Excession

So, I've just completed a reread of this and it remains my favourite Culture novel. Banks could write Space Opera like no-one else. Full of action, humour and great writing, Excession features more ideas that most SF novels throw up in a trilogy.

In a remote corner of the galaxy, near a dying star a perfect black sphere appears as if from nowhere. It is like nothing this universe has ever seen and its sets the cat amongst the pigeons as far as the Culture's sentient Minds are concerned, because it could hold the key to the Multi-verse.

And so a series of events leads to a conspiracy, a war and a convergence on the artifact by any number of involved species. But not only this....because Banks also manages to slip in a subplot, linked to the main story, about a couple who fell into and out of love, and once again he proves to be a deeply affecting writer when it comes to relationships. See also “The Bridge”.

There are secret agents, secret committees of Minds, a talking crow, an alien species called The Affront who are gas giant dwellers and declare war on the Culture, but above all there are numerous characters, both AI and human (and alien) who you actually like. So yeah, one of his best.

Worth reading for the names of the spacecraft, never mind the fact that it is one of the best SF books ever.