Well, apparently Clint didn't like Excession.

I will be the first to admit that Excession is not Banksie's best work. Especially if you're looking at the Culture Universe. It does tend to be a bit rambly. If you're going to start reading those, you should really start with Consider Phlebas. Very very good. Also, a good introduction would also be the Player of Games.

One of the things I love about Banksie. He creates this almost space utopia, akin in some ways to a leftist Federation as run by excentric robots, i.e. the Culture. And then, almost invariably, his main characters are either fighting against the Culture, or critical of it in some way.

Arguably outside of the Culture Universe, or at least the scope of the Culture Universe, is Against A Dark Background. Here's a brief synopsis:

"When the religious Huhsz cult attempts to get its hands on the Lazy Gun, the most deadly and enigmatic weapon constructed, Lady Sharrow, a former antiquities thief, sets out to stop the Huhsz."

At any rate, sorry if you didn't like it Clint. Thems the breaks.

In other news, Allen's website, Miniscule Wombat, is back up. Also, he's playing at the Hogs Ridge Holler 3 day electronic music festival thingee this Sunday. I won't be able to make it, since I didn't even know about the event until yesterday, so I couldn't get off work, but I wish I could go. 3 days of cool trance, techno and experimental ambient music. What's not to like?