Essential List of expansions?

[Diziet Sma]

I have never read a single line of Banks in my life.

You don't know what you're missing.. seriously..

(and that goes for his fiction, as well as his science fiction)

[Disembodied]

You don't know what you're missing.. seriously..

(and that goes for his fiction, as well as his science fiction)

A sentiment I can wholeheartedly endorse. Although all the Culture novels can easily stand alone, if anyone wants to start reading them I do think it's best to start at the beginning with Consider Phlebas, if only because it offers a sometimes ambivalent exterior perspective to the Culture. For his non-science fiction (definitions get tricky here because some of his supposedly "non-SF" is distinctly non-mainstream, like The Bridge, and some of it actually is SF by any sensible definition, like Transition), I think my favourite is probably Whit.

[Cody]

I too like The Bridge, but I think my favourite is Espedair Street.

[Diziet Sma]

Yes, I liked Espedair Street a lot.. and The Wasp Factory.

It should also be noted that not all his sci-fi novels are Culture novels..

Feersum Endjinn is probably my favourite non-Culture sci-fi novel, though The Algebraist is right up there too.

(Here's a funny thought for you.. imagine somebody trying to translate Bascule's narrative in Feersum Endjinn into any other language.. )

[hedfulofspidrs]

I was a Banks fan, but his last few efforts felt a tad flat. Will keep a lookout for the Culture names.

Agree that Feersum Endjinn was the best. Excession was also a good'un. Wasp Factory was a hoot.

[hedfulofspidrs]

FYI: Oolite blog post published, as promised:

http://bit.ly/IoiHWv

[Gimbal Locke]

My set of essential expansions, in the sense that the game feels incomplete without them:

- Deep Space Pirates by Eric Walch
- Total Patrol by Cmdr. McLane
- Sun skimmers by Dr. Nil

The above add life away from the main spacelane. I installed them very early when I was harmless: it makes the game a little bit more difficult, but Cmdr. Jameson can handle it.



@hedfulofspidrs: nice blog post, maybe we need a dedicated thread to submit links to articles on Oolite all over the web (or perhaps there already is such a thread waiting to be necroed)?

[hedfulofspidrs]

Thanks for the suggestions Gimbal - especially for Deep Space Pirates. The game is bit too easy when avoiding spacelanes.