Although don't worry - there's a fair share of Culture elements, including some wonderful 'Ship' names. While this is definitely a Culture novel it feels more like 'Look to Windward' in the sense that much of the main action takes place away from Orbitals, GSV's and Drones. What other book might you compare Surface Detail to, and why? Basically I'll listen to anything he's done, his talent is that good. Would you listen to Surface Detail again? Why? It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the centre of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether. It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. 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. 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. 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.īenevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. 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. And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself. It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. The dazzling new Culture novel from a modern master of science fiction - a tour de force of brilliant storytelling, world-building and imagination.

Surface detail banks