Will I love Use of Weapons?

Another simply amazing Culture novel from Banks. This one is somewhat experimental in form—a chronological narrative alternating with a reverse-chronological one—but there are good reasons for this as you will discover toward the end. Banks' characters are amazingly done—complex, sympathetic—and the multi-planetary story-world he creates feels incredibly real. The writing is beautiful—vivid, lyrical, and witty—and one feels *improved* after reading it, as if one has been in the company of the most civilized and entertaining host. And yet these are not light novels; they're quite dark, with thematics that feel important and universal. Three books in, and Banks has already… show more.

This is a book that asks all the hard moral questions, and isn't shy about not having all the answers, but leaving the reader to try and come up with their own. The worldbuilding is—pardon the pun—out of this world. And if, like me, you can't get enough of it, there are more books set in the same universe.