The Player of Games

Both Player of Games and Use of Weapons are incredible good books. I was actually surprised when I finished UoW regarding how different it was from PoG, while maintaining the quality (If not better, but PoG IS THAT GOOD anyway). For the record, the series was recommended to be by Claude of all things, and it told me that Phlebas was not up to quality but I gave it a shot just for the sake of completeness of the series. Nop, not worth it.

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks.

William Gibson. The Bridge trilogy and the Sprawl trilogy, at a minimum. They still feel like maps to the future even now. You have to work at it, the map is not the territory after all, but the realisations about the impact of technology, progress, and the choices we make when we let society work a certain way have been profound, for me at least. Also The Peripheral, and Gibson’s essay in Wired about undersea cables, and... yeah. Having read Gibson feels like a superpower. As others have said: - The Hitch Hiker’s Guide - Stepehnson’s Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, Anathem (aside: totally surprised how much love there is for Anathem, I remember it not being received very kindly at the time by people around me, though I liked it.) - The Culture series (special shout out to The Player of Games.)

agreed re: consider phlebas. i'd agree with your choice of starting points -- player of games is probably the best way to understand what the culture is in contrast with other cultures in one book. definitely leave inversions for after you've read three other books, imo, as it's quite subtle.

>"Consider Phlebas," and maybe the rest of The Culture series of novels, by Iain Banks Oh man, this will start a shitstorm, because it's so subjective, but Consider Phlebas isn't the best intro to the culture series. I would start with Either Player of Games or Use of Weapons. Now let's hear from everyone who disagrees with me.

If you bounce off of Consider Phlebas, try Player of Games. I think it's an easier place to start the Culture novels.

I'd recommend "The Player of Games". Not light-hearted, but definitely pretty fun in places. And a cracking story - I go back to it and dip in randomly every few months.

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham - everyone goes blind and a bunch of sentient plants start eating people. one of the first science fiction books I ever read, and the one that introduced me to post apocalyptic fiction. Giant plants might sound silly, but its no more silly than walking corpses. And in fact the walking dead and 28 days later owe a lot to this book. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke - beautifully inventive fantasy novel about two magicians bringing magic back to Britain during the Napoleonic wars. Fab read. Gateway - Frederick Pohl - pulp sf at its best. Humans discover a hollowed out asteroid worth ftl ships preprogrammed with unknown destinations. Prospectors pack as much food as they can and hit 'launch' in the hopes that they'll discover something valuable and not land on a star or starve to death. The Forever War - Joe Haldeman - more great pulp sci-fi about the first interstellar war. Old man's war by John Scalzi is very similar and almost as good. Most things by Iain (m) banks. Crow Road, Wasp Factory, The Bridge, Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, Player of Games etc. Song of stone was awful though, they're not all winners

The Player of Games - Iain. M. Banks.

A Friend lent me this and I never gave it back (Sorry Tony!) The first chapter was so hard going I didnt read it for two years then wham! What an awesome book, sex, violence, deception, robots and starships with a bloody good ending to boot, definitely in my top five novels of any genre.

I couldn't agree more. "The Player of Games" also only improved for me with time and depth of context provided by the subsequent Culture novels.

I've just finished the first three Culture novels. Consider Phlebas starts great, but loses a lot during the rest of the book. The Player of Games is okay, but by far not as good as people told me. Use of Weapons is excellent. I'll have to re-read it in a few months.

Anything by Iain M. Banks. Start with "The Player of Games" and "Consider Phlebas". Anything by Vernor S. Vinge especially "Zones of Thought" series. "Daemon", "Freedom(tm)", "Kill Decision" and "Influx" by Daniel Suarez. "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Anything by Neal Stephenson, especially "Reamde: A Novel" and "Cryptonomicon". Anything by Hannu Rajaniemi, especially "The Fractal Prince".

Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Dune, Foundation series, Martian Chronicles & Illustrated Man, Ender's Game, Accelerando, Hyperion, The Forever War, Player of Games, Snow Crash

Recently finished Robert Cialdini's Influence: Science and Practice, a great horrifying psychology book. Now I've started Iain Banks' Excession, giving his Culture universe another go. (Player of Games was good, but not great.)

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/

I thoroughly enjoyed Iain M. Banks 'Culture' novels [1] (sci-fi), in particular 'Surface Detail', 'Matter' and 'The Player of Games'. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

"Worlds of Exile and Illusion" (Hainish cycle collection) and "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K Le Quin "Singularity Sky" by Charles Stross "The Player of Games" by Iain M Banks

"The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks. I love serious literature, I love non-fiction, and I love business & tech books, but I decided to give sci-fi a shot again and a friend leant me this book: wow. Fascinating, rip-roaring, mind-bending read! If you want to read something but don't want to fall asleep, I highly recommend this book.

Anything by Terry Pratchett. There are a lot of books, and you might want to check this: http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discwor... (http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-20.jpg) I personally loved "Guards! Guards!" and would recommend it. Also enjoyed "The player of Games" by Iain M Banks. Consider also "Snow Crash"

The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig Lila: An Inquiry into Morals - Robert M. Pirsig The Open Society and its Enemies - Karl. R. Popper The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." from "The Road not Taken" by Robert Frost

Anything by Ian M. Banks. His Culture books are about a post-singularity universe where humans and superintelligences live in harmony. I'd recommend starting with Player of Games.