Consider Phlebas (1988)

The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Within the cosmic conflict, there was an individual crusade: deep within a fabled labyrinth lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it.

The first of the Culture novels, 'Consider Phlebas' created a very plausible and fascinating future world. While the story isn't as great as some of Banks's later works, it's still an excellent novel.

The Player of Games (1989)

Bored with success, Gurgel - The Player of Games - travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game. This is a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor.

This is probably my favourite of the Culture series that I've read; strong characters and some extremely well realised cultural differences make for an excellent read.

Use of Weapons (1992)

Cheradenine is an ex-"special circumstance" agent who had been raised to eminence by a woman named Diziet. Skaffen-Amtskaw, the drone, had saved her life and it believes Cheradenine to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence can see the horrors in his past.

Another superb book in the Culture Series, 'Use of Weapons' has a supremely good cast of characters and a very strong story.

The State of the Art (1993)

A collection of short fiction by the author of "The Wasp Factory" and "Against a Dark Background". The title story is a novella continuing the "Culture" sequence but set on Earth in 1977. The other stories range from science fiction to horror, and dark-coated fantasy to morality tale.

A variable offering, 'The State of the Art' contains some excellent short stories, notably the one after which the book takes its name, but some of the others are weaker (though by no means bad).

Against A Dark Background (1995)

Sharrow was once a warrior-spy and leader of a combat team. Living in a state of semi-retirement, she suddenly found herself the target of the Huhsz, a religious cult, and realised that she had to find and reform her old team if she had any hope of survival.

Feersum Endjinn (1995)

In the penultimate year before the Encroachment, the dimming sun still shines on the cloud-high weathered walls of Serehfa Fastness. On the day the Count Sessine dies for the final time, the chief scientist to the clan Accounts/Privileges receives a summons from the office of the High Sortileger.

Excession (1997)

Two and a half millennia ago, the Excession, a perfect black sphere, appeared in a remote corner of space. It did nothing, then disappeared. Now it is back, and someone who saw it the first time has information on its staggering potential, but she is living out her death in the Sleeper Service.

Inversions (1999)

In the winter palace, the King's new physician has more enemies than she at first realizes, but she also has more remedies to hand than those who wish her ill can know about. In another palace across the mountains, the chief bodyguard of the regicidal Protector General also has his enemies.

Look To Windward (2001)

It was one of the less glorious incidents of the Idiran wars that led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, 800 years later, the light from the first of those deaths has reached the Culture's Masaq' Orbital. A Chelgrian emissary is dispatched to the Culture.