Iain M Banks is perhaps one of the most singularly creative writers of science fiction working today. His works have breadth—reading one will not spoil the others. He has no formula, except one that calls from grandiose settings, spectacular vistas, and intense, original plots.

Look to Windward is a very fine novel in the Culture universe—an extrapolation of social democracy onto a vast interstellar scale, speculation about sentience, and exploration of abundance. The novel itself tells the story of Mahrai Ziller, an exiled composer and the events leading up the first peformance of his latest symphony. Vast conspiracies, interstellar intrigue, spectacular megafauna, and wondrous lifestyles involve themselves in the happenings.

I am thoroughly satisfied with the book, but I would neither call it the best of the Culture novels nor one you should necessarily start with. Myself, I started with the sublime Use of Weapons, though Consider Phlebas or Player of Games would also do well in that role. Banks’ latest, The Algebraist, is one of his best and a good place to start, but it’s set in a universe of its own.

Having said that, I still recommend Look to Windward. It’s every bit as fantastic as it should be.