MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - MobileRead August 2013 Book Club Nominations

fantasyfan · 07-20-2013, 10:09 AM

I nominate Surface Detail by the late Iain M. Banks.

This is the penultimate Culture novel by Banks--written in 2010. In fact, it is our final visit to the Universe of The Culture as it is set later than The Hydrogen Sonata which was his final science-fiction novel.

Surface Detail is regarded as one of the finest books set in that Universe.
It has an epic sweep spanning Real and Virtual worlds. We meet the fascinating Ship minds, a memorable villain, and are submerged in a murder story, Machiavellian politics, a revenge quest and fascinating minor characters all set within four inter-related and integrated plots. The blurb from Amazon reads:

"It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.
It begins with a murder.
And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself."

While the culture novels share a common setting, they can be read as stand-alone books.

This wonderful book is available at a modest price from Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Surface-Deta...rds=iain+banks

and Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...e+Detail+Banks

An Epub version is available from the itunes Store and I imagine it would also be obtainable from Kobo or Feedbooks.

07-20-2013, 10:09 AM	#12
fantasyfan Wizard Posts: 1,376 Karma: 28116892 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Ireland Device: Kindle Oasis 3, iPad 9th gen. IPhone 11	I nominate Surface Detail by the late Iain M. Banks. This is the penultimate Culture novel by Banks--written in 2010. In fact, it is our final visit to the Universe of The Culture as it is set later than The Hydrogen Sonata which was his final science-fiction novel. Surface Detail is regarded as one of the finest books set in that Universe. It has an epic sweep spanning Real and Virtual worlds. We meet the fascinating Ship minds, a memorable villain, and are submerged in a murder story, Machiavellian politics, a revenge quest and fascinating minor characters all set within four inter-related and integrated plots. The blurb from Amazon reads: "It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. It begins with a murder. And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself." While the culture novels share a common setting, they can be read as stand-alone books. This wonderful book is available at a modest price from Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Surface-Deta...rds=iain+banks and Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...e+Detail+Banks An Epub version is available from the itunes Store and I imagine it would also be obtainable from Kobo or Feedbooks. Last edited by fantasyfan; 07-20-2013 at 10:22 AM.