The novels are all set in different years, around different main characters, but they are set in the same universe. 33:12. My Gemmy Pop Culture Series Characters Collection~Jobeanvideos PART 1 by Gemmy Master Animatronics. My Gemmy Pop Culture Series Characters Collection! (OLD) Original Video The Culture is a series of novels (and some short stories) by Iain M. Banks which share a common setting, the civilization known as The Culture.. “The Culture” series written by Scottish author Iain M. Banks are science fiction novels. There are both novels and stories as well. Consider Phlebas (1987); The Player of Games (1988, typically considered the best introduction to the series); Use of Weapons (1990); The State Of The Art (1991) A collection of short fiction, some of it set in The Culture universe. Special Circumstances (SC for short) is a subset of Contact that assigns itself the handling of unusual, tricky, secret, or otherwise "special" situations. The novels stand alone that can be read in any order. Generally viewed with a mixture of contempt and admiration by the Culture at large, SC does the dirtiest and bloodiest work that the Culture (in SC's opinion) needs doing. The Culture is a fictional interstellar post-scarcity civilisation or society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and features in a number of his space opera novels and works of short fiction, collectively called the Culture series..