5 stars indeed. A book I first read on publication (1998) stands up very well in 2022. I am wary, in these re-reads, of succumbing purely to nostalgia but this would definitely feel fresh to someone reading it for the first time now, I think.
Once again, this is Banks describing his utopia by defining its boundaries. In this case something far more powerful than they are. The titular Excession. It's about how the Culture (and other galactic 'cultures') respond to this.
This one I like because it mostly focusses on the Minds, the machine intelligences that are the core of the Culture. Banks obviously had a lot of fun composing the snark and bite with which they communicate. The line describing what an 'out of context' problem is, still made me laugh out loud as it has before.
This is really good 'high concept' science fiction that zips nicely along. This is Banks, so we are clearly drawing parallels to colonialism and toxic masculinity while having a swipe at that old rubbish 'The ends justify the means'.
Recommended. Yes, yes.