So, back to the Culture re-read. I kind of moved off it because I knew this one was next and I am always being told it is the best Culture novel. I didn't want to re-read it and find my previous impression of 'it's decent, but not the best' to be confirmed. And lo and behold, that's exactly what happened.
The themes of this one are the futility of searches for redemption and the futility of war. Pretty strong stuff and they come across very strongly in the book, provoking some thoughtful musing.
The Culture is Bank's so-called utopian society. Wilfully misinterpreted by deranged billionaires everywhere. For example, Banks is clear its the AI's that call the shots in the Culture and the humans are largely kept as pets. This book holds somewhat as a dark mirror up to the Culture as it is told from the perspective of one of the catspaws they use to nudge other Cultures towards the path of 'good'. There is an excellent riff on the fact that the Culture's interventionism always seems to nudge other societies towards becoming clones of the Culture. A very pointed jibe at colonialism.
I don't find this a 5 star book because there were, yet again, a few sequences of body horror that I just skip through. Not from squeamishness or anything, just because they are a little long and boring and a tad irrelevant in my opinion.
That's not to take away from the book as a whole, its a very strong '4.5' ish book, that I tore through in a day or so. I am highly unlikely to rate a Culture book as anything less than a strong recommend but this one the best? Not for me.