The Culture

Ten books, no reading order, and the one everybody starts with is the worst way in.

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Where to start with The Culture

There is no reading order. Different protagonists, different centuries, no continuing plot, and any of them can be read first. That is exactly why a tracker has to have an opinion, so here is one.

  1. 1
    The Player of Games The Player of Games

    Start here rather than at book one. It is the cleanest, its protagonist is a Culture citizen, and it dramatises what the Culture actually does to civilisations it dislikes.

  2. 2
    Use of Weapons Use of Weapons

    Second, not first. The structure only reads as brilliant once you already trust him.

  3. 3
    Consider Phlebas, then Look to Windward Consider Phlebas

    Book one is better as a third or fourth. Look to Windward takes its title from the same Eliot line and is the answer to it, so keep the pair together.

  4. 4
    Excession, Inversions, Surface Detail, Matter, The Hydrogen Sonata Excession

    In whatever order appeals. Inversions in particular wants five or six others behind it, because it never once says the word Culture.

Then what? The State of the Art is a mixed collection rather than a novel and only three of its pieces belong to this world. The title novella shares characters with Use of Weapons and gains from sitting near it.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below: tick anything off in either place.

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The Ways In

  • The Player of Games 1988
  • Use of Weapons 1990

The Idiran War and After

  • Consider Phlebas 1987
  • Look to Windward 2000

Minds and Special Circumstances

  • Excession 1996
  • Surface Detail 2010
  • The Hydrogen Sonata 2012

The Culture from Outside

  • Inversions 1998
  • The State of the Art 1989

The Big Set Pieces

  • Matter 2008

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