An emergency responders History of Culture on a medieval world and backlog. Culture is never mentioned specifically, but we recognize the powers, weapons and especially the attitude of the two agents totally immersed in two states at war against each other. It's very well written, the characters are deep and alive, the description of the medieval world is very fascinating, as always with Banks with discrete but clear political comments. It plunges with delight. A must read, but maybe not first. Familiarity with all codes introduced in the novels of the cycle of Culture is very much in the interest of this novel one.
