Surface Detail

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.''Banks is a phenomenon'' William Gibson The "War in Heaven", a simulated war game, rages between civilisations. Its virtual battles have been fought for decades, and the victors will decide the fate of the digital Hells - torturous artificial afterlives with horrors beyond imagination.In the Sichultian Enablement, Y''breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit.As the virtual war threatens to spill into the Real, Y''breq is willing to risk everything for her freedom - but she''ll need the Culture, and its help comes at a price. The Culture is going to war with death itself.Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading'' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.