this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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Consider Phlebas isn’t really characteristic of the Culture series as a whole—don’t hesitate to start somewhere else if you tried Phlebas before and it didn’t hook you. (They all work as stand-alone novels, with just a few tangential recurring characters.)
I agree with you, also The player of games is a lot more accesible as a first book in the series. I've never read the last three books though, at some point I decided I had enough SF for a while.
Completely agree with this and the other comments, except I wouldnt really recommend anyone start with Inversions (because you'll miss all the explicitly-unstated context) or Look to Windward (as it is essentially a sequel to Consider Phlebas). Absolutely love the Culture series, you can really see how Banks was just trying stuff out with the various books. Use of Weapons and Player of Games are phenomenal, in particular.
Yes, I had read that they were all stand alone and I may do, but I will give CP a while longer before I do. I don't dislike it, but following PHM, it is a rather different pacing.