[vortexreader]

The various humanoids that are encountered throughout the series...are they meant to be 'lost' human colonies rediscovered by the Culture or are they actually aliens?

I'm reading Use of Weapons at the moment and I'm a little confused...

[toriphile]

I think that they are rediscovered human colonies, not aliens.
Use of Weapons is by far the best Culture novel I've read (Excessions and Look to Windward are waiting on the shelf). It is confusing all the way to the next to the last chapter. A very good read, keeps your mind working.

[Vitriol]

I've read all of the Culture novels and it's never really made clear. An awful lot of the races seem to be human, but there are also some obvious aliens, both inside and outside the Culture.

However, the humans in the series certainly aren't origionally from Earth; the book 'State Of The Art' has a novella dealing with the Culture's discovery of a backward little planet called Earth.

I enjoyed Use of Weapons too, but as toriphile says, it makes a lot more sense once you've finished it and the storylines mesh. It helps to read it again afterwards. My favorite Culture book would have to be The Player of Games, though.

[Llama]

>>However, the humans in the series certainly aren't origionally from Earth; the book 'State Of The Art' has a novella dealing with the Culture's discovery of a backward little planet called Earth.


I think the answers to all these questions vary depending on what Banks is trying to do with each particular volume or story. I don't think he feels that it's terribly important for him to be consistent, and frankly, neither do I. Each novel seems to work perfectly well on a stand-alone basis.

[estranghero]

Check this out:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020121/culture_clash.shtml

"Culture Clash: Ambivalent Heroes and the Ambiguous Utopia in the Work of Iain M. Banks"
By David Horwich

Also, his other Culture work, 'Against a Dark Background', is very good, very funny, biting stuff.

[wildfire]

there is no direct indication in any of his books that they are lost human colonies however he sort of answers this at the end of his first book Consider Philbus theres a passage at the end which states something about earth many years later joining the Culture,so as the Culture has been around much longer than Earth/humans its would seem unlikely.
ive just finished LookTo Windward and it was excellent though my fav is Excession a cracking read

[vortexreader]

Thanks everyone...it's all so much, um...clearer now !