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Strangely, whilst I love his Iain Banks books, I have never really enjoyed his Iain M. Banks books. I only read a couple, so maybe I should try them again.

He is an awesome writer. Possibly the best uk sci fi writer of all time. It's a sad day.

Incidentally, someone mentioned above that consider phlebas was the first book. It was only the first published. I was at a talk with banks last year, and he stated that player of games was the first book he wrote. It just wasn't published first.

Anyway, IMO, all his sci fi, and his non sci fi are terrific stories. You could do worse than read them all, one after the other.

You could start with either Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games. All the other books can be placed in sequence later on an identifiable timeline. I don't think The Player is identifiable on that timeline but I could be wrong.