Iain M Banks’ latest Culture novel is a tale of conspiracy, deception and eccentricity. So, Iain, we asked, what’s it all about?

Outside Context Problem

The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the…

Feb 23, 2015 1

• colonialism
• culture
• imperialism