The Culture: The Drawings

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The Culture is a society formed by various humanoid species and artificial intelligences about 9,000years before the events of novels in the series. Since the majority of its biological population can have almost anything they want without the need to work, there is little need for laws or enforcement, and the culture is described by Banks as space socialism. [1] [2] It features a post-scarcity economy [a] where technology is advanced to such a degree that all production is automated. [1] Its members live mainly in spaceships and other off-planet constructs, because its founders wished to avoid the centralised political and corporate power-structures that planet-based economies foster. [1] Most of the planning and administration is done by Minds, very advanced AIs. [3]

Banks: "It is my vision of what you do when you are in that post-scarcity society, you can completely indulge myself. The Culture has no unemployment problem, no one has to work, so all work is a form of play!" ( Parsons 2010) Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth’ New York Review of Science Fiction Mitchell, Chris (1996-09-03), "Iain Banks: Whit and Excession: Getting Used To Being God", Spike Magazine , retrieved 2021-08-04 . As a posthumous tribute to Iain Banks, aerospace manufacturer SpaceX named two of its autonomous spaceport drone ships after sentient star ships Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You which first appeared in the novel The Player of Games. A third drone craft was named A Shortfall of Gravitas, inspired by the star ship Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall in Look to Windward. [44] [45] At the end of the main narrative stream, Zakalwe says it has been two centuries since the battleship was taken.Fridman, Lex (Apr 29, 2022). "Grimes: Music, AI, and the Future of Humanity | Lex Fridman Podcast #281". Youtube. MacLeod said working with his old friend’s papers was an emotional experience. “I read all of the early novels in manuscript. It’s quite moving for me to revisit them. There is a real pleasure in it – I’ve read and reread them over the years, but this is, for me, going to be a close rereading all at one go, and then relating passages in them to the drawings.”

Parsons, Michael (2010-10-14), "Interview: Iain M Banks talks 'Surface Detail' with Wired", Wired , retrieved 2021-08-02 . Some other civilizations hold less favourable views of the Culture. [6] At the time of their war with the Culture, the Idirans and some of their allies regarded the control that the Minds exercised over the Culture as a form of idolatry. [2] [7] The Homomda regard the Culture as idealistic and hyper-active. [8] Some members of the Culture have seceded to form related civilizations, known collectively as the Ulterior. These include the Peace Faction, the AhForgetIt Tendency and the Zetetic Elench. Others simply drop out temporarily or permanently. [9] Books in the series [ edit ] The book says it occurs about 800years after events near the end of the fighting in space in the Idiran War.

Faithfully reproduced from notebooks he kept in the 1970s and 80s, these annotated original illustrations depict the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail. Baker, Neal (2003), "Review of Dark Light", in Butler, Andrew M.; Mendelsohn, Farah (eds.), The True Knowledge of Ken MacLeod, Reading, UK: Science Fiction Foundation, pp.95–97, ISBN 978-0903007023 . An alien artifact far advanced beyond the Culture's understanding is used by one group of Minds to lure a civilisation (the behaviour of which they disapprove) into war; another group of Minds works against the conspiracy. A sub-plot covers how two humanoids make up their differences after traumatic events that happened 40years earlier. [9]

Orbit presents this deluxe ‘Special Circumstances’ limited edition of The Culture: The Drawings, available worldwide exclusively from the Orbit UK store.

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The ship Limiting Factor was "constructed seven hundred and sixteen years earlier in the closing stages of the Idiran war, when the conflict in space was almost over".( Banks 1988) The war in space ended in 1367. The events of the book take place over a period of four to five years from the time of this statement. Not explicitly a Culture novel, but recounts what appear to be the activities of a Special Circumstances agent and a Culture emigrant on a planet whose development is roughly equivalent to that of medieval Europe. The interwoven stories are told from the viewpoint of several of the locals. [14] Now, Orbit has shed some light on the fate of the project: It will be published as a two volume set, one called The Culture: The Drawings,a book showcasing Banks’ Culture artwork, which will feature the late author’s notes and companion material from his friend and fellow author, Ken MacLeod. The Culture: The Drawings will release on 7 th November 2023. This large-format, landscape artbook will faithfully reproduce Iain’s exceptionally intricate drawings in their original format, and at their original scale. Poole, Steven (2008-02-09), "Culture Clashes: Review of Matter by Iain M. Banks", The Guardian , retrieved 2021-08-05 .