Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks
Consider Phlebas is the first book in Iain M. Banks's Culture series. It's a fairly loose series; the stories are apparently self contained. 'Apparently'? That, because it's the first Culture book I've read. However, I have read one other of his science fiction books, The Algebraist , also a work of space opera. In some ways it could almost be a Culture book except it wouldn't quite fit. It impressed me as regards his writing and world creation, and since I had another Iain M. Banks Culture book lying around which I'd never read, Look to Windward , I went for that and then saw that it stands quite late on in the collection. I decided to read the first - this one, Consider Phlebas - even if not strictly necessary, figuring that any writer creating an ambitious 'universe' will do a lot of introducing of the features of that universe in the first volume, even if the story itself is fully resolved by the end. A side note here is that I've neve