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

It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war.

It led to atrocities on an extraordinary scale. To the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported.

Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those doomed stars has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq'', bathing its ­fifty billion inhabitants in the rays of their society''s ancient mistake.

Amongst them is Major Quilan, sent on a mission so secret that not even he knows what it is, and determined to exact his revenge against the Culture at any cost.

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 Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

Also 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.