Kenneth Hindle-May answers “Can you read this book if you have not...”

Katerina asked this question about Matter (Culture, #8):

Can you read this book if you have not read any of the other books in this series? I'm not a sci-fi reader, but this book was especially recommended to me because of the female character and I'm a bit averse to reading 7 other books just to get to this one, might catch up on the other ones though, if I enjoy this one. Thank you :-)

Kenneth Hindle-May There's never really any continuity between the Culture books, to speak of. They do, however, chart the Culture's changing status within the galactic …moreThere's never really any continuity between the Culture books, to speak of. They do, however, chart the Culture's changing status within the galactic hierarchy. If you read the novels out of order it might seem a bit strange to go from a galaxy where the Culture are only one of a number of roughly equal powers (like in this one), to one of the earlier ones where they are the Big I Am and more powerful than anyone. It won't get in the way of the plot in any way, though.

Use of Weapons and Inversions also feature women as one of their two primary POV characters. The two books following this one, Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata, both have female protagonists as well, though neither of them are proper members of the Culture.(less)

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