Any of the Minds from Iain M. Banks Culture series, because that would mean the Culture was real and I want to live there.
I guess for a specific one, maybe the Arbitrary? That one seems pretty chill and knows where Earth is:
Also while I’d been away, the ship had sent a request on a postcard to the BBC’s World Service, asking for ‘Mr David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” for the good ship Arbitrary and all who sail in her.’ (This from a machine that could have swamped Earth’s entire electro-magnetic spectrum with whatever the hell it wanted from somewhere beyond Betelgeuse.) It didn’t get the request played. The ship thought this was hilarious.
Player of Games is actually considered one of the better entries in the series, generally. That said, most of his books have a different feel to them, they’re not so much a series as a bunch of books in the same universe. So you might try something else. Going by publication order helps understand the universe building, but it’s not required for you to grasp the plot of the books.
Any of the Minds from Iain M. Banks Culture series, because that would mean the Culture was real and I want to live there.
I guess for a specific one, maybe the Arbitrary? That one seems pretty chill and knows where Earth is:
The Culture does not get mentioned enough. I’m hoping it gets made into a TV series one day, to get additional visibility.
(An actual adaptation, not whatever tf they did to WoT and the Foundation).
I’m having a hard time getting though the player of games. Is it good? Should I skip it for a later entry?
Player of Games is actually considered one of the better entries in the series, generally. That said, most of his books have a different feel to them, they’re not so much a series as a bunch of books in the same universe. So you might try something else. Going by publication order helps understand the universe building, but it’s not required for you to grasp the plot of the books.
I’ll push forward some more, I’m just not vibing with the beginning. It’ll have to wait for Moby dick to finish tho, that’s a pretty good book.
This was going to be my answer - one of the ships from the Culture could actually form the Culture for us and let us live in it
The GCU Grey Area (AKA Meatfucker) would indeed come in handy, these days…