- cross-posted to:
- literature
Not bad considering this sort of art style is very much outside his wheelhouse - all the other images he drew for people this year were pastel & watercolour-style nature scenes of ponds and beaches.
For context, I sent him some quotes from the books describing both GSVs and Orbitals but didn't give him much direct guidance - as such this is his interpretation. I like the idea of a domed rooftop section as opposed to an entirely open top deck, though the scale he's drawn (with the islands) seems to imply an absolutely gargantuan GSV - not that that's a bad thing!
Did a search, the series looks very interesting. Does anyone recommend a specific book to start with? Or should I go chronologically?
The Player of Games is my go-to recommendation for a starting book. It's got a very unique concept, shows off a lot of what makes the Culture the Culture, and most importantly has the Culture interacting with a complete antithesis to themselves to show off the idiosyncrasies of their ideology and how they interact with the rest of the universe.
I've been going chronologically and it's been fine.
I like Consider Phlebas as the first book because the Culture is largely a background element - the Culture as a whole is too large and complex an entity to simply be shovelled up front so it makes sense for you to be drip-fed aspects of it over time/sequential books so you don't get too inundated.
Others might recommend State of the Art if only because it has the only real reference to Earth and homo sapiens humans - the rest of the series involves 'humans' but it's Banks' shorthand for 'humanoid'.