Look to Windward (Iain M. Banks)

This was my first foray into Iain M. Banks's work and I really enjoyed it. The fact that the narrator of the book dies at the end of the prologue and the rest of the book is told in the 3rd person is just one of the neat tricks Banks employs to make for a really enjoying read. Like everyone else I know who's read Banks, I now really want to live in the Culture.

Another enjoyable visit to the Culture, if not as good as Excession, and without the impact of Use of Weapons