I just finished reading Consider Phlebas, and am starting Player of Games now! I tried to find reading order lists online and most just recommended publication order. I hope I didn’t ruin anything.
There are _largely_ no spoilers. I think Look to Windward might have very minor ones for Phlebas, but largely the novels are all set in the same universe, but more or less standalone.
It's true that it's an awkward entry point, but it's not necessarily a bad one. It's the worst book of the series imo, so if I wanted someone to read the whole series I wouldn't start them there.
But it also covers events that are directly or indirectly significant to the plot or setting of... most... of the other books. So if you are going to read them all, you get more out of the rest for having read it first.
Good to hear you think its one of the weaker ones, I didn't love it personally. (I thought the setting was awesome but struggled a little bit with the motivations of most of the characters). I've heard enough good things about the series however to know I am going to read most/all of them! Which book if your favorite?
I remember liking Look to Windward and Excession a lot, I think because they're centrally about the lives and motivations of the minds. For that reason though they may be better later, once you've got more exposure to and questions about their actions and experiences.
Surface Detail also really stuck with me for its unique conflict & setting. It's about a war over the fates of people unwillingly uploaded into a simulation of hell after their deaths. With the soldiers being continually "reincarnated" back into different iterations of the same fight. Banks has a really unsettling edge to a lot of his stuff that is just barely kept out of view in a lot of the culture books, but this one he just lets it rip and it's very effective.
I started recently with Consider Phlebas and loved it. I then read Surface Detail (not sure why I read that next) and found it pretty disappointing and disjointed comparatively. I'm hoping more of the books are closer to Consider Phlebas as I read onwards.