Excession

Excession by Iain M Banks. The other culture novels are also good but not as fun as Excession.

"Use of Weapons" by Iain M. Banks. Edit: Overlooked the "fun" and "lighthearted" part. Let me change my answer to "Excession", same author.

Ann Leckie was being touted as Iain M Bank's successor with her Imperial Radch series. But due to that expectation being set up I was underwhelmed. It was enjoyable on its own but doesn't compare in quality to Banks's works, e.g. Excession, in my opinion.

Doubtless there'll be lots of strong opinions, and (hopefully, usefully) lots of duplicates that you can then tote up to get a bit of a consensus. Iain M. Banks - all his Culture books are fantastic, but I'll single out 'Excession' since you seek titles. Neal Stephenson's 'Anathem' Stephen Donaldson (most famous for the Thomas Covenant tri-trilogy) wrote a 5-book 'Gap Series'. I have very fond memories of it, though it's been two decades since I read it. Philip K. Dick wrote a tonne of good stuff (and a bit of meh) but my two favourite are Clans of the Alphane Moon (the first Dick I read), and Valis (a bit more conventional to have on the favourite list) Ursula Le Guin also has a huge body of excellent work - Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed are my favourites. I really loved Roger Zelazny's Lord Of Light, though I understand it's not conventionally considered his best work.

My two favorites are Permutation City by Greg Egan and The Golden Age by John C. Wright (actually that one's a trilogy). I hear good things about Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. I've only read one (The Player of Games) and while it was enjoyable it was still sort of meh, if that makes sense... (I've got Excession in my queue and I suspect I'll enjoy it more.) While it's more in the realm of science-fantasy, you might enjoy this alternate universe imagining of the Harry Potter story: http://hpmor.com/

Well I'm definitely into sci-fi literature. There's simply nothing else nowadays (being in my early thirties) which can caught my attention and limited free time. It's hard to sum it up to a couple of favorites... If you prefer hardcore sci-fi over the rest - as I do, those are definitely first choices: - Iain M. Banks Culture books ("Excession" being the best of all to me) - Simmon's "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion" Some authors managed to bring some good pieces of space-opera without being too much cheesy: - Hamilton and his Void books, - and, of course, Herbert and the Dune stuff. But I must warn the casual reader here: those kind of books can get really massive. Second choices - but still really good books, would be stuff written by great guys like Asimov ("Foundation"), OS Card ("Enders game") or RC Wilson ("Spin").

Excession by Ian M Banks - sentient AIs managing an advanced civilisation run into something they don't understand (an unusual occurrence which piques their interest). Funny, subtle, and provocative by turns, it is one of his better sci-fi novels, and far above much of the genre in plot and character.

I'm just curious, why you wouldn't upvote me? (I don't mind, I'm just genuinely curious). It is possible you did upvote me and someone else downvoted..so apologies ahead of time if my assumptions are wrong. Culture was meh...By the 2nd or 3rd book you realize that the Culture is so powerful that nothing presents a risk. It's like Superman without Kryptonite (or his lack of pragmatism). Aside from the first book, Consider Phlebas, Excession was probably the best - largely because it focused on ships rather than people. Just my $0.02 of course.