Excession cover art

Excession

Culture Series, Book 5

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About this listen

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.

Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared.

It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared.

Now it is back.

Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the spoiled-brat operative Ulver Seich, and faced with the systematic depravities of a race who call themselves the A­ffront, it's anyone's guess whether he'll succeed . . .

The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

©1996 Iain M. Banks (P)2013 Hachette Digital Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction

Critic reviews

"Gripping, touching and funny." (TLS)

"A dizzying adventure." (Daily Mail)

"Explosive but tender." (Sunday Times)
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This book is classic sci-fi covering all scales. There are human stories, various races, Culture Ship Minds and even, from certain viewpoints, the microscopic. Although it contains a huge amount of technical information on the Ships (the story being largely concerned with these) it never becomes bogged down in pointless detail and remains constantly fascinating. It treads a fine line between fleshing out the Culture universe as a whole and maintaining a strong element of mystery. It's great to see the all-powerful and infinitely intelligent ship Minds totally stumped and humbled by something they can't even begin to explain.



Peter Kenny's reading is of such a high standard that this constitutes, to my mind, a definitive edition of the story. This reading manages that rare feat of actually improving on the original work. Here's hoping that Iain M. Banks keeps on writing them and that Peter Kenny keeps on reading them!

Superb story, better narration

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I read the paperback a good few year ago and the audiobook version is great. If you follow the Culture series, then this one is a must with plenty of minds and SC involvement with great creativity!

Best Culture Novel

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Brilliant story. Plenty of characters to keep track of but following the story is never hard. Loved it!

First Iain M Banks and loved it!

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This is among the best of Ian M Banks Culture series and this is superbly performed by Peter Kenny. It’s high concept sci-fi. Awe inspiring, serious, yet funny and sexy at times. If you’re a sci-fi fan and not yet read it, this is the book you’ve been waiting for . The world of these amazing space ships and their controlling minds, their inter-relationships and their approach to an”external context event” will delight you.

A Sci-fi masterpiece

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Having paperread the story before I wondered how Kenny would read all the email-headers - but it was really good! Even funny!

Avesome narration!

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