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[Zona]

I checked out the second book from the library and bought the first and third (and quite a few other suggestions, too). I have also been told that Consider Phlebas is terribad, while Player of Games is a good contender for an all-time list. I'm looking forward to seeing if I feel there's that much of a quality whiplash.

Personally I don't think Consider Phlebas is bad, I just think it's not a great introduction to the series. It's the only one were The Culture serves as an antagonist and it's tied for... least cheerful ending. It actually provides important context for my two favorite later novels Excession and Look to Windward. The Player of Games on the other hand I think is the perfect introduction to the universe. It provides a nice peak into what the society is like for a Culture citizen and gives a nice glimpse at some of the almost contradictory, seemingly mutually exclusive, and quite possibly all true facets of The Culture as an entity/civilization.

Banks' non-SciFi works are also well. He knows how to tell an engaging story and he has the ability to drop a description or a turn of phrase that will occasionally leave me laughing out loud.

Tishlin’s dubious look indicated he wasn’t totally convinced this phrase contributed enormously to the information-carrying capacity of the language.

There was something comforting about having a vast hydrogen furnace burning millions of tons of material a second at the centre of a solar system. It was cheery.

Oh, they never lie. They dissemble, evade, prevaricate, confound, confuse, distract, obscure, subtly misrepresent and willfully misunderstand with what often appears to be a positively gleeful relish and are generally perfectly capable of contriving to give one an utterly unambiguous impression of their future course of action while in fact intending to do exactly the opposite, but they never lie. Perish the thought.

 

[LayLa]

Iain M Banks - most of them, Excession my top pick although probably the worst starting point
JG Ballard - Short Stories
Strugatsky Bros - Roadside Picnic, need to read more
Stanislaw Lem - most of them, Solaris is a great starting point
Edwin A Abbott - Flatland, mind blowing book about dimensions written in 1884!
Hannu Rajaniemi - Quantum Thief, if you like weird then this for you
Alistair Reynolds - not that big a fan of the Revelation Space books tbh, much prefer later books like House Of Suns & Diamond Dogs
Philip K Dick - not the greatest writer but had incredible ideas, Ubik and Scanner Darkly probably his best

 

[Lunaray]

In no particular order, and reserving a position for a different author each time:

1) Robin Hobb - Liveship Traders Trilogy
2) Frank Herbert - Dune
3) Joe Haldeman - Camouflage
4) Clifford D. Simak - City
5) Ursula Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
6) Robert A. Heinlein - The Door into Summer
7) Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
8) Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana (Really, every single one of his books aside from the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy could be in my top ten).
9) Patricia McKillip - Od Magic (Alphabet of Thorns is great too)
10) Orson Scott Card (... I know) - Ender's Game

I'm clearly a fan of New Wave science fiction and will take recommendations.

 

[RoninChaos]

Not sure if this counts since it's technically not a book but The Sandman by Neil Gaiman is absolutely stunning. And the fact that he wrote it as 75 issues rather than a novel is even crazier. Every single character and moment has a purpose.

 

[isaacnukem]

No particular order:

Ender series by Card
Rendezvous with Rama by Clarke
Podkayne of Mars by Heinlein
Idoru by Gibson
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Adams
The Dispossessed by Le Guin
The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood
A Song of Ice and Fire by Martin
Battle Royale by Takami
The Stand by King
The Great and Secret Show by Barker

I really should try to read more fantasy but I'm not sure which are the great ones.

 

[Monocle]

I checked out the second book from the library and bought the first and third (and quite a few other suggestions, too). I have also been told that Consider Phlebas is terribad, while Player of Games is a good contender for an all-time list. I'm looking forward to seeing if I feel there's that much of a quality whiplash.

That's utter nonsense IMO. Consider Phlebas is a wonderful book that lays essential groundwork for the rest of the series.

One reason I say this is it homes in on different aspects of the Culture in a way that gives a clear sense of who they are and how they live. The book accomplishes a great deal of world building in an engaging manner, introducing some really fascinating concepts along the way (I adore the little aside, Interlude in Darkness, which memorably illustrates the inconceivably vast storage capacity of a Culture Mind). All this while following a perfectly serviceable story that's really just a blip against the grand galactic background.

I want to add that I love the thread of cosmic mercilessness that runs through the book. Banks doesn't let you forget that the universe doesn't care about your existence, and that pockets of savagery will always survive, even in niches in the backyard of the most wondrously advanced utopia.

So yeah. Read Consider Phlebas.

And then read The Player of Games, which is as good as you've heard.

 

[Zelenogorsk]

I got into reading like two years ago (I'm 24) so I don't even have 10 books I think are worth ranking, but here goes nothing:

6. Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King
5. Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
4. Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
3. Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
2. Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
1. Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

 

[Dr_LucienSanchez]

Chasm City and House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds are both incredible.

Player of Games is another favorite. When I'm at a computer I'll try and make a proper list.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Consider Phlebas wasn't bad at all. Fucked up ending, but I loved that.

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

Well my top 3 are definite, but in varying order

Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
1984

After that it becomes a lot more complicated, with a heavy dose of Star Wars novels and maybe a Dragon Age book or two for some actual fantasy. Maybe even Harry Potter. Had I not tried to reread Hobbit I would have included that but oh man it did not hold up my childhood nostalgia at all.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something important.
Edit:. Aye, Yup, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is definitely in my top 10 somewhere.

 

[Monocle]

Consider Phlebas wasn't bad at all. Fucked up ending, but I loved that.

The ending was so good. A delightful punch to the gut.

 

[andythinkpad]

That's utter nonsense IMO. Consider Phlebas is a wonderful book that lays essential groundwork for the rest of the series.

One reason I say this is it homes in on different aspects of the Culture in a way that gives a clear sense of who they are and how they live. The book accomplishes a great deal of world building in an engaging manner, introducing some really fascinating concepts along the way (I adore the little aside, Interlude in Darkness, which memorably illustrates the inconceivably vast storage capacity of a Culture Mind). All this while following a perfectly serviceable story that's really just a blip against the grand galactic background.

I want to add that I love the thread of cosmic mercilessness that runs through the book. Banks doesn't let you forget that the universe doesn't care about your existence, and that pockets of savagery will always survive, even in niches in the backyard of the most wondrously advanced utopia.

So yeah. Read Consider Phlebas.

And then read The Player of Games, which is as good as you've heard.

I think Player of the Game and Use of Weapon are way better than Consider Phlebas. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Phlebas isn't bad, just a bit all over the place. The last part is really good, but some stuff in the middle isn't that great. Player of Games is solid throughout. I didn't like Use of Weapons that much because it shows that the story didn't have to be set in the culture universe, nor be science fiction. It could all be set on 19th to early 20th century Earth, and what couldn't was extra fat.

 

[higgsboson1997]

Just going to pick individual novels instead of entire series. Me personally:

1. A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
3. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
4. The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny
5. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
6. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
7. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula LeGuin
8. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Routhfuss
9. The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling