#quotes #books #IainMBanks #ThePlayerOfGames #TheCulture

In rejecting the mere idea of the notion that we could write interesting stories about more eudymonic worlds (#StarTrek, #DathIlan, #TheCulture, etc), these people out themselves as being unwilling to look beyond the status quo, as if they believe that what we have now is the best we could ever have, as if there isn't a potential world we could think of that could be better than this one, so we shouldn't even try.

They literally don't want us to try and think of better ways to do things.

I read the first 2 novels in Iain Banks's Culture series. I've decided to stop there. My "to read" list is too long and I didn't enjoy those books enough to continue. They were very interesting but seemed to be about world-building above all else. The characters and plots didn't draw me in enough to take on thousands of more pages.
The next thing on my list is "Unmasking Autism."
#TheCulture #books

I've been slowly working my way through Iain Banks' Culture novels. I read Matter a long time ago and finally decided to go through them in publishing order.

Just finished Excession and I really enjoy how much it delves into the behavior and personalities of the Culture's Minds.

#books #bookstodon #IainBanks #TheCulture #excession #ConsiderPhlebas #scifi

@dschier @bookstodon

Try #IainMBanks #books for #scifi. The series on #TheCulture are very good - first one #ConsiderPhlebas. Banks also writes as #IainBanks which are also very good - #TheWaspFactory was his first.

collection of iain m banks drawings of THE CULTURE coming later this year.

#SFF #TheCulture #IainMBanks

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/iain-m-banks/the-culture/9780316572873/

“A small, short war that rarely extended throughout more than .02% of the galaxy by volume and .01% by stellar population”

—CONSIDER PHLEBAS, by #IainMBanks
#SciFiFri #Scottish #literature #sciencefiction #scifibooks #TheCulture

x Don’t Make Me Tap The Sign (GSV, Plate class)

#SciFiFri #Scottish #literature #sciencefiction #scifibooks #IainMBanks #TheCulture

but how does Horza determine Fwi-Song's gender? I read the paragraphs before he figures it out several times but there doesn't seem to be an indication

#theculture

Looks beautiful.
https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/landing-page/orbit/the-culture-the-drawings/
#IainBanks #TheCulture #SciFi #Art #Illustration

Looks beautiful.
https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/landing-page/orbit/the-culture-the-drawings/
#IainBanks #TheCulture #SciFi #Art #Illustration

I'm back in the UK (still there for longer than expected for reasons too long and complex to explain) but I managed to dig out my copy of Iain M Banks' "Look to Windward" which apparently I bought in hardback when it was released in 2000 and didn't get very far into reading at the time... and this time around I finished it in a couple of days and I loved it! Lots of the usual Culture weirdness (especially Orbitals) plus Chelgrians, the Sublimed, Homomdans, gigalithine behemothaurs and drones, oh my!

I did also pick up a copy of The Hydrogen Sonata while I was here, but it was hard to find any Banks books anywhere even in London! I might save that for my return and reread my copy of Excession while I'm here... #scifi #TheCulture

Delighted to hear from fine @orbitbooks crew that long-gestating project to bring The Culture drawings of the late, & still much-missed Iain M Banks to print, now has a November 2023 release.

"Faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks kept in the 1970s & 80s, these annotated original illustrations depict the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks' Culture series of novels in incredible detail."

#Books #Livres #ScienceFiction #IainMBanks #TheCulture

Just finished Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice trilogy. Hugely enjoyable. Science fiction’s ability to present different possibilities is so welcome & her AIs are very much more nuanced than present debate would allow.

It is one of the reasons I love Iain M Banks’ Culture world - the AIs were the quirky stars of his novels!

PS please don’t @ me with a flood of techie detail!

#ScienceFiction #SciFi #Bookstodon #AnnLeckie #IainMBanks #TheCulture #AncillaryJustice #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

Instant preorder!!! #TheCulture #ScienceFiction https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/landing-page/orbit/the-culture-the-drawings/

Fans of Iain M. Banks and his "Culture" books may be interested in this book:
https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/titles/iain-m-banks-3/the-culture-the-drawings/9780356519425/

#IainMBanks #IainBanks #TheCulture

@iconawrites I'm hoping for a rescue from #TheCulture myself, I promise you I can deal with #SpecialCircumstances if I have to to pay my way.

#IainMBanks

So what's the problem with take-over by #AI. Haven't you read #TheCulture books by Iain Banks ?
We know humans are completely clueless about running the planet - so surely it has to an improvement.

OTOH ... if we're only talking #chatGPT, with merely "plausible" pronouncements, then ... we just end up with silicon #politicians.
Though perhaps less greedy ...

#singularity

#TheCulture cannot control

@memes_1336 #TheCulture