Consider Phlebas Audiobook

" I'm about 1/3 through and I might just have to come back to it some other time. It's a bit dry and sort of drags on. It's a culture/war centered title that is disguised as character forward. A little too epic and hyper-masculine feeling as if it's trying to be some other main stream popular saga. "

" 500 pages of beautifully written climax. I definitely look forward to investigating more of Banks's stuff, both literary and sci-fi. "

" This was a three-star book. (And not a four-star book that I'm being stingy with...like some people.) Seriously, though, enjoyable and distracting. "

" I wish I could give this two stars for some of the plot and 4 stars for the rest. The obese cannibal was just silly. The opening scene was meant to shock and gross out but just left me feeling "meh". I didn't really care about some of the characters. With that said, some of the book was so well written it took my breath away and the action and adventure were thrilling. I will try the others in this series and other books by this author. "

" In general I really enjoyed the book. There was plenty of action, suspense and some mystery thrown in. The characters were interesting, it just took me a while to get going at the beginning. I felt the ending was poorly done - basically it just ends with some epilogue type stuff. I was very invested in the main character and felt the ending just made me feel wanting some sort of closure. Overall, a great read. "

" Fantastic look into the Culture from yet another angle. "

" Well written and very entertaining. I've heard that Bank's writing improves in his other books so I'm looking forward to reading the other Culture books in the future. "

" Banks at his best, visionary, inventive, a real treat "

" This is an excellent "space opera" Culture novel from one of my favorite sci fi authors. It's a bit wordy and overly long in places but the overall writing (including some chapters that are real gems) more than makes up for it. "

" Very much enjoyed the Audible version. Tried a few years ago to read in print and couldn't get into it. Great characters. I liked Player of Games better though. This one was a bit too "shoot em up" for me. But I recommend to those who like space opera. "

" A reasonably good book but got a bit tedious in places with some tangents from the plot. I much prefer The Player of Games. However, reading this clarified some things that I didn't understand from book 2 in this series. "

" Good writing, engaging. Didn't knock my socks off. I may or may not read more books by Banks. "

" Consider Phlebas is an example of high science fiction at it's finest. "

" This was my introduction to Iain M. Banks and the Culture series. I enjoyed this introduction to the Culture, and I'm curious to learn more. The edition I experienced was the unabridged audiobook narrated exceptionally well by Peter Kenny. "

" A good book with a completely unenjoyable ending. "

" This is a big, sprawling, complicated book. I really enjoyed it. There's a little bit of everything here: "big" plot, a main character with complicated issues, galaxy-wide destruction, clash of cultures (and religions, and philosophies). Very good and highly recommended. "

" This was good opening to the Culture series, though it left me wanting more knowledge of the culture. I would love to live on one of those huge orbitals. "

" Good entertaining sci-fi shoot-em-up, but it lags hard in the third act. Would have given it another star if it had been 100 pages shorter. "

" I hate to admit it, but this book has defeated me. I just couldn't find any interest in the characters or the universe Banks has created. I'll save it for a later day when I have less stress. "

" This was a good introduction to the Culture universe but I felt at times the writing was a little rough around the edges .... an annoying thing I noticed was a paragraph would start and you had to wait a bit to figure out who was speaking or who it was referencing which upset the flow of the book "

" Started slow, i felt, but i really enjoyed this read. "

" This was a very satisfying classic Science Fiction work. Good characters, against an sweeping historical backdrop. I never really understood the politics enough to choose a side in the ongoing war, but boy the science was fascinating and it was fun picturing the aliens involved. "

" This was a book that I had trouble putting down, literally. I ran the battery down on my NOOKcolor 3 times! "