The Culture Boxed Set: Consider Phlebas, Player of Games and Use of Weapons
"Banks' ability to combine humor and horror, the cosmic and the human, as he builds an action-packed story on a moral framework, as well as his wonderfully original characters and, of course, the lavish descriptions of weapons and spaceships, makesSurface Detailall you could ask for in a space opera. Nobody does it better." ---Times(UK)"This is an engrossing novel of ideas ornamented by fantastically cinematic set-pieces." ---The Guardian(UK)"Surface Detailis the type of widescreen space adventure we've come to expect from Banks, full of elaborate games, spellchecker-busting names, salty dialogue and, above all, a thrilling sense of the limitless scope SF affords an author's imagination." ---Financial Times(UK)"Iain M. Banks' new novel,Surface Detail, is some of the best work he's done in his galaxy-spanning Culture universe." --- io9.com"Banks' labyrinthine and devious ninth Culture space opera novel...adeptly shifts perspective between vast concepts and individual passions."  ---Publishers Weekly