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 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
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
The Witcher Book 3: Blood of Elves Cover

The Witcher Book 3: Blood of Elves

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

The Witcher Book 3: Blood of Elves

Author Andrzej Sapkowski

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Witcher, Book 3

Duration 10h 54m

For more than a hundred years humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over and now the races once again fight each other. Into this tumultuous time is born a child for whom the witchers of the world have been waiting. Ciri, the granddaughter of Queen Calanthe, the Lioness of Ci...

View Book
The Choice Cover

The Choice

Author: Claire Wade

The Choice

Author Claire Wade

Narrator Emma Gregory

Duration 11h 55m

Imagine a world where.... Everything you ate was monitored by the government. Every step you took was counted. Your children were weighed every day at school. Neighbours reported on neighbours and no one was safe from judgement. Sugar was illegal, and baking was a crime. Imagine if that world was here.... What would you do? Toe the line or fight fo...

View Book
Howl's Moving Castle Cover

Howl's Moving Castle

Author: Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle

Author Diana Wynne Jones

Narrator Kristin Atherton

Duration 8h 57m

In the land of Ingary, where seven league boots and invisibility cloaks exist, young Sophie Hatter catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell....Deciding she has nothing more to lose, Sophie makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above her town, Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to...

View Book
Surface Detail Cover

Surface Detail

Author: Iain M. Banks

Surface Detail

Author Iain M. Banks

Narrator Peter Kenny

SeriesThe Culture, Book 9

Duration 20h 23m

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. The "War in Heaven", a simulated war game, rages between civilisations. Its virt...

View Book
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
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
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
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