I'm just re-reading Excession, which I'm enjoying a lot. In a way it's the least 'plotty' IMB novel I've read so far; it's more of a "let's throw this pebble in the pond and see what ripples it makes" book, but since the ripples are very intriguing, I don't mind at all. I recently read Feersum Endjin, which I enjoyed too, although as is often the case with me and IMB, I usually read the ending and feel that I didn't really fully get it.

Excession's probably the best introduction to the Culture. The leet sections of Feersum Endjinn were hard to slog through.

Firefly fans, I recommend you try Banks's Against a Dark Background, this was the kind of story Joss Whedon was aiming for in Firefly: character-driven, heartbreaking, unforgettable sf.

To me, the Culture always seemed like a bunch of petulant spoiled brats, acting out because they don't have boundaries. I keep thinking this is not how an empowered spacefaring civilization would play out, in a wish-fulfillment universe where technology triumphs over Murphy's Law. And esthetically Banks gets it, so the Culture's threatened in Excession and in Look to Windward. If you create Superman, you have to create kryptonite, otherwise the story's got nowhere to go.

In Matter you start to see the real shape of things: the regular Culture is the common rabble kept amused with bread and circuses, Contact is the working, productive middleclass, Special Circumstances are the elite. George Orwell stands firm, we'll always have the High, the Middle, and the Low, no matter what.

I've just read Consider Phlebas and am now about 1/3 of the way through Look to Windward. Good stuff, but Excession is still my favorite.