Challenge yourself with the best Iain Banks books and receive a masterclass in complex worldbuilding, coupled with mindblowing narrative style, page after page.

The following list of the best Iain Banks books is sure to provide science fiction lovers with new titles for their TBR list. 

Iain Banks (1954-2013) wrote mainstream fiction and science fiction. He became known in the science fiction world through his pseudonym, Iain M. Banks, with the novel Consider Phlebas, published in 1987. In short Ian Banks and Iain M.Banks are the same person.

Banks’ science-fiction novels, particularly the 10-book Culture series, have amassed a cult following throughout the years and constantly received critics’ praise. According to his official website, Banks was dubbed “the most imaginative novelist of his generation” by The Times, while The Guardian called him “the standard by which the rest of SF is judged.”

If you enjoy our list, check out our list of the best authors like Iain M. Banks.

More than other science fiction writers, Banks was not afraid of taking public political stances. He was a supporter of Scottish independence, and in 2004 campaigned to impeach UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The same fire and passion for social issues can be found in his science fiction books, coupled with well-built moral dilemmas and astonishing, unexpected plots. 

“The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn’t.”

Iain M. Banks

In April 2013, Banks revealed that he was suffering from late-stage cancer, and died the following June, leaving an enormous gap in contemporary science fiction. For more, read our guide to the best science fiction authors.

Best Iain Banks Books Ranked

1. Consider Phlebas

Consider Phlebas introduces the Culture, a society that mixes humanity and machinery, locked in a galactic war with the religious Idirans for its very existence. The action revolves around an advanced AI called the Culture Mind, lost on a dangerous planet ruled by a powerful race of aliens uninvolved in the larger war. The Culture has to rescue the mind before the Idirans destroy it. 

Breathtaking worldbuilding is the core of any good sci-fi, laying down a credible environment in which a story can unfold. It is precisely this that Iain M. Banks’ books do so well. Warring empires, desolate planets, fascinating alien races, and nail-biting action are offered to the readers in Consider Phlebas – and it’s only the first novel of a ten-book series!

If you’re wondering ​​do I need to read the Culture books in order, you can easily read different books from the series in any order, but Consider Phlebas represents an ideal entry point.

“Us with our busy, busy little lives, finding no better way to pass our years than in competitive disdain.”

Iain M. Banks

2. The Player of Games

Gurgeh is a master of Games, a philosopher, and a champion of the Culture. He is sent to a foreign empire to try a new, complex game. The winner is crowned as emperor. 

The Player of Games suffers from a slow start, but consolidates Banks’ Culture universe, and will certainly entice readers to look for more. Unlike Consider Phlebas, it describes the Culture itself, and colors in the parts left empty by the first novel of the series, making it an unskippable read for those delving deeper into Banks’ world. 

Political intrigue and moral dilemmas again mix with sex-shifting aliens and high-powered lasers in this Iain M. Banks classic. The author’s criticisms of the real world are also skillfully made through his storytelling, adding a thought-provoking bend to an adventure among the stars.

“A guilty system recognizes no innocents.” 

Iain M. Banks

3. The Algebraist

4034 AD. Humanity has managed to conquer the stars and has established a feudal hierarchy dominated by a hatred of AI. The hero of the novel, Fassin Taak, is sent to the court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, beings who inhabit gas giants and have extremely long lifespans. He must obtain their secrets to faster-than-light travel before the invading fleet of the marauding Beyonders arrives.

The Algebraist is a spy sci-fi novel that contains political and economic overtones. The plot envelops planets and peculiar alien species in a complex yet riveting manner, serving as proof of Banks’ incredible imagination. 

“I have a story to tell you. It has many beginnings, and perhaps one ending. Perhaps not. Beginnings and endings are contingent things anyway; inventions, devices. Where does any story really begin?”

Iain M. Banks

4. Against a Dark Background

Another standalone book, Against a Dark Background, takes place in a remote corner of the universe, in a system where technology was lost due to constant warring. The few technological artifacts that are left are highly prized, none more so than the so-called Lazy Gun. Sharrow, a warrior hunted by a fanatical religious sect, must find the Gun if she wants to survive. 

The story features quite a few flashback episodes which may disrupt the pacing for some readers. Those patient enough to read on and learn more about the hunt for the Gun will be rewarded with a generous, detailed space opera that picks up the pace toward the end.

Dark, humorous, and filled with interesting characters, the book enjoys a well-deserved spot on the list of the best Iain M. Banks books.

“People were always sorry. Sorry they had done what they had done, sorry they were doing what they were doing, sorry they were going to do what they were going to do; but they still did whatever it is.” 

Iain M. Banks

5. Excession

Excession revolves around another agent of the Culture, the diplomat Byr Genar-Hofoen, who is sent to investigate the disappearance of an old star. To fulfill his mission, he has to steal the soul of the starship captain who discovered the star, deal with a warlike alien fleet, and unmask a conspiracy spanning the galaxy and the Culture itself.

Iain M. Banks’ post-scarcity, AI-run society can bring fresh perspectives to the current debate surrounding AI. Hyper-AIs are more often than not the actors of the dialog in the book, which Banks chose to display as log records. Even still, he managed to portray them as funny, analytical, and entirely human in their differences. 

Challenging due to the author’s use of technical, hard sci-fi, Excession nevertheless adds more weight to the Culture series. 

“An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilizations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop.”

Iain M. Banks

6. Use of Weapons

The Culture’s spies are again the focus of another book in the series, Use of Weapons, published in 1990. The action revolves around Cheradenine Zakalwe, one of the Culture’s best agents now awaiting retirement, hired to do one more job to further the human-machine society’s interests. Also central to the plot are a woman named Diziet Sma, and a drone called Skaffen-Amtiskaw.

It is not necessary to read the Culture series in order, but Use of Weapons would prove to be a difficult entry point, given its unusual structure and density. Still, in Banks’ classic style, chapter, and chapter, the pacing of the story picks up, and interwoven storylines and brilliant character-building lead to an unexpected conclusion. 

Rich in adventure, but imbued with a compelling overarching narrative that will stay with the reader for much longer after reading, Use of Weapons is a crowning achievement for the sci-fi genre and a must-read.

“I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.”

Iain M. Banks

7. Look to Windward

At the end of the Idiran War, the losing Idirans caused two suns to explode, killing entire planets full of life. 800 years later, the light of the explosion will reach the Culture-controlled world of Masaq in a cosmic commemoration of the terrible event. 

On the ground of Masaq, Major Quilan seeks to bring a genius dissident, Composer Ziller, back to their homeworld of Chel after a terrible war. The latter thinks Quilan seeks to kill him. His mission, however, has a much deeper significance. 

A Culture novel through and through, Look to Windward takes a darker look at the Culture, which is at this point in the series nearing the limits of its far-reaching powers. 

“There’s an old Sysan saying that the soup of life is salty enough without adding tears to it.”

Iain M. Banks

8. Matter

At the heart of Matter is the story of three siblings locked in a search for power and each other. The sister, Djan Seriy Anaplian, is a spy for the Culture tasked with interfering with other, alien civilizations. Faced with a new mission, she has to return to a place long forgotten. 

Banks pushes the limits of science-fiction and imagination in Matter, putting the reader face to face with unexpected mysteries, not to mention twists and turns in every chapter. Artificial worlds, evolved alien species, early-industrial feudal societies, and gods populate the world of the book, each one a tiny part of a power struggle. 

More violent and war-centered, the novel is thoroughly entertaining and never lets up, especially when compared to some of Banks’ other slow-burners that pick up the pace toward the end. All in all, the book is a sci-fi tour de force. 

“In life you hoped to do what you could but mostly you did what you were told and that was the end of it.”

Iain M. Banks

9. The Hydrogen Sonata

Published in 2013, The Hydrogen Sonata takes place on a space station orbiting the interior of a planet. An ancient civilization is preparing to ascend to a higher plane, and the Culture feels duty-bound to help them. The High Command is destroyed before that can happen and Vyr Cossont, a lieutenant commander, is blamed and wanted dead. She has to race to uncover what happened almost 10,000 years ago before she’s killed or exiled.

The Hydrogen Sonata is a masterful end to a glorious space opera series and does not disappoint fans in any way. The novel deals with death and immortality, and Banks wrote it just before he died, by all accounts knowing he was going to. 

“One should never mistake pattern for meaning.”

Iain M. Banks

10. Surface Detail

Banks is unmatched in his ability to extract the grander world from the individual level. In Surface Detail, he begins with Lededje Y’breq, whose body is marked with symbols of shame and whose life belongs to a power-hungry man. She asks a Culture warship for aid but ends up in the middle of a simulated war in the digital realm that threatens to spill into the real world.

The plot of Surface Detail is made clear from the get-go, allowing the reader to ease into the adventure as a knowledgeable observer. Political machinations and a struggle between diverging ideas abound in this more philosophical of Iain M. Banks’ books, putting it on our list.

“All you ever were was a little bit of the universe, thinking to itself. Very specific; this bit, here, right now.”

Iain M. Banks