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Consider Phlebas, Banks' first science fiction novel, is the first in a series of loosely connected novels about "the Culture", an intergalactic civilization comprised of many different humanoid species living on thousands of planets, starships, "Rocks" and "Orbitals". The ninth book involving the Culture, Surface Detail, will be released in October.

The novel opens with a short prologue. A lone Culture starship controlled by a "Mind" (an immensely advanced and intelligent AI) finds itself intercepted by enemies, and so the Mind abandons the ship and performs an extremely risky manoeuvre to prevent itself from falling into enemy hands. It ends up stuck on a largely deserted planet, which is controlled by a force that neither the Culture nor its enemies dare to antagonize or take on directly. As a result, both sides find themselves forced to use more subtle means to get their hands on this remarkably able Mind before their enemy gets to it.

Considering this starting point, and the fact that this novel is supposed to be the first "Culture" novel, it is rather surprising that the novel's protagonist, Horza, in fact turns out to be an agent of the Culture's enemies, the Idirans. With a ...

Stephen Fry is delightful. In part because Stephen Fry's writing is delightful. An autobiography on Stephen Fry should therefore be ... precisely. And it is. In a weird, sometimes slightly disturbing way.

This book deals with his experiences at school, his criminal tendencies, his sexual awakening and his first love. It starts on the train to boarding school and culminates in prison (which is apparently oddly like boarding school in a number of ways) and then the entrance to Cambridge.

Autobiographies have a habit of becoming either self-glorifying grand narratives inexorably driving the author towards his major achievements, or staid ...

The year is 1982. Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister, Duran Duran is at the top of the charts, and Britain is about to go to war with Argentina over some islands at the bottom of the world. Black Swan Green in Worcestershire, however, remains the same quiet place. According to 13-year-old Jason, it’s the deadest village in the world. But 1982 has a few surprises in store.

Black Swan Green, published in 2006, is ...