A Gift from the Culture
"A Gift from the Culture", published in 1987, is a short work of space opera, by the Scottish science fiction author Iain M. Banks. The story is an early venture into the "complex and unusual and very distant" setting of the Culture, which Banks would further develop through various of full length novels, stories, and his essay "A Few Notes on the Culture".
Idiran–Culture War
The Idiran–Culture War is a major fictional conflict between the Idiran Empire and the Culture in the midst of which Iain M. Banks' science fiction novel "Consider Phlebas" is set. His later book, "Look to Windward", contains many references to the war: particularly the induced supernovae of two stars, which resulted in the deaths of billions of sentient creatures. References to the war can also be found in "Excession", "Matter", "The Player of Games", "Surface Detail", and "The Hydrogen Sonata".