Review: The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks

I always delay posting things like book reviews on my LJ, because I post so seldom I figure that people want to hear about my own life and not just media I'm consuming.  But then I get out of the habit of posting at all, so I figure this delaying is silly and if I feel like talking about something, I might as well.

I've recently (as of 3 months ago) been reading the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks.  A series starting with 1988's Consider Phlebas and continuing until 2008's Matter, the Culture novels are utopian science fiction about a galactic civilization that's a sort of libertarian commune of humans (well, humanoids), drones (autonomous robots; the word's used as a rough equivalent of Star Wars's "droid"), and Minds (hyperintelligent artificial intelligences.)

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