What is Culture and the other series.....

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2002-11-14 09:04pm

Don't get me wrong...I'm a sci-fi fan but.....I never heard of them.

Could someone fill the holes in and where I can watch or read these series....

Cyaround,
Jason

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-11-14 09:05pm

Books, Search for "Culture" and you'll find one of the eight threads explaing them along with listing books

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2002-11-14 09:06pm

The Culture FAQ

http://www.mattstan.pwp.blueyonder.co.u ... refaq.html

consequences · Post by **consequences** » 2002-11-14 09:07pm

Author Ian Banks
your average uber bookstore might have the last two that have been put out in stock, but you will probably have to order most of them.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2002-11-14 09:43pm

consequences wrote:Author Ian Banks
your average uber bookstore might have the last two that have been put out in stock, but you will probably have to order most of them.

Yup Amazon, Barnes and Nobles....oy.
Are there any books past 2000? cause it only lists up to that.

Gosh can't wait to get a hold of them.

Cyaround,
Jason

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2002-11-14 09:47pm

Bah. My bookstore only carries 'Excession'

And yet, it has every single Terry Goodkind book.

Just one book by a supposedly excellant author.

Every single book by the worst modern fantasy/sci-fi author ever.

Is there no justice left in the world?

Post by **fgalkin** » 2002-11-14 10:15pm

The bookstore in Newark Airport has Excession, and plenty of other goodies. Despite the fact that is the size of a closet and has two bookcases. Why do they have all the good books there, and not a single ST or SW novel is still a mystery to me.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2002-11-15 02:14pm

Basically, the Culture is an ultratech social utopia ( everything's free, cerebral implants give you access to a wide variety of harmless drugs, people work to have fun, lifespan is 4 centuries although bio-immortality is perfectly known to the Culture, but ethically, that's another problem... and the Minds, god-like CPUs, lead this long party in space.... which spends a lot of time ass-raping the Prime Directive, manipulating primitive societies to bring them to a better evolution level... )

Warfaring capacities : include picosecond-range reaction time, shields which send any finite amount of energy into hyperspace, transporter tech ( sending a ball of plasma into your ennemy's ship ), gridfire ( filling a blanket of space with infinite energy ), effectors ( ultratech hacking device, manipulates both human mind and computers ).
Culture's drones and knife-missiles : close to ultimate ground weapons. Potential Jedi slaughterers.

Ships include various classes ( all sentient, IIRC ), from the Rapid Offensive Units ( 1 million tons ) to the General Contact Units ( scout, 3 km in lenght ) to General System-Vehicles ( motherships, 80 km in lenght )

FTL travel is a bit slow ( very high ST warp, but much slower than transwarp ), they can travel within their Galaxy in months or years.

And Ian Banks is a wonderful author.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2002-11-15 03:21pm

nanosecond

send any finite amount of energy

never been stated or proven

all sentient, IIRC

They can be made non-sentient, the sleeper service does it.

Also your GCU's are a little on the large side.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2002-11-15 03:23pm

Okay, a few things here:

cerebral implants give you access to a wide variety of harmless drugs,

They are glands, not implants. They are born with them.

people work to have fun, lifespan is 4 centuries although bio-immortality is perfectly known to the Culture, but ethically, that's another problem

IIRC, it's not so much a problem of ethics as it is fashion.

Warfaring capacities : include picosecond-range reaction time,

IIRC, in Excession it was stated that picoseconds are the upper limit on their observation capabilities; Fate Amenable to Change sped up it's records to that area when trying to determine what the Excession did to it. They react on the nanosecond scale.

gridfire ( filling a blanket of space with infinite energy )

Whether or not the Grid itself contains infinite energy is debatable; I don't know if it has ever been stated either way. But a Gridfire incursion cannot, as it uses only a tiny fraction of the Grid. Extremely high, yes, but not infinite.

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2002-11-16 05:37am

NecronLord wrote: Also your GCU's are a little on the large side.

Meaning ? Their lenght is quoted in Use of Weapons, when Zakalwe is visiting a Culture's GSV for the first time.

GSV Use Psychology · Post by **GSV Use Psychology** » 2002-11-16 07:49am

I flipped through UoW and what I gathered was that the bays are big enough to build 3 klick ships, but GCU aren't necessarily that big. They're generally accpeted to be a few hundred meters, tops. ROU's are about a third of a kilometer long.

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2002-11-16 01:29pm

Well, according to the translation the 3 km long vessels are explicitely designed as GCUs.

And

XaLev wrote: They are glands, not implants. They are born with them.

Well, when Zakalwe was beheaded, the surgeon tells him ( back on the GSV ) that he could be implanted glands to help him to endure months of volontary consciousness as a new body is created. So technically we can be both right.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2002-11-16 02:59pm

The Nomad wrote:Well, according to the translation the 3 km long vessels are explicitely designed as GCUs.

And

XaLev wrote: They are glands, not implants. They are born with them.
Well, when Zakalwe was beheaded, the surgeon tells him ( back on the GSV ) that he could be implanted glands to help him to endure months of volontary consciousness as a new body is created. So technically we can be both right.

Zakalwe gets beheaded, eh? Thanks.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2002-11-16 03:08pm

The Nomad wrote: Well, when Zakalwe was beheaded, the surgeon tells him ( back on the GSV ) that he could be implanted glands to help him to endure months of volontary consciousness as a new body is created. So technically we can be both right.

Zakalwe is not culture born.
The Culture use genofixing to alter their offspring before conception. They are born with things like drug glands, the ability to concieve children by beings not normally genetically compatible, and the ability to change gender.

XaLEv wrote:Zakalwe gets beheaded, eh? Thanks.

It's only a flesh wound.

As for immortality, it's posible for a Culture citizen to back up their personality so that they can be restored in a clone of their original body later.

They aren't the only race that have technology like that, the Chelgrians (Look to Windward) actually BUILT heaven along the lines set out by their religious beliefs.

The last Culture novel was published in 2000. The last Banks book is one of his non-sci-fi books, and is called Dead Air. It came out in September.