The Culture Books podcast: Recent Episodes
Sheridan and John
Come explore the dizzying space opera of Iain M. Banks' culture novels. Buy a book and then read along with us as we explore them chapter by chapter!
The Culture thinks about HR, and Sma hangs out with Linter.
We also have a chat about Sugar and Elon's interview with The Economist which takes The Culture's name in vain.
If you haven't seen the interview it's at: https://youtu.be/XuoqKYxDHVc?si=c3__ae_Mw1BMPHm3
Get ready for a deep dive into the Paris and Berlin of the late 1970s, and relive the drunken holiday hookups of your youth.
One of the earliest Culture works, we get to know a world eerily like that of BladeRunner and a Culture renegade in more trouble than they can handle.
Possibly the most infamous chapter in science fiction history. Zakalwe receives a present.
Zakalwe has a breakdown followed by an even more terrible day, but we get the standout quote of the book.
Zakalwe gets in a lot of fights, but his love of the old plasma rifle finally pays off!
Zakalwe tries his hand at writing poetry in an idyllic rural setting, but it's not as nice as he'd hoped.
Zakalwe plays James Bond again, Diziet gets distracted, and our hero goes to an interesting party which he does not enjoy.
Zakalwe gets stuck in a storm, takes a long hard look at himself, argues with an idiot, and sees some very strange things.
Zakalwe seems suspiciously happy to run away from his problems, but they have a nice time at the beach.
Sma and Skaffen recover from a party and go for an island cruise.
Meanwhile The Culture goes nuclear around them!
Zakalwe has a less pleasant visit to a castle and we ask if any aristocrat can be a good aristocrat?
Diziet gets out of bed and the Culture goes to the wild west to see just how scary a drone can be!
In which we briefly meet an Ethnarch, and get a good look at just how stone cold cool this Zakalwe cat can be!
We meet Diziet Sma and spend a lot of time on how exactly she likes to bone.
And The Culture seems to be putting a lot more resources into this caper than we've seen before...
We start The Big One for Banks fans, a great whiskey is reviewed, and the scene is set for a wild ride with fortunately short chapters!
We wrap up Elon Musk's favourite book with a short chapter that ties up a couple of loose ends and really gets into non-binary love.
With apologies for the delay we are back with the third chapter of The Player of Games where we get to see just what rat bastards The Culture can be when they get going.
Getting deep and dirty into The Player of Games and really wondering what Elon Musk gets into in this tale of cruelty and perversion.
Chapter 2, Imperium asks a lot of questions and we do our best to answer them.
The Player of Games begins as we talk about the first chapter of this remarkable book and consider what games are really being played.
We come to an end of the journey for the first of The Culture books.
Fear not we shall return soon for The Player of Games.
It's a big episode with a big body count!
But finally we finish up in these goddamn tunnels!
We get to learn a lot more about Idirans, and trains, in a chapter that spends a lot of time setting up the finale!
The KFC ventures deep under Schar's World, while through Fal's musings we learn the history of the Culture.
The KFC on the CAT finally makes it to Schar's World and Horza's misspent youth catches up with him.
A madcap escape, the arsenal of the end of the universe, a plucky drone, and the immense drag of being a galactic warlord with a young dude hitting on you.
How much damage can a game do?
We finally see the game up close and very personal, Horza and Kraiklyn settle their scores, and the scale and glory of a General Systems Vehicle is revealed.
In the staggering vastness of the Vavatch Orbital Kraiklyn's Free Company try their hands at maritime salvage.
But what is this Damage game Kraiklyn's really thinking about?
Things go as you might expect for Kraiklyn's Free Company in combat.
And we finally get a look at the Culture on its own turf.
Horza, floating in deep space, is found, and fights for his life.
Is this an allegory for patriarchal capitalism?
And who is Yalson?
In this chapter we get to know the Idirans, big conversations are had, and Horza steps outside for a long walk!
In which we meet Horza, get our first glimpse of the culture, form views about the Gerontocracy of Sorpen, and become acquainted with Idirans.
A short chapter, but a key one for getting this story on the road.
Welcome to the start of The Culture Books Club, a read-along exploration of Iain M. Banks Culture novels.
In this episode some special guests give us a taste of things to come and we try and unpack the dizzying first few pages of the book that started it all; "Consider Phlebas".
Special thanks to The War Nerd himself, Gary Brecher AKA John Dolan, and Mel Bicket of the Podmoot - Enteresting Tales from Tolkien podcast.