A short story set in the Culture universe created by Iain M. Banks

But after this natural burst of indignation, no man of sense, courage, or prudence will waste his time or his strength in retrospective reproaches or repinings.
Robert Peel (1788 – 1850)

Retrospective State book cover For absolute clarity, let me state that this is a work of Fan Fiction. This story is set in the Culture universe, invented by the late Iain M. Banks as a setting for many of his wonderfully evocative works.

I have long found that the sheer breadth and scope of the Culture universe cries out for more stories to flesh out those areas where Mr. Banks did not find the time to explore before his untimely demise.

In Look to Windward, we learn that the Hub Mind of Masaq Orbital was once the Mind of a war-adapted General Service Vehicle called Lasting Damage during the Idiran War. This story explores more of the activities of GSVs during that terrible conflict.

As always, this work represents my own interpretation of the nature of Mr. Banks' universe and the individuals to be found therein; any errors of commission or omission are, of course, entirely my own.

Please feel free to read and comment by email on this story.

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Impact Analysis Book Cover My first Culture novel is called Impact Analysis. This story explores the lengths to which some Minds will go in order to test the Culture's own society.

Dark Matter Book Cover I have written a second novel set in the Culture universe created by Iain M. Banks. This one is called Dark Matter and examines the way in which the fractured and frequently secretive nature of the Culture's Minds sometimes plays out.

Unseen Footprints Book Cover I have started work on a third Culture novel. This one is provisionally entitled Unseen Footprints. This is still very much a work in progress: just a few draft chapters and lots of notes. More to follow soon.

Apart from being set in the same fictional universe, these three books share no characters or plot so they can all be read independently.


Galactic Recession Book Cover Phrontisterion Book Cover I have also written numerous other short stories set in Mr. Banks' Culture universe.

Phrontisterion explores the fate of a Group Mind composed mainly of rather grumpy retired Drones.

Butterfly Happiness Book Cover Unusual Circumstances Book Cover Galactic Recession is a story about an Eccentric Culture ship and its crew travelling to a galaxy far beyond our own.

Butterfly Happiness explores the attitude of the Culture to the Sublime.

On a Pale Horse, Darkly Book Cover Door Bell Book Cover Unusual Circumstances examines a time towards the very beginning of the Culture, and explores some of the politics and personalities involved.

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 Book Cover Never a Coincidence Book Cover On a Pale Horse, Darkly explores what happens when a deep sea diver is asked to help resolve a conflict of desires between Minds.

Never a Coincidence is a sequel to Unusual Circumstances and further investigates events at the very beginning of The Culture's existence.

Mind in the Making Book Cover

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.

Death and Paradise Book Cover Rocks and Stars Book Cover

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 Book Cover Letters to an Alien Book Cover

Artistic Expression explores what happens when the Culture is challenged by two powerful remnants of civilizations which have mostly Sublimed.

The Gaia Principle Book Cover

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.

Star Crossed Book Cover Beneath the Ice Book Cover

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 Book Cover Vivarium Orbital Book Cover

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.

Galactic Resurgence Book Cover

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.

Care and Feeding Book Cover

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 Book Cover Blimp City Blues Book Cover

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.

An Exodus of Dragons Book Cover

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.


Findo Gask: Goblin Detective book cover Findo Gask: Gumshoe Glamours book cover Findo Gask: Dragon Sleuth book cover Take a look at my series of hard-boiled fantasy novels featuring the eponymous underworld detective: Findo Gask: Goblin Detective, Findo Gask: Gumshoe Glamours and Findo Gask: Dragon Sleuth.

Four Square Less One Book Cover You may also like my collection of fifteen interlinked science fiction and fantasy short stories under the title Four Square Less One. Can you work out the connection between the stories?

New Bridge to Lyndesfarne Book Cover Bridge at War Book Cover Death on the New Bridge Book Cover Bridge of Stone and Magic Book Cover Also, look at my Lyndesfarne Bridge series of novels: New Bridge to Lyndesfarne, Bridge at War, Death on the New Bridge and Bridge of Stone and Magic.

Then a Miracle Occurs Book Cover I am now working on a second (and still growing) collection of short stories under the title ...Then a Miracle Occurs. An eclectic collection of science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance and ghost stories - often more than one at a time. Includes my all-time favourite short-short story Hearts and Flowers.