Culture series - [Books 1-8] - Iain M Banks [AUDIOBOOOK] (m4b)
Iain M Banks - The Culture Series
Format: m4b @ 64kb/s
Author: Iain M Banks
Narrator: Peter Kenny
Source: Audible
Genre: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Space, Cultural
Consider Phlebas (1987) The Player of Games (1988) Use of Weapons (1990) The State of the Art (1991) Excession (1996) Inversions (1998) Look to Windward (2000) Matter (2008) Surface Detail (2010) The Hydrogen Sonata (2012)
Consider Phlebas - (1987) - 1331 CE
Listening Length : 16 Hours and 25 Minutes
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An episode in a full-scale war between the Culture and the Idirans, told mainly from the point of view of an operative of the Idiran Empire.
The Player of Games - (1988) - c. 2083 to 2087/88 CE
Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
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A bored member of the Culture is blackmailed into being the Culture's agent in a plan to subvert a brutal, hierarchical empire. His mission is to win an empire-wide tournament by which the ruler of the empire is selected.
Use of Weapons - 1990 - 2092 CE main narrative. 1892 CE start of secondary narrative.
Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
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Chapters describing the current mission of a Culture special agent born and raised on a non-Culture planet alternate with chapters that describe in reverse chronological order earlier missions and the traumatic events that made him who he is.
The State of the Art - (1991) - varies (title story: 1977 CE)
Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
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A short story collection. Two of the works are explicitly set in the Culture universe ("e;The State of the Art"e; and "e;A Gift from the Culture"e;), with a third work ("e;Descendant"e;) possibly set in the Culture universe. In the title novella, the Mind in charge of an expedition to Earth decides not to make contact or intervene in any way, but instead to use Earth as a control group in the Culture's long-term comparison of intervention and non-interference.
Excession (1996) c. 1867 CE main setting. c. 1827 CE and c. 633 BCE flashbacks.
Length : 15 Hours and 55 Minutes
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An alien artifact far advanced beyond the Culture's understanding is used by one group of Minds to lure a civilisation (the behaviour of which they disapprove) into war; another group of Minds works against the conspiracy. A sub-plot covers how two humanoids make up their differences after traumatic events that happened 40 years earlier.
Inversions - (1998) - Unspecified
Length : 11 Hours and 26 Minutes
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Not explicitly a Culture novel, but recounts what appear to be the activities of a Special Circumstances agent and a Culture emigrant on a planet whose development is roughly equivalent to that of medieval Europe. The interwoven stories are told from the viewpoint of several of the locals.
Look to Windward - (2000) c. 2167 CE
Length: 12 Hours and 11 Minutes
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The Culture has interfered in the development of a race known as the Chelgrians, with disastrous consequences. Now, in the light of a star that was destroyed 800 years previously during the Idiran War, plans for revenge are being hatched.
Matter - (2008) - c. 1887 or 2167 CE
Length : 17 Hours and 57 Minutes
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A Culture special agent who is a princess of an early-industrial society on a huge artificial planet learns that her father and brother have been killed and decides to return to her homeworld. When she returns, she finds a far deeper threat.
Surface Detail - (2010) - sometime between 2767 and c. 2967 CE
Length : 20 Hours and 22 Minutes
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A young woman seeks revenge on her murderer after being brought back to life by Culture technology. Meanwhile, a war over the digitized souls of the dead is expanding from cyberspace into the real world.
The Hydrogen Sonata - (2012) - c. 2375 CE
Length: 17 Hours and 12 Minutes
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In the last days of the Gzilt civilisation, which is about to Sublime, a secret from far back in their history threatens to unravel their plans. Aided by a number of Culture vessels and their avatars, one of the Gzilt tries to discover if much of their history was actually a lie.