***WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK***This extraordinary collection celebrates the dazzling worldbuilding of Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.Faithfully reproduced from notebooks he kept in the 1970s and 80s, these annotated original illustrations depict the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks'' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.''Superb - well worth it for the hardcore fans. This is an incredibly well put-together collection of drawings, diagrams, notes and schematics from one of the all-time greats of science fiction and space opera. This book looks absolutely stunning and the quality is extraordinarily high. It was well worth the wait'' Waterstones bookseller review''The Culture: The Drawings pulls together his art work for the first time, and it''s clear he was a very good draughtsman. Maps of alien archipelagos. Sketches of spaceships and guns and castles and tanks . . . This isn''t an archive of ideas so much as the melting pot from which ideas came'' The Times''Banks was a dude who loved his whisky and his amateur draftsmanship has some of the character of cask spirit: raw and unrefined but heady and intoxicating'' Eurogamer''The Culture series is incredible and this book goes to show how the books could be so intricate and consistent. He designed the whole universe by hand'' Reader reviewPraise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday ''Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth'' New York Review of Science Fiction''Banks''s sci-fi, at its best, is staggeringly inventive, beautifully written, dramatic and often very funny. His stories are packed with ideas, warships with minds very much of their own, alien races, charismatic drones and intergalactic politics'' New Scientist ''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman ''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' GuardianThe Culture series: Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons The State of the Art Excession Inversions Look to Windward Matter Surface Detail The Hydrogen Sonata Other books by Iain M. Banks: Against a Dark Background Feersum Endjinn The Algebraist***Also, look out for the Deluxe ''Special Circumstances'' Edition of The Culture: The Drawings. This ultimate, limited collector''s edition includes an exclusive, numbered, cloth-bound edition of The Culture: The Drawings in a sumptuous presentation case, a booklet of original Culture-inspired artwork, specially commissioned 3D printing files and many other Culture-inspired features***