Jim said:
Do you think Banks actually *likes* the Culture? That is, the couple of his Culture books I've read have generally shown the nasty underside of his outwardly Utopian society.
I think that in his early books, Banks was unusually honest about the underpinnings of his utopia, both in terms of its occasional disregard for individuals in favour of more statistical improvements and of its economy being based essentially on magical free energy. Unfortunately, some of the later ones seem to have somewhat diluted that honesty or at least shifted the focus somewhat.
I'm pretty sure he'd choose the Culture over almost any other conceivable society though.
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