worry about it. It’s really a question more suited when examining the overall inter-working of the Culture novels and how the more recent ones in general stand up to the earlier ones..
I just think that by and large, the SF crit world hasn’t caught up to the fact that mr. Banks might be past his literary top and veering in complacent sedention.

Phlebas is an excellent work and a good started for the Culture series, imo. I’d suggest that you don’t miss out on “Use of Weapons” (as Byron rightly suggested as well) – those two are pretty definitive of how early Culture novels were like. Also, as fun as it might be to suggest that you skip over to the very latest book for an interesting comparison for yourself, there’s a lot of continuity detailing in the Culture universe, that you probably would want to read them mostly in the release-sequence.