Then Consider Phlebas was published - a full on science fiction novel that spanned vast distances, alien cultures, war and fantastically groovy technology. It was Banks first completed novel but it had languished unpublished until after the success of The Wasp Factory. It read like a first novel but it had one great idea. Banks proposed a vast galactic civilisation called The Culture. The book's metaphor was clear: western culture in space. But unlike Asimov, Clarke, or pulp writers like E.E. "Doc" Smith, Banks's future is a cynical, self-aware and avowedly ironic recreation of 1950s space opera.

In Consider Phlebas, The Culture loved its enemy - a monolithic, semi-fascistic mono-culture that stood in for the old Soviet Union. Nothing could stand in the way of a culture that absorbs and takes on as fashion everything that would defy it - either by simply being different or actively opposing it. Everything from communism to aboriginal cultures crumble in the face of a polymorphously perverse, insatiably curious conquest. Weapons are a last resort when you can offer your enemy the attractions of a free market economy.

Excession sees The Culture unopposed in the galaxy. Its citizens - humanoids, robots, artificially intelligent space craft, drones and self-aware weapons - are busily deciding how the lesser civilisations will develop, whether or not to contact one-cut-above-barbarism planets like Earth (State of the Art puts the time frame as 1978) and how to spend their copious free time. The Culture has achieved utopia - even dissension is catered for.

Then one day The Culture must deal with what is called an "Outside Context Problem." As Banks describes it:

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

Banks lines up a series of breathtakingly realised vignettes, weaving dramatic twists and turns into the narrative. In lesser hands (Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchet, please stand up), humour and irony begin to grate over several hundred pages, let alone over the 5 volume Culture series. It's a testament to Banks's talent that he manages to maintain both a high seriousness and a wicked sense of humour.

Which is not to say that Banks's writing is without fault. In a bizarre reversal of the problems usually encountered with sci-fi, Banks is a brilliant writer with vivid characterisation and artfully controlled detail. But his plotting could do with some badly needed focus. Interzone, the British science fiction magazine, is quoted on the back cover as saying "the story is vital and urgent and has a brilliantly subtle resolution." In truth, the conclusion of Excession is subtle to the point of being almost subliminal. That aside, Banks deserves his reputation as the saviour of contemporary science fiction.

Andrew Frost

Some references for the sci-fi enthusiast:

- John Clute, The Encyclopaedia of Fantasy (non-fiction) Sphere Orbit Legend 1 857233 68 9 RRP $100.00 [9781857233681]

- Clute & Nocholls, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (non-fiction) Sphere Orbit Legend 1857231244 RRP $100.00 [9781857231243]

- Collins et al, The Australian Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Melbourne Uni Press 0 522848 02 8 RRP $29.95 [9780522848021]

- Pringle, The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Carlton Books UK 1 858683 85 8 RRP $29.95 [9781858683850]