Consider Phlebas

Iain M. Banks

May 2011 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Peter Kenny

About this audiobook

The first book in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces readers to the utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.

The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender.

Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.

Ratings and reviews

What was the point of all this? It seems to me that this all could have been told and resolved in a couple of paragraphs and had no less impact on the overarching culture series than it does already. I listened to the whole thing on the basis of positive reviews but that's clearly not good enough a reference. This was several hours of my life I want back.

Great, pulpy space opera. Sometimes a little tonally inconsistent and once or twice veers off into scenarios that don't really add much to the main story, but everything was interesting in some way.

Amazing book. Fantastically well written. Ian Banks created a rich world. The themes are very relevant to world today.

About the author

Iain Banks came to controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. He has since gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels.