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

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Prologue
Willian Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

Star Crossed book cover To be quite clear from the beginning, 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 depth and scope of the Culture universe demands more stories to fill out those areas where Mr. Banks did not find the time to explore before his wastefully early death.

This is an attempt at a "slice of life" story set within the Culture universe, albeit with a certain left-field curve-ball thrown in.

There are many obvious references to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in this story.

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.

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.

Retrospective State Book Cover The Gaia Principle Book Cover

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.

Beneath the Ice Book Cover

Retrospective State explores more of the actions and responsibilities of Culture ships during the early part of the Idiran war.

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.

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.

An Exodus of Dragons Book Cover Beasts of the Deep Book Cover

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.

A new story called Beasts of the Deep is currently under development. This story is a direct sequel to On a Pale Horse, Darkly.


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.