Consider Phlebas

Rough.

The style was the worst part. I couldn't visualize anything Banks described, even though he spends literally paragraphs describing the most mundane thing. I could just be a bad reader. Or maybe British English is just too much for my feeble American mind to handle. Either way, God was I bored at many points in this book.

Nearly just as bad is the false marketing of this book. It's not sci-fi, it's action with sci-fi elements. I've seen other reviews claiming Banks's later books are better in this regard, so I'll read The Player of Games at some point.

I rated this book 3 stars for the “sci-fi elements.” It is really imaginative, at the end of the day. I always adore deep lore in books (Foundation and Hyperion were great series for this reason), and I can tell there's a lot to look forward to with the Culture series.

Also, either I serverely under-analyzed, or this book is really superficial. Foundation and Hyperion are deeply philosophical and have brilliant novelties. Consider Phlebas felt like a book made for social media: looks amazing on the surface, but lacks any sort of depth. That might just be a preference, but books that have something to say about today are always appreciated more for me.