This guy deserves it. The Culture series is a fantastic work, I wish he could have finished it (he stated last year that he figured around 3 or 4 more books would cap the series). And, while I loved the Culture series, his other sci-fi was often as good, or better.
If you love sci-fi, and for some reason you haven't heard of this guy, do yourself a favor and read a couple of his books.
What I love most about his work is that I think he really managed to nail down one of the original concepts of Star Trek in a way that actually worked without neutering the element of conflict entirely (a problem Roddenberry ran into head long): The post-scarcity space-faring society.
Agreed. One of the things I liked best about Matter was how it took all of Star Trek's hand-wringing about "first contact" and turned it on its head - there were right and wrong ways to initiate contact with a primitive culture, but it wasn't a big deal, all in all.
Though if you prefer hard sci-fi to space opera, skip Culture and start with The Algebrist. I can't pin down why, but it was a much more enjoyable read and has a higher density of parts that make you think.
Interesting, I thought The Alebrist was one of his weaker efforts and really needed a strong editor to come along and say "Now then Iain, we need to lose about 100 pages."
A lot happens in the book and it explores a large number of interesting ideas. Sure it is long, but every part fits well together. As a result the universe feels more fleshed out and cohesive than the Culture books, and this is something I look for in sci-fi.
I've read every Culture book twice, and don't really have any desire to read them again, at least not for quite a while. The Algebrist I've read four times now and each re-reading finds something new.
I think the Culture really only needed one more book, but he'd failed to write it twice: how does the Culture resolve a conflict with a roughly equivalent civilization (two of his last three Culture books tried to address this and kind of lost the plot)?
We see the Culture dealing with much weaker civilizations in many stories, notably Use of Weapons. Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, and others are about the Culture dealing with significantly weaker civilizations. Excession is about a far superior civilization.
I would highly recommend the first three books he wrote in the Culture Series. Consider Phlebas, A Player of Games, and Use of Weapons.
I enjoyed all of the series, but these three really made me realize how amazing the author and the concept of his universe really was. Consider Phlebas is told from the point of view of someone who despises the Culture, which, as an introduction to the series, provides a really unique viewpoint both within the book, and is also generally an interesting literary tool.
A Player of Games is my absolute favorite. I've given copies of this to several friends. It addresses the human problem of what does one do with themselves in a post scarcity existence, especially when advanced AI can just run and do everything.
Outside of the Culture series, I also highly recommend the Algebraist and Feersum Endjinn (sp?).
edit: I forgot to include "Against a Dark Background" in the outside Culture series recommendations. I've read that one a few times, it's quite good. At one point there was talk about making it into a movie, but I haven't heard anything about that in awhile.
I started with "Consider Phlebas" after a suggestion here on HN (that I read Iain Banks), and I don't recommend it as the starting book, it was bit of a letdown (though it's an ok book).
I'm now reading "Player of Games" and it's far better, though maybe the introduction to the "Culture" universe was worth reading the first book.
It seems "Use of Weapons" is the best one, I haven't read it yet.
The asteroid is 6.1km long - about the size of a medium sized Culture ship (tiny compared to a large GSV though) so perhaps "Size Isn't Everything" or perhaps "Pure Big Mad Rock Man".
That was my first thought too, but unfortunately asteroid naming conventions require one word for some reason. Ah well, when people are actually sending robots out to asteroids and claiming them properly we can name a few after culture ships instead.
I first heard about Iain M. Banks here on Hacker News. I've now read Use of Weapons, Player of Games and Consider Phlebas. Now currently reading Excession. This guy's writing is incredible. Lovely poetry with a crazy wild imagination.
Player of Games will be one of my all time favorite books for a long time. I can't wait enough to forget all of it so that I can go back and read it once more. I love you
Flere-Imsaho!
I received use of weapons as a birthday present some years ago and have been hooked ever since. Having an asteroid named after him is a super cool move. Maybe one day we'll see actual spaceships named after the ships in his books.
I think the Culture ships would find it impudent or funny to have their names given to primitive, non-sapient, human-made spaceships. It could spawn a new series of gag ship names mocking us.
GCU Earthlings Can Take Our Names But They Can Never Take Our Gravitas
If you love sci-fi, and for some reason you haven't heard of this guy, do yourself a favor and read a couple of his books.