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Excession

Culture Series, Book 5

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Excession

Written by: Iain M. Banks
Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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About this listen

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.

Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared.

It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared.

Now it is back.

Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the spoiled-brat operative Ulver Seich, and faced with the systematic depravities of a race who call themselves the A­ffront, it's anyone's guess whether he'll succeed . . .

The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

©1996 Iain M. Banks (P)2013 Hachette Digital Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction

What the critics say

"Gripping, touching and funny." (TLS)

"A dizzying adventure." (Daily Mail)

"Explosive but tender." (Sunday Times)
All stars
Most Relevant
Peter Kenney does a great job of delivering Banks' Culture books, though I have never read them before. I feel like he delivers the narrative in a way that brings the world to life, I could live without some of his higher pitch drone voices, but it does do well to differentiate characters.
As for the story, I do not think I will ever be able to approach sci-fi the same again after listening to the Culture series. Even on the most basic of concepts, Banks delivers not only what one might expect but far more, and more often than not in such an imaginative way.

Amazing story and performance

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Less cerebral than some of his other works but also funnier. The Culture is a paradise but humans (and machine minds) easily tilt towards militarism when the unknown presents itself in the form of an « Excession ». The grand overall scale mixed with personal viewpoints render the whole experience very entertaining and interesting. Highly recommended. The Narrator does a very good job.

Great fun.

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Peter Kenny’s narration makes all the Bank’s novels so engaging and so much fun. I love all his work. He’s so animated

Great.

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Made my road trip far more endurable, basically only stopped listening to sleep. I really liked how it expanded on the culture world building, but also it would be a fine book in the series to start with.

Exactly what I was looking for

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Peter Kenny is a great narrator and really brings the Culture to life.

This was a fun story, which involved so many more Culture ships, Minds, and their interactions compared to previous entries. You get a much better picture of what the Culture is, and how unimportant humans are, although they still can be.

Fun Culture Tale, Great Narration

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