The Culture vs. the Galactic Empire

Morat · Post by **Morat** » 2003-04-13 04:22am

Yeah, the only ones I could find were Excession and Look to Windward. Consider Phlebias, Use of Weapons, and Player of Games are nowhere to be found

The only Culture novel at my local Barnes & Noble was Inversions. What kind of a bookstore would sell Inversions and not the other Culture novels? I mean, that book is practically incomprehensible if you don't have some background in the Cultureverse.

Luckily, I was able to track down copies of the others.

Atlan · Post by **Atlan** » 2003-04-13 07:46am

Why the hell do people have such a hard time finding Culture books? Just go to Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk
And do a search for Ian M. Banks and there the books are, ready to order.

Darth Gojira · Post by **Darth Gojira** » 2003-04-13 11:41am

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:
Darth Gojira wrote:WTF is the Culture?
Look to the link at the top of the OSF forum, please.

Gotcha, thanks.

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2003-04-13 11:49am

Atlan wrote:Why the hell do people have such a hard time finding Culture books? Just go to Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk
And do a search for Ian M. Banks and there the books are, ready to order.

You missed the second i, its Iain M. Banks</nitpick>

I think this thread is done...

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-04-13 01:34pm

Bwah. I have all of them in my local bookstore. And in my local sci-fi store. Also the local library. *gloat gloat gloat*

Yup, time to let this thread necromancy rot.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-04-13 02:58pm

Eddy the Very Great wrote:I thought they were millions of time smarter than humans. How does something like that make a mistake?

Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that just because something is very intelligent, it can never miscalculate something. I suppose I could play off your Christian beliefs and say that God, who is so many times smarter than humans, made a mistake when he created you, but that would just be a cruel thing to say, wouldn't it?

Post by **fgalkin** » 2003-04-13 03:35pm

Oh, the I have no Culture novels around me. I haver managed to buy Excession in Newark Airport's bookstore, ant LtW in LaGuardia. Weird. The tiny airport bookstores have the books that Barnes & Noble doesn't.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-04-13 03:40pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Eddy the Very Great wrote:I thought they were millions of time smarter than humans. How does something like that make a mistake?
Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that just because something is very intelligent, it can never miscalculate something. I suppose I could play off your Christian beliefs and say that God, who is so many times smarter than humans, made a mistake when he created you, but that would just be a cruel thing to say, wouldn't it?

Buuuuurn dude.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-04-13 04:43pm

All this Culture book talk reminds me that I should check out the local bookstores to see if they have any of them...

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-04-13 06:27pm

Inversions is a Culture book?!? DAMMIT, time to buy that one...

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-04-13 06:30pm

Vorlon1701 wrote:Inversions is a Culture book?!? DAMMIT, time to buy that one...

I haven't read it yet, but I think it's not really a Culture novel, but it is set in the same universe and has some elements which someone familiar with the Culture will recognize. I think at least one of the characters is a (ex, possibly)Culture citizen.

consequences · Post by **consequences** » 2003-04-13 06:38pm

Being familiar with the universe isn't enough to make you realise its a Cultureverse novel; at first glance, it fooled me.

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2003-04-13 07:17pm

SPOILERS FOR INVERSIONS ARE HERE.

Okay, so the deal is basically this: Inversions is told from the POV of a fairly primative (roughly early Renaissance) human like civilization. Two of the pivotal characters in the story are (bigger spoiler) Culture citizans, very likely they are former friends who had a falling out over what the right way to treat more primitive cultures is. They don't interact with each other during the course of the book; the story is recounted by a native of the planet who witnessed some of the events. He has no idea that anyone is an alien, and if you aren't at least passingly familiar with the Culture a good number of referances could go over your head.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-04-13 08:40pm

Also there are a lot of culture crossovers in the reg fiction book The Bridge, also by Iain Banks.(sans M.)
Mostly the barbarian dream sequence, an AI armor, a knife missle, a flying castle(probably module, though may be a transport of some other kind), and a field sword(reflects lasers, cuts through dense metal, the like)

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2003-04-14 04:07am

consequences wrote:Being familiar with the universe isn't enough to make you realise its a Cultureverse novel; at first glance, it fooled me.

Whaat ?

Spoilers

The knife-missile, the tales of DeWar, the democratic ideas of Dr Vosill, her mysterious disappearance on the boat with all the bizarre lights

End spoilers

That didn't stick out a mile ?

Morat · Post by **Morat** » 2003-04-14 04:12am

Don't forget the bird.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-04-14 05:50am

NecronLord wrote:Bwah. I have all of them in my local bookstore. And in my local sci-fi store. Also the local library. *gloat gloat gloat*

Yup, time to let this thread necromancy rot.

I hate you.
I just checked the libraries in Toledo,, Sylvania, Findaly, Fostoria, Perrysburg, Tiffin, Bucyrus, Lima a multitude of bookstores all over, and still, nada, zip, zero, jack SHIT.

Looks like I have to order them online.

Oh yeah, I still hate you.

Joking, of course.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-14 10:38am

NecronLord wrote:Bwah. I have all of them in my local bookstore. And in my local sci-fi store. Also the local library. *gloat gloat gloat*

Yup, time to let this thread necromancy rot.

But are they the UK editions? The US covers are crap compared to the UK ones (same with a lot of series actually, Discworld for instance).

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-04-14 12:13pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Bwah. I have all of them in my local bookstore. And in my local sci-fi store. Also the local library. *gloat gloat gloat*

Yup, time to let this thread necromancy rot.
But are they the UK editions? The US covers are crap compared to the UK ones (same with a lot of series actually, Discworld for instance).

You (Roughly) know where I live don't you?

Seriously though, which are which?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-14 02:10pm

NecronLord wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Bwah. I have all of them in my local bookstore. And in my local sci-fi store. Also the local library. *gloat gloat gloat*

Yup, time to let this thread necromancy rot.
But are they the UK editions? The US covers are crap compared to the UK ones (same with a lot of series actually, Discworld for instance).
You (Roughly) know where I live don't you?

Seriously though, which are which?

I'm an idiot.

Guess they are the UK ones. The UK covers are usually one single colour, the Phlebas one is mainly blue with the Vavatch orbital and the CAT on the cover (you see it on Photoshop Phriday at SA.com in a spoof cereal ad about Cheerios). The UoW one is purple with a chair in the foreground of a giant battleship.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-04-14 02:13pm

Yes, that the ones, bar one librarycopy of State of the art, which looks very different.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-14 02:21pm

NecronLord wrote:Yes, that the ones, bar one librarycopy of State of the art, which looks very different.

I entered a competition to try and get a signed poster of the State of the Art cover (it's the coolest one!).

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-04-14 04:43pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Yes, that the ones, bar one librarycopy of State of the art, which looks very different.
I entered a competition to try and get a signed poster of the State of the Art cover (it's the coolest one!).

Could you possibly post a picture of the cover, please?

Khemri · Post by **Khemri** » 2003-04-14 05:52pm

Darth Wong wrote:Why even bother arguing this? It would be more interesting to pit Galactus against the Culture, since he's the embodiment of an entire universe and soaks up the energy of anything that comes close to him.

No he isn't. You're thinking of the being Eternity who litterly is the embodiment of the universe. Galactus is merely a force of nature.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-04-14 08:01pm

Khemri wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:Why even bother arguing this? It would be more interesting to pit Galactus against the Culture, since he's the embodiment of an entire universe and soaks up the energy of anything that comes close to him.

No he isn't. You're thinking of the being Eternity who litterly is the embodiment of the universe. Galactus is merely a force of nature.

Actually, Galactus is the sole survivor of the old universe, which was destroyed by the Celestials. It's very confusing, read Universe X, it explains it better.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

The Culture vs. the Galactic Empire

What happens when the Culture contacts the Empire?