The
Culture series is a
science fiction series written by Scottish author
Iain M. Banks. The stories center on
the Culture, a
utopian society of
humanoids,
aliens, and very advanced
artificial intelligences living in semi-
anarchist habitats spread across the post-material-scarcity
Milky Way galaxy. The main theme of the novels is the dilemmas that an idealistic
hyperpower faces in dealing with civilisations that do not share its ideals, and whose behaviour it sometimes finds repulsive. In some of the stories, action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of, or non-members of, the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture plans to civilise the galaxy.