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".
Walking on Glass
Walking on Glass is the second novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1985. Banks wrote several more novels before his death in 2013, including several acclaimed science fiction novels that formed the Culture series.