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The most popular reviews in /r/TheCulture:
Physical is £6.99 on amazon.
Virtual is $9.99 on the Googles.
These numbers are the same* number.
*or, close enough, and certainly not a 3x difference; in fact, the physical may even be cheaper, in this instance (I cba to x0.7 to check)
Edit: insanely, it's $14 for paperback in the US amazon, which makes zero sense to me. No wonder nobody in your country can read. This still isn't 3x $9.99 though. And! There are used ones for cheaper, although given your finnecky statements about DRM, I'd imagine you're not down for that.
It simulates the entire universe at a 1:1 scale. Where we don’t have data yet it procedurally generates. All of the locations in the universe we do know of are there, and accessible.
I am not big into fanfic but I have read 2
One is this Culture/BSG cross over. Very well done I think. Be careful because it doesn't finish.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4190427/1/A-Day-in-the-Life
The other is a Culture/40k crossover. Also good, but very long and still ongoing (I think). You do need to know some 40k for it to make sense.
Found this on Amazon. The tracklist is included in the review and has some interesting songs: 1 -The Waterboys Don't Bang The Drum 2 -David Bowie Hereos 3 -Dreadzone Little Britain 4 -Warren Zevon The Factory 5 -Neneh Cherry Man Child 6 -Peter Tosh Get Up, Stand Up 7 -Devo Satisfaction 8 -Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant 9 -Radiohead Karma Police 10 -Jethro Tull For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me 11 -Kirsty MacColl Walking Down Madison 12 -Magazine Shot By Both Sides 13 -Horse Careful 14 -Martha And The Muffins Echo Beach 15 -The Ruts Babylon's Burning 16 -Ivor Cutler Unexpected Join 17 -Tasmin Archer Sleeping Satellite 18 -Richard Thompson 1952 Vincent Black Lightning 19 -Afro Celt Sound System Dark Moon, High Tide 20 -Mike Scott Love Anyway
I think a model replica could be made on a small scale using those levitaing globe lamps (example link to amazo, hope it doesn't get tagged as spam: https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Levitation-Floating-Fixture-Boyfriend/dp/B088FJRK8P).
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However, I think the biggest issue is that there's too little fan art of everything culture related, which probably has to do with how little "canon" representations are there. Maybe if we ever get the promised book with Banks drawings (don't get your hopes too high though) or a series/movie people will start getting more creative.
The Marain subreddit took a hit with the departure of one of its major supporters.(ulinuxmakhnovite321)
But on the more general topic of getting conlangs built and used, I heartily recommend this:
In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius
https://www.amazon.ca/Land-Invented-Languages-Adventures-Linguistic/dp/0812980891
It's an absolute hoot. Covers the usual suspects Esperanto, Lojban, Panglossa and the like, but also describes much much stranger conlangs and their authors.
Recommended.
I am not big into fanfic but I have read 2
One is this Culture/BSG cross over. Very well done I think. Be careful because it doesn't finish.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4190427/1/A-Day-in-the-Life
The other is a Culture/40k crossover. Also good, but very long and still ongoing (I think). You do need to know some 40k for it to make sense.
Are you looking for the Orbit versions?
I think this is the closest style available. The sizing is a bit smaller (same with Look to Windward and Inversions fwiw)
But it does have a matching Orbit on the spine:
The Quantum Magician by Derek Kunsken and the next two novels in that series scratched that itch for me. Slightly harder SciFi but fun concepts and characters. The first novel is a bit of an Oceans Eleven in space (everyone says this and it’s true) but it’s not cheesy at all. I never re-read books and I did with this series.
Interesting. Mine wasn’t published as “M”.
Did a quick search and it appears to exist under both:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transition-Iain-Banks/dp/034913927X/ref=nodl_
Of all the usual apps? Probably spotify, since it lets you listen from oldest-to-newest and has other convenience features. Here's the link
I imagined the aliens from war of the worlds in miniature
Even though it has no basis in canon
I asked OP for where they ordered the set from (because I haven't been able to find all 10 in one set or this cheap before) and they very kindly sent me this link https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/9123690976/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_M2HJRFMWMKZPFVE6XG0A?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
I have that edition - from the Amazon description, it’s: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches.
It’s gotten expensive!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597800740/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Perhaps in this book?
From what I can tell it seems to have been delayed until October 2021 though.
There is supposed to be a book coming out of Banks' Culture sketches and drawings, although it keeps getting delayed.
AFAIK none of his drawings have ever been published so I don't know how good or bad his illustrations are.
I admit that I haven't actually read Fully Automated Luxury Communism--it's on my bookshelf; I'll get to it eventually--but my impression is that the ideology the phrase describes is very much represented by the Culture. Whether FALC / FALGSC is itself technically a form of communism is another question, but sometimes that's just how language works, especially when it comes to describing socio-political theories. "National Socialism" isn't particularly socialist either, but that's just what it's called.
I don't know what country you're in but in the US version of Amazon.com there's mass-market paperback versions available starting at $7.99 https://www.amazon.com/Excession-Iain-M-Banks/dp/0553575376
I don't know about Kindle versions, I think those get tricky because some publishers / authors don't like allowing digital copies. Not sure where Mr. Banks stood on the issue when he was still with us.
Rare books are worth a lot of money. There wouldn't be a "going rate" unless a copy has been sold recently. A collector may pay thousands for it.
For comparison here is a hard to get book by a far less popular author
The art book was supposed to come out in 2019 or the start of 2020: but now it’s been delayed to the end of 2020.
I hate amazon as much as anyone, but here’s their link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Culture-Drawings-Iain-M-Banks/dp/0356512126
WTF are you talking about? https://www.amazon.com/State-Art-Culture-Ian-Banks/dp/1857230302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532382176&sr=8-1&keywords=state+of+the+art+iain+banks
You're gonna have to grit your teeth and buy a physical book. The radio play is on youtube for the main novella as well.
You're talking out of your ass because you want an excuse to hate rich people.
If you knew the first thing about seasteading you'd know that some of the biggest influencers in the field are primarily motivated by the idea of floating hospitals unbeholden to any nation and therefore free to treat the impoverished. Floating hospitals and research centers just out of sovereign territory of a 'host' nation! You don't even know why that would be so fantastic, you saw a wealthy person's name attached to the concept and want to assume it can only be motivated by spite. Don't you think that's sad?
I strongly recommend a look through this book. All the technologies that are coming together to make seasteading a viable lifestyle (if a pioneering one at first) are beneficial to all of mankind. The book touches upon technologies that can reverse global warming, solve hunger and nutrition, clean our water, make energy out of pollution and garbage, and cure disease. Even if you genuinely are so petty as to believe people with money are cartoonish, Captain Planet tier supervillains, they will get richer from making these technologies available at affordable costs!
You don't even have to believe anyone involved in seasteading is a seraphim descended from on high to save us from ourselves, you just have to believe they want money and a sustainable world to live in with it. As is, you sound clinically paranoid.
(Meant to post this as a reply apols)
Yes, You may be right and I may be wrong.
But these changes are happening regardless - so I think it's worth following through the arguments, specifics and potential policies we might like to see enacted so that it works out for the best.
You know, we should think like Contact and formulate views and express them to the outside world.
Funnily enough companies right now are struggling with the concept of zero margin business. See Amazon/Wholefoods as a small example.
Or this : https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Marginal-Cost-Society-Collaborative/dp/1137280115
Rifling has a good website that explains tech and 'the end of capitalism' and how it all might work out.
And the concept of a Universal Basic Income is related to this. Or as workers are displaced by robots - perhaps giving ownership shares to all workers past and present.
These topics strike me as best considered with a Culture mindset and a Contact practicality. What society should we aim for and what should we do to achieve that?
I just realized something. Everyone on this subreddit IS Contact...
Yes, You may be right and I may be wrong.
But these changes are happening regardless - so I think it's worth following through the arguments, specifics and potential policies we might like to see enacted so that it works out for the best.
You know, we should think like Contact and formulate views and express them to the outside world.
Funnily enough companies right now are struggling with the concept of zero margin business. See Amazon/Wholefoods as a small example.
Or this : https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Marginal-Cost-Society-Collaborative/dp/1137280115
Rifling has a good website that explains tech and 'the end of capitalism' and how it all might work out.
And the concept of a Universal Basic Income is related to this. Or as workers are displaced by robots - perhaps giving ownership shares to all workers past and present.
These topics strike me as best considered with a Culture mindset and a Contact practicality. What society should we aim for and what should we do to achieve that?
I just realized something. Everyone on this subreddit IS Contact...