"The Player of Games" is one of my favorite books.
It's such a shame that we lost him last year while still quite young - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks
It's such a shame that we lost him last year while still quite young - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks
Personally I think "Look to Windward" is probably the best general introduction to the culture.
A Feersum Endjinn reading tip/hack: from what I recall (having done it, years ago), you can save time (and annoyance) by simply skipping the chapters with the phonetically-spelled journal of the mentally-challenged character, Bascule the Teller, and the story still seems to work just fine.
You'll just want to remember that Bascule exists, though, so when he shows up -- way later, in the third-person -- you'll know who it is.
I think State of the Art is often overlooked, it's a wonderful novella. There's a fantastic Radio 4 adaptation:
Come on Hollywood, you need to make a Culture movie - I believe Banks said he'd be OK with Consider Phlebas getting a happy ending for a movie (OK apart from the 851 billion deaths, and the destruction of all of those ships, planets, orbitals, rings and stars).
I've wanted to see the escape of the Clear Air Turbulence from the Ends of Invention ever since I first read the novel 26 years ago.
Making a sensible movie of Use of Weapons would be a challenge I suspect, but could be rather good as it does have some rather cinematic scenes (e.g. Zakalwe's visit to the Ethnarch Kerian).
Actually, I'd like to do this. Maybe I'll start by making trailers.
Speaking of trailers - every time I hear Coldplay's "Paradise" a trailer to Consider Phlebas plays in my head!