Consider Phlebas
Culture Series, Book 1
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Consider Phlebas
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Narrated by:
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Peter Kenny
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By:
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Iain M. Banks
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.
'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson
War rages across the galaxy. Billions have died, billions more are doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, face cold-blooded, brutal destruction. The Idirans fight for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles are at stake. There can be no surrender.
Within this cosmic conflict, a crucial battle of wits is waged. Deep within a fabled labyrinth, on a Planet of the Dead forbidden to mortals, lies a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans desperately seek it. It is the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, to actually find it - and with it their own destruction.
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
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Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
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Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
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According to Kurt Vonnegut's alter ego, the old science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, a global timequake will occur on February 13, 2001, at 2:27 p.m. It will be the moment when the universe suffers a crisis of conscience: Should it go on expanding indefinitely or collapse and make another great big BANG? For its own cosmic reasons, it decides to back up a decade to 1991, giving the world a 10-year case of deja vu, making everybody and everything do exactly what they'd done during the past decade.
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Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: To escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate. But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four.
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The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it....
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36,181
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Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,182
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 8,036
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,043
Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Story? Classic. Narrator? Ugh.
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Timequake
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- Narrated by: Arthur Bishop
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 382
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 336
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Story4 out of 5 stars 335
According to Kurt Vonnegut's alter ego, the old science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, a global timequake will occur on February 13, 2001, at 2:27 p.m. It will be the moment when the universe suffers a crisis of conscience: Should it go on expanding indefinitely or collapse and make another great big BANG? For its own cosmic reasons, it decides to back up a decade to 1991, giving the world a 10-year case of deja vu, making everybody and everything do exactly what they'd done during the past decade.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 23
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5 out of 5 stars
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A favorite Ursula K. Le Guin
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Critic reviews
'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson
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It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5,700
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 7,975
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 5,996
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What listeners say about Consider Phlebas
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Niklas
- 01-16-17
Fantastic narrative but shallow plot
He has a fantastic way of paining the environment in vivid ways and with surprising detail. The plot however feels shallow in the big picture and leaves you feeling less than satisfied.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kaustav Chakravarthy
- 01-19-19
A brilliant book if ever there was one.
Breathtaking story set in an expansive, incredibly diverse and well-designed universe. Strong, well fleshed-out characters one really begins to care about. An intelligent, beautifully written story that reads more like poetry than prose. Wonderfully narrated, with each character having a consistent, distinct voice and the right intonation for every situation. What's not to love about this performance! Downloaded the second book in the series before the first one was even finished.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 02-24-25
Geekie sci fi war story
I liked the Uniqueness and the diversity of species as well as the odd snippet of a war storyline.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- CybranM
- 08-09-23
Boring start but picked up pace
Didn't care much for how the book started but it got better. Main characters motivation felt really strange and some decisions were weird but cool world building
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 07-23-20
Worth Reading, but not much more
All in all the world was rich and interesting and the book touched on topics both philosophical, political, esoteric and very human. Absolutely worth a read, but not much more. Hence I rate it 3/5.
The book was a bit indulgent with the worldbuilding/exposition at the cost of character and plot. Some parts were a bit too much spectacle for the sake of spectacle (or just a thought experiment the author really wanted to put in somewhere) and did only marginally contribute to the overall narrative/theme.
The narrator was great and absolutely enhanced the experience.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- RTE Williamson
- 02-15-13
Culture Book 1 - Not a classic but a solid effort
What did you love best about Consider Phlebas?
The unassuming pace is interesting like listening to a day dream
Who was your favorite character and why?
Horza does kind of grow on you as the tough secret agent persona wears away. None of the characters are easy to like. And the ones that do... well...
What about Peter Kenny’s performance did you like?
Passable attempt at alien voices. The mapping of an unknown alien voice to known earth accent is always a tough one like why do French slum dwellers inherit a cockney accent in Les Miserables. Why do Culture supercomputers get the sound of a pompous nineteenth century English fop?
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No. the slower patches are pleasant and necessary but do not engender a sprint read
Any additional comments?
This story is more than the sum of its parts.
The after taste is interesting and since it is part of a loose series it is enough to hit the buy now button a couple more times.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 11-21-10
Routes of The Culture
A good listen. All the technological depth and character development you could want in a sci-fi novel. If you like "Ring World" or "The Mote In God's Eye", you'll probably like this more.
Only four stars out of five because it mainly lacks the humour of his later books. "Matter" (by the same author) was just brilliant!
Though this is Iain M Banks' first sci-fi novel, it is a 2010 audio production.
Once again, Peter Kenny excels as narrator.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kanaka
- 07-11-22
Recommended
Pretty dang good. Narrator is great. Space communism is funny. Religious fanatics always cause trouble
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Wayne Davis
- 08-20-17
Very good narration / Excellent Story to a point
First two thirds brilliant, then goes off the rails ending too abruptly leaving reader unfulfilled.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Think Don't Pray
- 04-19-25
In response to “Shallow Plot”
Obviously in the context of a stand-alone it may seem that way. Until you’ve read the series and realize that the plot is far deeper than most stories. Ian M. Banks Culture series is one of the few Golden Sci-Fi vistas to a world where Technology isn’t evil, and artificial super intelligences aren’t Terminators. So if you are closed minded or need to be spoon fed existential terror, this isn’t a series for you.
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