Strongly disagree with most of the consensus here to start with Player of Games and that Consider Phlebas is boring. I found Player of Games to be the much weaker book, with lots of heavy handed social critique and a generally quite stock plot.

It's true that Consider Phlebas is set outside The Culture. I think that's for the best as The Culture is pretty alien and the Phlebas protagonist is more relatable. Banks does a great job of building the world such that when you get to the end of the book, you're like "I get it" in terms of understanding the Culture. Plus, Phlebas has a number of wonderfully evocative set pieces that are super cool. You can see how influential the series was on later sci-fi, especially stuff like Halo.

Player. It's slow for a short bit with culture in references until he gets airlifted. Then gets interesting dumping you into convos with intelligences and then the games and court drama. I actually don't recall plebias. googling it reminds me it nay be the one with an unmanned snowpiercer. i remember that not as good.

i like the culture books but they suffer sometimes from jumping unreoated viewpoints, mental instability, and sprawl sometimes.

player is tighter and doesnt jump. probbably a better entry.

sorry auto corect and swype tuened off mid post so speley misteaks

I started with Players of Games and was very happy with it. I followed it with Use of Weapons which was tougher reading due to complex intertwining narratives, one in reverse chronology and way darker themes. So that probably wasn't a great choice. I don't find Consider Phlebas particularly strong. However I love Matter, Excession and Surface Detail.

Consider Phlebas or Excession. I wouldn't overcomplicate the decision, just read descriptions of those books and pick one.

(I saw Look to Windward and Player of Games recommended. I'd say Look to Windward is probably more enjoyable once you've read Consider Phlebas, and Player of Games is perhaps a little... simple, compared to the others? I don't remember having much doubt of roughly how it would end)

The upside of starting with Consider Phlebas is that the story doesn't really take place within the Culture. It provides you with an outside perspective. It also sets up some things that are referenced in later books.

The downside is that it's quite a bit different from (and imo a bit worse than) the other books and could mislead you about what the series is like - or even turn you off entirely.

If you're already committed to reading the entire series, I'd start with Consider Phlebas. If you're unsure, start with The Player of Games.

Consider Phlebas is an incredibly boring book imo, would not recommend it unless you get way into the series and want to read them all. The Player of Games is great, was engaging throughout and had interesting characters. I would start with that one personally (or another book, but I've only read those two so I can't speak to the rest of the series).

I thought Consider Phlebas was very good but a depressing book. I keep hearing Player of Games is awesome, so maybe that?

My first was Use of Weapons and I always recommend that one.

And the second one is "Inversions" But those two are probably fine firsts. Mine was "use of weapons".

Look to Windward.

It’s a very human story, and the technobabble intervenes very little in it. It also has the most connection (of the Culture novels) to our world, being largely a meditation on the first Gulf War. This makes it the most approachable, in my opinion.

It is technically a sequel to Consider Phlebas but the connection is almost nonexistent, no prior knowledge of the Culture-Idiran war required.