Excession

De: Iain M. Banks

Narrado por: Peter Kenny

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.

"Banks is a phenomenon." –– William Gibson

Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared.

It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared.

Now it is back.

Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the spoiled-brat operative Ulver Seich, and faced with the systematic depravities of a race who call themselves the A­ffront, it's anyone's guess whether he'll succeed . . .

Praise for the Culture series:

"Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution." –Independent on Sunday
"Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future." –Guardian

"Jam-packed with extraordinary invention." –Scotsman

"Compulsive reading." –Sunday Telegraph

The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

Also now available:
The Culture: The Drawings- an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.”—William Gibson

“Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.”—The New York Times

“An enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events.”

—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on The Algebraist

“Banks never lets up in a dizzying array of characters, mind-bending ideas, and dazzling action.”—Booklist

“Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth.”—New York Review of Science Fiction

“[Banks] can summon up sense-of-wonder Big Concepts you've never seen before and display them with narration as deft as a conjuror's fingers." —scifi.com

"Nobody does it better."—Times (UK)

"Banks writes space opera on the grand scale: he measures time in eons, space in lightyears, tragedies in gigadeaths."—Time

"Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution."—Independent on Sunday

"Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future."—The Guardian

"Jam-packed with extraordinary invention."—Scotsman

"Compulsive reading."—Sunday Telegraph

Audible drops the ball

The masses seem to think there is missing content. As I’m not fully engaged yet, I’m likely to believe them. Hack job.

Missing chapters. Corrupted files.

Do not download. 21 Jan 2026 This is a known issue audible has not corrected.

Narration cuts out in multiple chapters

Mr. Banks is one of my favorite authors. Excession is one of my favorite writings by said author. I own a beat up old paperback copy(that smells heavenly; yeah, I smell pages) as well as a signed first edition British hardcover. Narrator is excellent. I paid the full price for an incomplete work with various chapters just cutting out mid sentence and jumping to the next. Please fix this Audible and I will give it the 5 star review it deserves.

Broken downloads and missing/truncated chapters

The book is excellent in itself, but cannot be listened to in this state. We got only a few chapters into it and realized that at least two of the chapters are truncated pages before they actually end in the printed version of the book, cutting out vital information for the plot.

Until the recordings are fixed, this is unlistenable.

Love the Story

Finally got this title on audible after years of waiting. The story is classic Culture and the performance is great, but as others have noted, parts of the audio just cut out mid chapter. Please fix, been waiting for this for a long time