The Culture is Iain M. Banks' sci fi masterpiece - a futuristic society where benevolent AI minds provide humans whatever life they choose. Across the nine books you explore the Culture through their interactions, conflicts, and meddling with other space-faring civilizations. When the series is at its best it's full of action and adventure, and once the dust settles you're left with some extremely interesting ideas about what it means to be happy and have agency in a utopian society.

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As always, no spoilers until the end when we get into the full plot explanation and discussion.

Similar books we recommend: 

• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
• The Salvation Sequence by Peter F. Hamilton
• Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

This episode is sponsored by Moonrising by Claire Barner, published by Simon and Schuster and available here.

If you want to jump around, here are the timestamps for the episode:  

• 00:00 Intro 
• 1:04 What is The Culture? 
• 4:13 Which book should you read first? 
• 12:21 Why do billionaires love this series so much? 
• 14:44 Iain M. Banks tragic early death 
• 17:23 References to the romantic poets 
• 20:31 Similar books we recommend 
• 22:56 SPOILERS SECTION - PLAYER OF GAMES 
• 32:35 SPOILERS SECTION - USE OF WEAPONS 
• 42:04 The Culture as nation builders

In addition to ranking the six nominees, we also talk about four more amazing books that deserve to be in contention for the best speculative fiction novels of the year.

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This episode is sponsored by Doppelgänger: An Orphan, A Prodigy, and a Murder by Chip Walter. A computer scientist awakens in a robotic body—next to his own murdered corpse, with only 72 hours to stop a conspiracy that threatens the human race. William Shatner calls it “quite a ride.” Learn more at chipwalter.com/

If you want to jump around, here are the timestamps for all the books we talked about: 

• 00:00 Intro
• 1:26 Episode Sponsor - Doppelgänger by Chip Walter
• 2:03 6 - A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
• 4:58 5 - The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
• 7:51 4 - Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
• 9:12 3 - Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• 12:49 - Four more great books that deserved a nomination
• 22:36 2 - Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• 27:15 1 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

In addition to ranking all the nominees, we talk about why the entire shortlist this year was all fantasy, no sci-fi. 

This episode is sponsored by The Boy, the Cube, and the Elf by Brent Golembiewski, which is available in print or kindle edition here

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If you want to jump around, here are the timestamps for all the books we talked about: 

• 00:00 Intro
• 1:50 Episode Sponsor - The Boy, The Cube, and the Elf
• 2:21 #6 - Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
• 6:33 #5 - Sleeping Worlds Have no Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov
• 10:42 #4 - The Book of Love by Kelly Link
• 15:28 Why are all the nominees fantasy?
• 18:46 #3 - Asunder by Kerstin Hall
• 23:22 #2 - A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
• 27:53 #1 - Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

As sci-fi lovers who are looking to read more fantasy we could not be more excited to know what's good. Thanks to all y'all Hugonauts who filled out the survey, this list rocks. And a special thank you to Gordon Burroughs for joining us as our resident expert on the books we haven't read, plus for putting the whole survey together in the first place!

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If you want to jump around, here are the timestamps for all the books / series we talked about: 

• 00:00 Intro
• 2:58 Novel #10 - The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
• 6:11 Series #10 - The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
• 7:57 Novel #9 - Babel by R.F. Kuang
• 10:30 Series #9 - The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
• 13:33 Novel #8 - The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
• 15:40 Series #8 - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• 19:18 Novel #7 - The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
• 21:20 Series #7 - Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
• 23:50 Novel #6 - A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
• 25:37 Series #6 - Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• 28:16 Novel #5 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• 30:36 Series #5 - The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson
• 34:18 Novel #4 - The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
• 37:18 Series #4 - The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin
• 38:38 - Our 3 favorites that didn't make the list
• 43:46 Novel #3 - The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• 46:19 Series #3 - Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
• 47:37 Novel #2 - Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
• 50:04 Series #2 - The Dark Tower by Stephen King
• 53:55 Novel #1 - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• 55:32 Series #1 - The Lord of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

As always, no spoilers until the end when we do our plot explainer and discussion.

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Similar books we recommend: 

• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
• Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers

That said, there are some problems with this book too, which made this a fun one to talk about - Brent liked it a lot more than Cody did. Plus, love em or hate em, Asimov thought up some very alien aliens.

As always, no spoilers until the end when we get into the full plot explanation and discussion. 

NEW THRU 2025-05-15: Fill out our listener survey to tell us your favorite fantasy novels and series, and see them covered in an episode soon!

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Similar books we recommend: 

• The Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov
• The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
• The Expanse by James S.A. Corey

If you like gritty cyberpunk settings, a page-turning, action-driven plot, and a lot of visceral explorations of violence and sexuality, this one's for you. If you're looking for deep characters, a carefully crafted plot, or philosophical ideas, this might not be your next read.

As always, no spoilers until the end when we get into the full plot explanation and discussion. 

This episode is sponsored by The Pythagorean by Alexander Morpheigh, which is available in print or kindle edition here.

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Similar books we recommend: 

• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway
• Permutation City by Greg Egan

Solid characters, amazing worldbuilding, and an epic plot that will keep you interested all the way through (and that's no mean feat in such a long book). If you've been thinking about trying out Peter F. Hamilton this is the right place to start.

As always, no spoilers until the end when we get into the full plot explanation and discussion. 

This episode is sponsored by The Pythagorean by Alexander Morpheigh, which is available in print or kindle edition here.

• Join the Hugonauts book club on discord!
• Or you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video

Similar books we recommend: 

• The Salvation Series, Void Trilogy, and Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
• The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks
• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

Ann is also the author of Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, Translation State, Provenance (all set in her Imperial Radch universe), and the excellent stand-alone fantasy novel The Raven Tower.

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We talked with Ann about: 

• 1:12 Becoming a writer later in life
• 5:06 The inspiration for the Radch and Ancillary Justice
• 7:48 Creating a gender-less empire
• 12:43 Writing from the POV of an AI
• 16:56 Invisible exposition
• 20:26 Space opera inspired by the real world
• 26:16 Audiobooks and pronunciation
• 34:14 Will we get to see inside the Radch Dyson sphere?
• 35:49 Recent books Ann likes and her influences
• 42:22 Blurbing Murderbot
• 44:16 Ann's next book is set on a rogue planet!

We also each rank our top three first contact books at the end of the episode.

This episode is sponsored by The Pythagorean by Alexander Morpheigh, which is available in print or kindle edition here.

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All the books in the episode (with YT links to those we've got full episodes on, or search for them in your podcast app): 

• Contact by Carl Sagan
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
• Embassytown by China Miéville
• Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky Brothers
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• Blindsight by Peter Watts
• The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
• Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
• The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu