Consider Phlebas

Utopia at War

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This is the first installment of Iain Banks Culture series.

I was blown away by it as a diamond in the “Space Opera” exhibit.

First, we have alien civilizations. In this case, the main alien civilization is the “human” civilization of the Culture. I put “human” in quotes because I am not sure that they are human, at all. They act as humans, i.e., the good guys, but Banks never identifies them as human and the Culture appears to be an egalitarian melange so it isn't clear.

The Culture is clearly a hyper-advanced socialist system encompassing a large part of the galaxy. Society is largely run by artificial intelligences. Humans are not excluded from the system, but, clearly, society is too complex for mere human intelligence. In addition, artificial intelligences are incorporated into society as independent beings in their own right.

The Culture is wealthy enough to have solved most problems of existence for its inhabitants. This seems to leave the inhabitants with something of an ennui issue. We might call them “decadent” but Banks presents them as the lucky inhabitants of a culture that Marx dreamt of.

There is still ambition among some and they become explorers, pirates, mercenaries, etc. at the fringe among the non-Culture worlds (which it is understood that the Culture will eventually incorporate and enlighten.)

The plot of the story involves a war with an alien species. This alien species is not enlightened and not quite as technologically advanced. The Culture needs to time to repurpose its enlightened, peaceful systems to a war footing. In the meantime, the war will be handled by “Special Circumstance,” which acts in part as the Culture's intelligence and Special Operations Executive.

Second, there is the magnificence of concepts that is typical of Space Opera. The Culture mostly resides on specially created objects (“Orbitals.”) In this case, there is something that is not exactly a ringworld but is flat and constitutes a huge flat ocean on which ocean liners endlessly tour. It is the kind of off-hand extravagance that one would expect from a wealthy, somewhat decadent civilization.

Third, there is the action/adventure of the plot. In this case, the plot involves a race to get to a marooned AI which has important information. The reader watches as a crew of fringe pirates battle against the agents of the enemy to get to the AI. I was surprised at how much action there was in a book whose background was a decadent socialist utopia.

Banks' “The Culture” series has a good reputation. I was impressed with this opening book.