For anyone who has not yet read of the books from The Culture series, I highly encourage you to do so. They are an amazing - agnostic - version of what our far future selves could be. Iain M. Banks had quite the mind (no pun intended).
Yes, great books! I recommend starting with 'The Player of Games', not the first book in the series but the best. They are only loosely connected, you won't miss anything.
Agreed on starting with "Player of Games". The culture books are great, but some of them arent exactly what what you'd call accessible.
I started on 'Consider Phlebas', the first book in the series. I recommend starting with that, it's a great book, perhaps not as accessible as 'Player of Games', but more wow-factor.
While 'Excession' being the most complex to me. But gosh, how I enjoyed it.
I remember an articles from The Economist that said the same thing