Sign In Join Now
User Accessibility
  • Increase Font

  • Invert Colours

Search for a Book Browse Books Menu
Excession Cover Play Sample

Sample may contain unsuitable content.

Open Audiobook

Audiobook streaming provided by:

OverDrive Logo

Share this book:

Excession

AuthorIain M. Banks

NarratorPeter Kenny

SeriesThe Culture, Book 5

Duration15h 55m

CategoriesAdult Fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy

PublisherLittle, Brown

VersionUnabridged

  Save to Wish List
  Add to Favourites List

Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back. Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the spoiled-brat operative Ulver Seich, and faced with the systematic depravities of a race who call themselves the A­ffront, it's anyone's guess whether he'll succeed . . .

5 (1 Review)
0
0
0
0
1

Ged 12 Apr 2025

Just incredible

Iain M Banks was a genius visionary of new sci-fi, the culture books are so good it hurts my heart and mind that 10 is all we got. They are all incredible in unique ways. Give each care and attention and they’ll give you more than can imagine.

Related Titles

The Player of Games Cover

The Player of Games

Author: Iain M. Banks

The Player of Games

Author Iain M. Banks

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Culture, Book 2

Duration 11h 27m

The Culture - a utopian human-machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many expert Game Players, and one of the greatest is Jernau Morat Gurgeh. He is Master of every board, computer and strategy - he is The Player of Games. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the cruel and incredibly wealthy Empire of Azad to try their infamous game . . . a gam...

View Book
The Witcher Book 8: Seasons of Storms Cover

The Witcher Book 8: Seasons of Storms

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

The Witcher Book 8: Seasons of Storms

Author Andrzej Sapkowski

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Witcher, Book 8

Duration 11h 45m

Geralt. The witcher whose mission is to protect ordinary people from the monsters created with magic. A mutant who has the task of killing unnatural beings. He uses a magical sign, potions and the pride of every witcher - two swords, steel and silver. But what would happen if Geralt lost his weapons? Andrzej Sapkowski returns to his most popular he...

View Book
Rivers of London Book 8: False Value Cover

Rivers of London Book 8: False Value

Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London Book 8: False Value

Author Ben Aaronovitch

Narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

SeriesRivers of London, Book 8

Duration 11h 11m

Peter Grant is facing fatherhood and an uncertain future with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with ‚migr‚ Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner's brand-new London start-up - the Serious Cybernetics Company. Drawn into the orbit of Old Street's famous 'silicon roundabout', Peter must le...

View Book
Inversions Cover

Inversions

Author: Iain M. Banks

Inversions

Author Iain M. Banks

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Culture, Book 6

Duration 11h 27m

In the winter palace, the King's new physician has more enemies than she realises. But then she also has more defences than even her most hardened adversaries could imagine. In another palace, far across the mountains, sits the regicidal Protector General. His chief bodyguard also has enemies to worry about, with the threat of treachery and assassi...

View Book
The Hydrogen Sonata Cover

The Hydrogen Sonata

Author: Iain Banks

The Hydrogen Sonata

Author Iain Banks

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Culture, Book 10

Duration 17h

The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilisation. An ancient people, organised on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they'v...

View Book
The Witcher Book 2: Sword of Destiny Cover

The Witcher Book 2: Sword of Destiny

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

The Witcher Book 2: Sword of Destiny

Author Andrzej Sapkowski

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Witcher, Book 2

Duration 12h 53m

Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually...

View Book
The State of the Art Cover

The State of the Art

Author: Iain M. Banks

The State of the Art

Author Iain M. Banks

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Culture, Book 4

Duration 6h 21m

The State of the Art is the only collection of Iain M. Banks's short ­fiction and includes the acclaimed Culture novella of the same name. From science ­fiction to horror, dark fantasy to twisted comedy, all eight stories bear the inde­finable stamp of Banks's staggering talent.

View Book
Matter Cover

Matter

Author: Iain M. Banks

Matter

Author Iain M. Banks

Narrator Toby Longworth

SeriesThe Culture, Book 8

Duration 5h 33m

The intricate structure of a Shellworld - an arti­ficial planet of spheres-within-spheres - is matched only by the machinations of its inhabitants. On the eighth sphere of Sursamen, a man witnesses the murder of his father and flees, searching for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother, this means a life lived un...

View Book
Consider Phlebas Cover

Consider Phlebas

Author: Iain M. Banks

Consider Phlebas

Author Iain M. Banks

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Culture, Book 1

Duration 16h 25m

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. War rages across the galaxy. Billions have died, billions more are doomed. Moons...

View Book
A Scanner Darkly Cover

A Scanner Darkly

Author: Philip K. Dick

A Scanner Darkly

Author Philip K. Dick

Narrator Paul Giamatti

Duration 9h 15m

Substance D - otherwise known as Death - is the most dangerous drug ever to find its way on to the black market. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, leading first to disorentation and then to complete and irreversible brain damage. Bob Arctor, undercover narcotics agent, is trying to find a lead to the source of supply, but t...

View Book