Iain M. Banks has a new Culture novel coming out in February: “Matter”.

I couldn’t tell you today when I first heard of Iain M. Banks (the “M.” is for science fiction; he writes non-science-fiction without the “M.”) or first read one of his books, but I remember clearly that it was “Player of Games” and that I was immediately hooked.

Banks’ Culture resembled the US as I most often thought of it in the 90’s: large, powerful, its tail sometimes unaware of what its head was doing, able to do great damage simply by shrugging, sufficiently aware of itself to have a sense of guilt.

The Culture is almost an anti-Federation: no laws, machine Minds, hedonistic, guilt-ridden. Very gray.

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