this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Lemmy World Rules
founded 2 years ago
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Indeed. Do you have a suggested reading order?
Here's my input:
Use of Weapons is great, and comes next in the publishing order.
Consider Phlebias is the first published culture novel and it is a good book. I read it first, but since it gives a more outsider perspective on the culture it probably wasn't best to start with.
Either of those books is my recommendation, although be aware I've only read 4 of the 10 novels. Also as far as I know the books are generally self-contained and can really be read in any order, but there are some references you won't get if you do so.
Excession is my favourite. There's very little cross-over between Culture books, and not all of Iain M Bank's books were set in the Culture (of those, I think I enjoyed The Algebraist the most).
Banks' passing was a huge loss. I don't think there's any other author quite like him.
I'd say read them in release order, you can mix the first two but stick with the way he wrote them,