08-16-2020, 04:29 AM
In order of my enjoyment of them and why:
Excession - Focuses on the Culture itself - a lot of the earlier Culture novels take place outside the Culture. We see a lot about Culture ships and Orbitals and tech.
Look to Windward - Much the same reasons as Excession - most of the story is set on an orbital. We learn a lot about how the Culture operates internally and what people in the Culture do with their time.
The Player of Games - Set mostly outside the Culture but told from the pov of a Culture citizen. We learn something of how the Culture works and how it deals with/manipulates non-Culture civs. This is also one of what I would deem - 'classic' Culture novels - written early in the series. Excession and Look to Windward are more 'mid-period'.
Most of the other stories are set outside the Culture and a couple of the later ones could plausibly be said to treat the Culture as a secondary element. They are still good, but I like the above better.
Hope this helps,
Todd
Excession - Focuses on the Culture itself - a lot of the earlier Culture novels take place outside the Culture. We see a lot about Culture ships and Orbitals and tech.
Look to Windward - Much the same reasons as Excession - most of the story is set on an orbital. We learn a lot about how the Culture operates internally and what people in the Culture do with their time.
The Player of Games - Set mostly outside the Culture but told from the pov of a Culture citizen. We learn something of how the Culture works and how it deals with/manipulates non-Culture civs. This is also one of what I would deem - 'classic' Culture novels - written early in the series. Excession and Look to Windward are more 'mid-period'.
Most of the other stories are set outside the Culture and a couple of the later ones could plausibly be said to treat the Culture as a secondary element. They are still good, but I like the above better.
Hope this helps,
Todd