-
Surface Detail
- A Culture Novel
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

pick 2 free titles with trial.
Buy for $16.96
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Geoff Annis
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For short-lived races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets - the rest is debris. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron. His work consists of rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.
-
-
A masterpiece.
- By M. Lambert on 08-16-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Geoff Annis
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For short-lived races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets - the rest is debris. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron. His work consists of rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.
-
-
A masterpiece.
- By M. Lambert on 08-16-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Revelation Space
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
-
-
Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
-
House of Suns
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every 200,000 years to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.
-
-
Science fiction in Deep time
- By A reader on 05-12-10
-
Eversion
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Harry Myers
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1800s, a sailing ship crashes off the coast of Norway. In the 1900s, a Zepellin explores an icy canyon in Antarctica. In the far future, a spaceship sets out for an alien artifact. Each excursion goes horribly wrong. And on every journey, Dr. Silas Coade is the physician, but only Silas seems to realize that these events keep repeating themselves. And it's up to him to figure out why and how. And how to stop it all from happening again.
-
-
Time after time...
- By Michael G Kurilla on 08-07-22
-
Pushing Ice
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it. The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.
-
-
Proof that a good story doesn't require a trilogy
- By Jesse on 01-14-12
-
A Fire Upon the Deep
- By: Vernor Vinge
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
-
-
What a wild, wacky, awesome book!
- By Noah on 06-20-10
By: Vernor Vinge
-
Fallen Dragon
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the distant future, corporations have become sustainable communities with their own militaries, and corporate goals have essentially replaced political ideology. On a youthful, rebellious impulse, Lawrence joined the military of a corporation that he now recognizes to be ruthless and exploitative. His only hope for escape is to earn enough money to buy his place in a better corporation.
-
-
Another awesome book.
- By Brian Jeffries on 11-13-16
-
New Spring
- The Wheel of Time Prequel
- By: Robert Jordan
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, a child is born, an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before he can be killed by the forces of the Shadow.
-
-
Read it after reading others in the series
- By Stacy Fair on 12-13-07
By: Robert Jordan
-
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- By: Douglas Adams
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
-
-
HHTGH - Lightly Fried
- By J. Medany on 05-08-05
By: Douglas Adams
-
Anathem
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community.
-
-
Unbearable
- By K. F. on 07-02-20
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
-
-
Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Prelude to Foundation
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the year 12,020 GE and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, 40 billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall - those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.
-
-
Trantor, capital of a galactic empire!
- By Svenghali on 11-09-12
By: Isaac Asimov
-
Cage of Souls
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new is Stefan Advani: rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor.
-
-
masterful inversion in style
- By Anonymous User on 02-08-23
Publisher's Summary
It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. And it begins with a murder.
Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right, she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching - is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about Surface Detail
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Steven
- 11-21-10
Devestatingly superior
Reading is a major part of my profession and it is not fun. For my own pleasure, I read science fiction almost exclusively (Patrick O'Brian being a major exception). I have read a science fiction book every week since 1978 except for those weeks when I read more than one. I mention this because Iain M. Banks has practically ruined my favorite reading pastime. If you don’t know why, you have only to read one Culture novel and then recall the dialogue of any computer on any Star Trek video or book. Surface Detail is virtually the last nail in the coffin.
Most science fiction is crap. For example, I have never read a “space opera” that could not be fully converted to horseback. I continue to read science fiction because of the surprising quality of the jewels that can be found in the rubble (consider “An Exchange Of Hostages”). Then comes Iain Banks and his Culture; Science fiction that actually takes notice of the age of our universe and the, presumably, perseverance of intelligence. After I read “Matter”, I purchased all of his novels in bulk. I read them, loved them and then re-read them. I was convinced that “Excession” was the best of the best. I then discovered that “Surface Detail” was about to be released in the United Kingdom (and much earlier than in the U.S). I made the purchase on-line in the UK and had it shipped. It was brilliant and his best novel to date. I then purchased the Audible version which I play on my truck stereo I-Pod. The audible version is icing on the cake.
I can tolerate (barely) a space opera now because I can imagine the story line in circumstances where the Culture has declined to make contact. What I can’t tolerate, is Mr. Bank’s insistence on having a life. He is active and apparently has activities outside of writing his next story. Damn!
40 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- SGW555
- 11-16-10
Excellent story, excellent narration
I'm a big fan of Iain M Banks (and Alistair Reynolds, Richard Morgan, etc.) - what they call 'hard science fiction' or sometimes 'space opera' - so it wasn't really surprising that I liked this latest Culture novel.
I WAS surprised at how well the narrator did with this - the story was so complex, and there were so many characters, that I was really impressed with Peter Kenny's ability to keep up with it all. The names are difficult sometimes, but Kenny did a great job of making the voices and personalities very well distinguished from one another, so it wasn't too problematic. No doubt I'll listen to this again in another month or two for all the bits I missed.
One caveat: Iain Banks and Iain M Banks books often have a certain amount of unflinching violence in them, and this one was particularly gruesome in parts. Some of the scenes in the hell worlds were difficult to take. So I wouldn't recommend giving this book to a 12-year-old or even someone with delicate sensibilities - definitely some nightmare-inducing scenes in there (and of course the writing is so good, you really do end up thinking you were there).
But otherwise highly recommended!
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ryan
- 10-16-11
An enjoyable but not stunning intro to Banks
This was my first Iain M. Banks novel, and I enjoyed the experience, though it didn't knock my socks off the way it seems to have for other readers. Fans of contemporary "hard" science fiction will find a lot familiar elements here: sentient AIs, extremely advanced physical technology, a swarming pan-galactic meta-civilization filled with biological and machine-based societies (or those that have gone from one to the other), and the uploading of consciousness into virtual realities or new bodies. However, Banks' stories feature The Culture, a highly advanced, benevolent society that has a way of guiding affairs in the galaxy, but not interfering with the self-determination other societies without good cause. The drama of his novels usually plays off the question of what the utopian Culture will do in ambiguous cases, since it can't become involved in an obvious way.
This time, the matter is "Hells", virtual realities into which the consciousnesses of the dead are uploaded, subjecting them to terrible torment for their crimes in "the Real". Naturally, the more progressive cultures and factions in the galaxy are firmly against the Hells, while more traditional ones wish to keep them. A war is in progress to decide the outcome, taking place mostly in VR, but with risk of spilling over into the Real. Banks tells the interlocking stories of several different characters caught up in various parts of this conflict, each with a stake of some sort.
I will say that the writing is smart and imaginative, with some interesting speculation and questions. I enjoyed the creative virtual reality battle sequences and the grotesque horror of a Hell. There are also a handful of amusing characters, such as the roguish AI that commands the Culture warship Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints, who reminded me more than a little of the Christopher Eccleston version of Doctor Who.
That said, I eventually lost interest in what was going on in the war or who was playing for which side (possibly while pretending to play for the other). Beyond some characters trapped in a Hell and a "conservative politician" figure, it never felt very personal to anyone. I thought Banks might have done something deeper with the idea of the "rights" of a consciousness trapped in virtual reality, unable to escape or die, and not relied as much on ham-fisted literalisms involving demons and pitchforks. Also, I feel that Banks does a better job with side characters than main characters; I found the protagonists in this story pretty bland.
All in all, I enjoyed Surface Detail well enough that I'll be seeking out some of Banks' other works in the near future. He's certainly a good SF writer and has a lot of intriguing ideas. That said, this wasn't quite as enthralling a work as all the glowing reviews had let me to hope.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Guillermo
- 11-07-10
Absolutely Wonderful Audio Book
I'm a big fan of the Iain M. Banks, especially his sciencie fiction books including Look Toward Windward, Algebraist and the like. I've listened to a few of his non-sci fi books now, but this Surface Detail (Culture Novel #9) is the first sci fi I've heard narrated.
And it's absolutely fantastic. The writing is as good as the best of his science fiction, and Peter Kenny is phenomenal as a narrator. I've listened to hundreds of audio books over the last several years, and this is definitely one of my favorites. I love this audio presentation.
Warning to casual listeners: this has fairly complex plot, so you'll have a hard time if you try to multi-task your attention while listening to this book.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- wendy
- 10-25-11
Latest Culture novel is great!
Would you listen to Surface Detail again? Why?
Yes, I would. This was one of my favorite books recently.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
As with many Banks books, I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed. Part of that could be my sadness that this one was ending and now there will be a multi year wait for his next Culture novel!
Which scene was your favorite?
I liked the best the chase scene on the underground city with the Special Circumstances Agent.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 04-26-11
Best culture book so far
I have read all of the other culture novels (and wish they were on audible too...). "Surface Detail" is the best one to date. Banks explores many of the same themes and uses many of the same devices as in his other novels. The interwoven plot of the lower-tech Sichulteans and the uber-tech, meddling Culture is seamlessly executed. There are strong echos from "Use of Weapons" both in plot and style; though, "Surface Detail" has a much more linear plot and is as easy to follow as "The Player of Games." This novel is also both extremely funny and disturbing, more so than any of his other Culture novels. The Hell scenes are reminiscent of a Hieronymus Bosch painting: truly horrendous and described in exacting detail. Characters are complex and multilayered as usual. Likewise the settings, language and technology are as rich and engaging as always. The narrator was excellent. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in literary SF or other big-scope, space opera like those by Alastair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton and Charles Stross. If you've read the first three Culture books, this is a MUST read.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- David
- 12-18-10
Above average Banks, excellent reader
Iain Banks's Culture novels can sometimes disappoint, but this is one of the better ones, if not up there with a classics like 'The Player of Games'. Despite the complicated use of interweaving multiple plotlines, there's a strong sense of unity centred around the notion that virtual reality could eradicate death, and each of the plotlines tackles a variation on the implications of that idea, even as they all start coalescing into one story. The stories are all interesting, although if the book has a flaw it's that one of the stories - the tale of two academics who choose to enter their civilization's virtual Hell to prove its existence - is so violent, terrifying and heartbreaking that the rest of the book feels a little ho-hum by comparison.
Books with complex, multiple plotlines don't always translate well to the audiobook format, but Peter Denny is an absolute genius who conjures a vast array of different accents for the many characters, meaning that you never lose track of where you are. It's an absolutely superb performance.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- D Williams
- 11-29-10
A master of epic science fiction
This is the first review for me in 5 years of Audible membership. Banks is a genius. The story in this novel is gradually woven together into a terrific climax. The characters are compelling and go through interesting development. Bank's use of humor is engaging and informing without distracting from the drama of the narrative. The explanation of the technology behind the universe Banks creates is superb and again, not distracting from the story.
Basically, Douglas Adams' cynical wit, Asimov's scale and completeness of universe with the odd Shakespearian character twist.
If you want a can't stop listening experience, a well paced story, plenty of real science-fiction imagery, an operatic scale and storyline but at a literary level above the norm, this is your guy.
I haven't enjoyed a story this much since..... well, of Use of Weapons. We need more Banks on Audible, he is one of the few reasons I still buy paper books.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Aerindel
- 11-18-10
Excellent.
Ian M banks is another one of those authors that I have been hoping to see on Audible for years.
The basic premise of this book is as follows: All civilizations start out with a belief in some kind of Heaven and Hell.
All civilizations that survive long enough advance to the point where they can recreate their myths in virtual afterlife's for the souls of their dead, aka the Matrix but for disembodied minds.
Some civilizations feel the need to create Hells to torture some members of their societies after they die.
The over arching plot of the book concerns a battle between factions of the galactic community who want to abolish hells and the ones that want to keep them. The war is fought both virtually and physically on many fronts.
Of course, being an Ian M. Banks book their is much more going on.
Please audible, bring us the rest of his books!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bootless
- 01-12-12
Outstanding.
I think that the "only slightly psychotic" warship "Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints" may be one of my favorite characters in any tale, ever.
3 people found this helpful
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The State of the Art
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From New York Times bestselling and modern master of science fiction Iain M. Banks, The State of the Art is the acclaimed collection of Banks's short fiction. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks's staggering talent.
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Geoff Annis
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For short-lived races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets - the rest is debris. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron. His work consists of rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.
-
-
A masterpiece.
- By M. Lambert on 08-16-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
-
Matter
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.
-
-
Don't Buy this Abominable Abridgement
- By Jim Sabshin on 05-06-12
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The State of the Art
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From New York Times bestselling and modern master of science fiction Iain M. Banks, The State of the Art is the acclaimed collection of Banks's short fiction. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks's staggering talent.
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Geoff Annis
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For short-lived races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets - the rest is debris. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron. His work consists of rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.
-
-
A masterpiece.
- By M. Lambert on 08-16-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
-
Matter
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.
-
-
Don't Buy this Abominable Abridgement
- By Jim Sabshin on 05-06-12
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Beyond the Aquila Rift
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Tom Dheere
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond the Aquila Rift: It's shorthand for the trip no one ever hopes to make by accident. The one that will screw up the rest of your life, the one that creates the ghosts you see haunting the shadows of company bars across the whole Bubble. Men and women ripped out of time, cut adrift from families and lovers by an accident of an alien technology we use but rarely comprehend.
-
-
Great story, mediocre audio book.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-17-12
-
Revelation Space
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
-
-
Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
-
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Riverworld Saga, Book 1
- By: Philip Jose Farmer
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For explorer Richard Francis Burton, Alice Liddell Hargreaves - the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland - and the rest of humanity, death is nothing like they expected. Instead of heaven, hell, or even the black void of nothingness, all of the 36 billion people who ever lived on Earth are simultaneously resurrected on a world that has been transformed into a giant river valley.
-
-
Great concept, dated writing.
- By Battaglia on 08-04-11
-
The Black Cloud
- Valancourt 20th Century Classics
- By: Fred Hoyle
- Narrated by: David Pickering
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Astronomers in England and America have made a terrifying discovery: an ominous black cloud the size of Jupiter is travelling straight towards our solar system. If their calculations are correct, the cloud’s path will bring it between the Earth and the Sun, blocking out the Sun’s rays and threatening unimaginable consequences for our planet.
-
-
Interesting ideas and snapshot of the 1950s
- By Sean Brady on 05-27-23
By: Fred Hoyle
-
Stonemouth
- A Novel
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day. On a bleak one it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides.
-
-
Pretty Offensive Stuff
- By MJ on 10-20-12
By: Iain Banks
-
House of Suns
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every 200,000 years to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.
-
-
Science fiction in Deep time
- By A reader on 05-12-10
-
Light Chaser
- By: Peter F. Hamilton, Gareth L. Powell
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amahle is a Light Chaser—one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories. But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages, she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds. She comes to understand that something terrible is happening, and only she is in a position to do anything about it. And it will cost everything to put it right.
-
-
Oh my God this was terrible
- By Zach on 07-25-22
By: Peter F. Hamilton, and others
-
The Diamond Age
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neal Stephenson, "the hottest science fiction writer in America", takes science fiction to dazzling new levels. The Diamond Age is a stunning tale; set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens what a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.
-
-
The rock could use a bit more polishing
- By Tango on 05-19-13
By: Neal Stephenson