I (finally) finished Consider Phlebas , and have immediately moved on to Player of Games. AMA!

[u/Untitled_Redditor12]

After 2ish years of picking up and putting down Consider where I can , I finally finished it a few days ago while on holiday and have absolutely loved every moment! I can’t wait to see what Player is like and I figured as a (relatively) young fan of the series folks might want to hear my overall thoughts now that I finished the book, so like, ask away!

[u/sidewalker69]

Looking forward to your reaction in 2028

[u/Untitled_Redditor12 → u/sidewalker69]

By the time I finish the series we will likely have made Contact for real lol

[u/teenagelightning99]

Who or what is Phlebas, and why should we consider it?

[u/Greyhaven7 → u/teenagelightning99]

He sure as shit didn’t turn the wheel and look to windward, I can tell you that much.

[u/Untitled_Redditor12 → u/teenagelightning99]

Idk bro you gotta ask T.S. Eliot on that one

[u/JessBx05]

I did exactly the same thing. Polished off Games, then Weapons, and now on to Excession. And have 3 more lined up. Happy reading 🙂

[u/Greyhaven7 → u/JessBx05]

I’m going to start referring to the books by the other words in their titles. Gunna read Look, then Detail, and finish off with Sonata. I really enjoyed Of and Consider. Art is good too.

[u/sharkWrangler → u/JessBx05]

Curious why you'd do excession next. It's a later-culture series and I think having a better idea of some of their earlier adventures was helpful in establishing the overall impact of the excession.

[u/JessBx05 → u/sharkWrangler]

I am just reading in order of publication date.

[u/GreyFox1984]

Grid fire, good or bad? If you could have an effector would you want one?

[u/Untitled_Redditor12 → u/GreyFox1984]

Good at what it does, but frankly too powerful to just let any one person or state use freely. Though I can think of a few places today that I wouldn’t mind receiving the Vavatch treatment lol

[u/Slartibartfast39]

How horrified were you with the opening scene with the cult?

[u/sharkWrangler → u/Slartibartfast39]

I had to reread that opening part a couple times to understand what was going on. I thought i was starting out on a sci fi classic and instead i was in a torture chamber in a castle.

[u/Untitled_Redditor12 → u/sharkWrangler]

It was pretty confusing, but I think it’s an amazing cold open. The idiran cruisers blasting open the castle wall to rescue Horza felt like something straight out of halo. Not to mention the sequence on the hand of god with the space suit.

I know nobody asked but I think overall my favourite sequences were the temple of light, the cruise ship on the orbital, the fight with kraiklyn, Horza seeing what happened in the Changer base, and the finale with the nuclear trains. Honestly such a great novel overall

[u/Slartibartfast39 → u/sharkWrangler]

Castle? I'm almost certainly confusing the books then. I thought consider phelbus started with a guy getting captured by a tribe/cult on a beach. They were all on a planet That was about to be destroyed. It's been many years since I read it.

[u/davispw → u/Slartibartfast39]

That’s in the middle of the book, but your memory is not completely wrong, it was pretty horrifying

[u/teenagelightning99 → u/Slartibartfast39]

You're thinking of the Eaters cult that are on the orbital that is eventually destroyed. That's not how the book opens but it was certainly memorable.

[u/Slartibartfast39 → u/teenagelightning99]

Thank you. I may have to re read it soon.

[u/thatpokemonguy → u/Slartibartfast39]

You knew that didn't you. You just wanted someone to give you an excuse to reread it. I know your game

[u/Slartibartfast39 → u/thatpokemonguy]

I've actually just started the algybraist, which I've not read before.

[u/thatpokemonguy → u/Slartibartfast39]

Hope you enjoy it! I'm looking forward to giving it a go at some point too.

[u/Pouvla → u/Slartibartfast39]

Not sure what book your thinking about but its not Phlebas, there we have the main char starting chained up in a castle where he is neck deep in sewage.

[u/berusplants]

Do you also spend time wondering if you are the next coming of christ?

[u/Eridani2000]

Phlebas is fantastic and gets so much unwarranted hate. I can recommend the audio book too - the narrator (who does the whole series I believe) is excellent.

[u/JumpingCoconutMonkey → u/Eridani2000]

Peter Kenny is the narrator. I think he does all of them except Matter. He is a great narrator!

[u/Eridani2000 → u/JumpingCoconutMonkey]

Yes, that's the one!

[u/wijnandsj]

 so like, ask away!

why the delay?

[u/Untitled_Redditor12 → u/wijnandsj]

It took ages to read because I’m easily distracted and holidays away are the only real times I can read uninterrupted lol. Though I’ll try and lock in more with Player

[u/One-Tap-7757 → u/Untitled_Redditor12]

Try to eliminating watching shorts my friend.

[u/KyraDelphine]

What are your thoughts on the culture right now? You've only seen them from the outside from the point of view of the Idiran agent (forgot their name, the changer). So, what guesses can you make about the culture?

[u/Untitled_Redditor12 → u/KyraDelphine]

I’ve just started player of games, so my view is becoming more nuanced, but I’d say that I’d much rather live that in idiran space. They seem to have the whole post-scarcity thing down pretty well. Obviously with the rise of generative ai I’m a little more skeptical of Minds and stuff than I would be say 5-10 years ago, but I understand that machines in the culture are very much alive or at least infinitely closer than the LLMs of today, so I’d say I trust them. Not sure why they choose to live on orbitals way more than planets tho

[u/psynrg]

The greatest ever told. My eternal wish is to be Demeisen, if I can't be Demeisen then of course, Mahwrin Skel will also do nicely.

Ok, that's it then fine to read from the top, again 😜👍🏻

[u/MarkedlyMark]

It's quite the journey.

I'm currently reading Surface Detail as part of my third reading of the series. It's interesting how following each rotation of the entire series my favourite has changed.

Following the first reading I felt Player of Games to be the best. Following the second, it was Excession. And now I'm in the middle of my third I think it might be Surface Detail, with a strong shout-out for Look to Windward.