bkudria

Read this book carefully and it will change your life.

you may wish to start with something like Consider Phlebas

this novel from 2002 is, in my opinion, one of his greatest. It’s beautiful, haunting, and superbly thought-provoking.

The City & The City by China Miéville. Quite the post-modern detective story.

The Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is a fun Thai cyber/gene-punk yarn.

The His Dark Materials Trilogy. Start with The Golden Compass.

Surface Detail may not be the best novel for a Banks-unfamiliar reader, however — you may wish to start with something like Consider Phlebas or Look To Windward.

Surface Detail, by Iain M. Banks. This man can make you laugh and cry within three pages, and it's damned good Sci-Fi, to boot.

(Read also his novel Perdido Street Station)

or Look To Windward

Start with The Golden Compass.

The true story Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers