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Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action
Mr. Banks did not find the time, before his untimely demise, to fully explore the origins of the Culture in any of his books. Nevertheless, there are a few hints (in Excession and The Hydrogen Sonata, for example), as well as a short introduction to the history in A Few Notes on the Culture. This story is a further attempt to explore one small facet of the creation of the Culture and the forces at play driving that union. This story is a sequel to the events described in Unusual Circumstances. You might like to read that story before diving into this one. Phage: a combining form meaning “a thing that devours,” used in the formation of compound words. Please feel free to read and comment by email on this story.
Apart from being set in the same fictional universe, these three books share no characters or plot so they can all be read independently.
Phrontisterion explores the fate of a Group Mind composed mainly of rather grumpy retired Drones.
Butterfly Happiness explores the attitude of the Culture to the Sublime. Door Bell explores a meeting between a well-known author and an enigmatic visitor who seems to know more about the author's fiction than he does himself.
City of Glass follows the Contact section in action on a planet not entirely dissimilar to Earth, where some of the inhabitants have developed a curious denial of reality. Mind in the Making explores how new Culture Minds are created, and the activities of other Minds in supporting their development. 
Rocks and Stars follows the Culture's Quietudinal Service (Quietus) in action and explores what that organisation might do with the dead of other species. Death and Paradise is another story about the Culture's Quietus service and explores what happens when relics of the dead are found in a system where the Culture has started constructing a new Orbital. 
Artistic Expression explores what happens when the Culture is challenged by two powerful remnants of civilizations which have mostly Sublimed. Letters to an Alien introduces the Culture to a newly-Contacted society by means of letters between a young child and the local Culture representative. 
The Gaia Principle considers circumstances when the Culture's Contact section can - and cannot - intervene in the development of another society, regardless of how reprehensible the result might be. Retrospective State explores more of the actions and consequences of Culture ships during the early part of the Idiran war. 
Star Crossed is a slice-of-life story set in the Culture, albeit with a twist in the tale. Beneath the Ice explores how Culture Minds manipulate the presentation of data to minimise psychological damage both to individuals and to the society as a whole. 
Doing Enough explores more of the work of the Culture's Contact section and touches on the approaches which might be used to influence the development of more primitive civilizations where gross social inequalities remain. 
Vivarium Orbital examines the relationship between ordinary Culture citizens and the Minds which run their lives, and indeed the relationship with individuals from other species. 
Galactic Resurgence is a sequel to Galactic Recession and examines what happens when a large Culture craft arrives in a galaxy never before explored by the Culture. Care and Feeding is a story about life in the Culture, and how everyday life can sometimes be much more important than one might imagine. 
Recombinant Souls explores some of the implications of the Culture's ability to record, store and re-instantiate a person's mind-state, and what it might mean if there are two or more copies of an individual. 
Blimp City Blues describes the Culture's Contact section's approach to solving a crime on a gas giant planet when failure to do so might result in an inter-species war. A new story called An Exodus of Dragons explores the Culture's Contact section's interaction with a species living on a neutron star who think millions of times faster than humans.
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