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Comment by jccalhoun | Hacker News Reader

This could be good. I think Consider Phlebas is the least of the series but if it leads to the others being adapted then I am for it.

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I’m going to be a contrarian here, but I’ve really come around to Consider Phlebas. I wasn’t impressed the first time I read it, but I’ve read it over ten times.

Unlike Games and Weapons, the theme isn’t as explicit, but Identity permeates everything in the story. I genuinely think it’s an unsung masterpiece. Excession, as much as people love it, is pretty much pure entertainment. Phlebas, Games and Weapons all leave you with stuff to think about afterwards.

Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward make a great matched pair. The first introduces the Culture and a bunch of crackling ideas around the beautiful fantasy of a post-scarcity, post-mortality, post-stupidity civilization. It's 31 years old but still feels fresher than most new SF, because the author embraces the weird, wild possibilities of his fictional technology instead of nerfing/overlooking them for the sake of audience familiarity.

Look to Windward is a great follow-up, emphasizing that you can have the smartest, best-intentioned, most powerful military ever and still fuck up when you try to use it to fix another civilization. The rage of the survivors of the Culture's intervention is quite justifiable, though the means of attempted retaliation isn't. From my brief description you might think that it was an allegory dashed off in response to the occupation of Afghanistan or Iraq, but the book was published in 2000. Banks was ahead of the curve.

It might not be the strongest, but I think it might be one of the easiest to film. Lots of action and interaction between characters compared to something like Player of Games which has a lot of internal monologue.

That's the weird thing: If I rember right Consider Phlebas is by far the worst book to adapt to introduce the Culture, because of how prevalent the Idrian religion (an expy for various militant religious groups) is to the plot and action. As you said lets hope we get all of them, especially Excession IMHO.

The merit of Consider Phlebas is the potential of a fantastic scifi/action/adventure series, its easy to make TV off, Excession is the other side of the spectrum, a bunch of Minds talking :)

In the end, Im a fan, Im glad that this happens, just a damn shame that Mr. Banks never got to see it.

I just want Pater Capaldi to voice Skaffen-Amtiskaw (full name Fohristiwhirl Skaffen-Amtiskaw Handrahen Dran Easpyou )

If they do UOW

It could be interesting though: Phelbas was neat because it introduced the Culture from the POV of an outsider who hated them, and even sometimes admitted that his hate could sometimes be irrational. A utopia (or "utopia") from the perspective of a non-participant who deliberately sides with militant religious groups he doesn't even like would be a fresh change of perspective compared to a lot of television.

Excession is my favourite but impossible to adapt.

They said the same thing about "The Orchid Thief" but the movie was excellent.

THRILL as sentient spaceships interact on message boards

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