Player of Games was my first Banks book as well, and it’s still my favorite of his Culture novels. But there are a lot of great books in the series: Use of Weapons is one has stuck with me for years, Look to Windward is probably considered the best, and for some reason I have a soft spot for Inversions.

I guess I’ve read the first three Culture books so far, and while I enjoy them as narratives, I don’t really get the point of them as a series. OK, it sounds like a neat place to live, but none of the stories actually have much to do with it.