[smutticus]

I've read all of his novels and must say I am an Ian M Banks addict. I've read some of his fiction as well which he publishes under Ian Banks.

My favorite is The Use of Weapons. I liked Surface Detail but I do think you should read the Culture novels in the order they were written.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

[huhtenberg]

Have you read Peter Hamilton? Specifically, the Commonwealth Saga.

Banks is good, but I find his universes are to be sketchy and sometimes fairly shallow and not well-thought through (e.g. the one in the Algebraist). Hamilton is as creative as Banks, when it comes to the concepts, but he really delivers on the depth and complexity of the story lines and the actual execution. If you haven't read him, do it. If you have, I'd be curious to hear how you compare him to Banks.

[arethuza]

I've read Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy and the Commonwealth Saga - the latter is much better but still suffers a lot, in my view, from poor characterization - something that Banks can be very good at (his bad guys can occasionally come from central casting though).

Banks is in a different class from Hamilton - in general I think the quality of his work has dropped off a bit but some of his earlier writing is exceptional: Use of Weapons is particularly strong.

[huhtenberg]

I read several Culture books in addition to the Algebraist and the Use of Weapons was the only one that I genuinely liked. I was constantly under an impression that I am reading a screenplay - good bones, but lacking the works and details that would actually turn reading into a wow experience... which is what I got from Commonwealth Saga. To each his own though of course :)

[smutticus]

I've never read any Peter Hamilton. But I'm gonna check him out now. Thanks for the tip.