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!

  • boboblaw [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    It looks like it might be from the perspective of someone who can see fields or using a filter that makes fields visible as magenta.

    • Dyno [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      since drones can manifest their fields in visible hues to indicate their 'emotional state', perhaps this GSV is doing this same

    • Dyno [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      General Systems Vehicle

      it's like an unreasonably large spaceship

  • Wheaties [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Did a search, the series looks very interesting. Does anyone recommend a specific book to start with? Or should I go chronologically?

    • Dyno [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      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'.

    • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      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.