[arethuza]

I wouldn't recommend starting with Use of Weapons - it is probably the best Culture novel but it took me a few readings to really appreciate it.

Edit: As far as I recall, Banks originally created the Culture as a background for the protagonist of UoW - the ultimate warrior:

"The method was that taking and bending of materials and people to one purpose, the outlook that everything could be used in the fight; that nothing could be excluded, that everything was a weapon, and the ability to handle those weapons, to find them and choose which one to aim and fire; that talent, that ability, that use of weapons."