List of Culture ships

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This is a list of ships found in the Culture novels by Iain M Banks. Except where indicated, all ships in this list are members of the fictional society known as "the Culture".

Banks composed many of the Culture ships' names very carefully to express the attitude of the ship's Mind, and a few names contain puns where both meanings are appropriate to the ship's attitude. A few of the ship names are installments in running gags.

1 Common ship types
2 Consider Phlebas
3 The Player of Games
4 Use of Weapons
5 Excession
6 The State of the Art
7 Look to Windward
8 Guardian Interview
9 See also

[edit] Common ship types

[edit] Consider Phlebas

Type	Name	Class
GCU	Nervous Energy	Mountain
GCU	Prosthetic Conscience	n/a
GSV	Bora Horza Gobuchul	Ocean (later Range)
GSV	Determinist	System
GSV	Eschatologist (temporary name)	n/a
GSV	Irregular Apocalypse	n/a
GSV	No More Mr Nice Guy	n/a
GSV	The Ends Of Invention (ex-Culture)	n/a
LSV	Profit Margin	n/a
ROU	Revisionist	Killer
ROU	Trade Surplus	Killer

[edit] The Player of Games

Type	Name	Class
n/a	Screw Loose	Clipper
GCU	Flexible Demeanour	n/a
GSV	Just Read The Instructions	n/a
GSV	Of Course I Still Love You	n/a
GOU	Limiting Factor	n/a
GSV	Cargo Cult	n/a
GSV	Little Rascal	n/a
GSV	So Much For Subtlety	n/a
GSV	Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence	n/a
RSV	Youthful Indiscretion	n/a
LOU	Gunboat Diplomat	n/a
ROU	Zealot	(demilitarised)
n/a	Kiss My Ass	Superlifter
n/a	Prime Mover	Superlifter

[edit] Use of Weapons

Type	Name	Class
GCU	Just Testing	n/a
ROU	Xenophobe	(demilitarised)
GCU	Very Little Gravitas Indeed	n/a
GSV	What Are The Civilian Applications?	n/a
GSV	Congenital Optimist	n/a
GSV	Size Isn't Everything	n/a
GCU	Sweet and Full of Grace	n/a

[edit] Excession

Type	Name	Class
GCU	Different Tan	Mountain
GCU	Fate Amenable To Change	River
GCU	Grey Area (AKA Meatfucker)	n/a
GCU	It's Character Forming	n/a
GCU	Jaundiced Outlook	Ridge
GCU	Problem Child	Troubadour
GCU	Reasonable Excuse	n/a
GCU	Recent Convert	n/a
GCU	Tactical Grace	Escarpment
GCU	Unacceptable Behaviour	n/a
GCV	Steely Glint	Plains
n/a	Highpoint	(ulterior)
n/a	Shoot Them Later	(eccentric;ulterior)
LOU	Attitude Adjuster	Killer
ROU	Killing Time	Torturer
ROU	Frank Exchange Of Views	Psychopath (demilitarised)
GSV	Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The	Plate
GSV	Death and Gravity	n/a
GSV	Ethics Gradient	Range
GSV	Honest Mistake	n/a
GSV	Limivourous	Ocean
GSV	No Fixed Abode	(Sabbaticaler,Equator)
GSV	Quietly Confident, later GSV Sleeper Service	Plate
GSV	Uninvited Guest	n/a
GSV	Use Psychology	n/a
GSV	What Is The Answer and Why?	n/a
GSV	Wisdom Like Silence	Continent
GSV	Yawning Angel	Range
GSV	Zero ~~Granitas~~Gravitas	n/a
LSV	Misophist	n/a
LSV	Serious Callers Only	Tundra
MSV	Not Invented Here	Desert
n/a	Appeal To Reason	(Zetetic Elench)
n/a	Break Even	(Zetetic Elench)
n/a	Long View	(Zetetic Elench)
n/a	Peace Makes Plenty	(Zetetic Elench)
n/a	Sober Counsel	(Zetetic Elench)
n/a	Within Reason	(Zetetic Elench)
n/a	Kiss the Blade	(Affront)
n/a	Frightspear	(Affront)
n/a	Furious Purpose	(Affront)
n/a	Riptalon	(Affront)
n/a	Wingclipper	(Affront)
n/a	SacSlicer II	(Affront)
n/a	Xenoclast	(Affront)
n/a	Full Refund	(Homomdan Empire-class Main Battle Unit,convertcraft)
n/a	Superlifter Charitable View	Cliff
n/a	Cruise Ship Just Passing Through	n/a

[edit] The State of the Art

Type	Name	Class
GSV	Bad for Business	n/a
GCU	Arbitrary	n/a
GCU	Cantankerous	n/a
GCU	Only Slightly Bent	n/a
GCU	I Thought He Was With You	n/a
GCU	Space Monster	n/a
GCU	A Series Of Unlikely Explanations	n/a
GCU	Big Sexy Beast	n/a
GCU	Never Talk To Strangers	n/a
GCU	Funny, It Worked Last Time...	n/a
GCU	Boo!	n/a
GCU	Ultimate Ship The Second	n/a
GCU	It'll Be Over By Christmas	n/a
n/a	A Ship With A View	n/a
n/a	Ablation	n/a
n/a	Arrested Development	n/a
n/a	Credibility Problem	n/a
n/a	Dramatic Exit	n/a
n/a	Excuses And Accusations	n/a
n/a	God Told Me To Do It	n/a
n/a	Halation Effect	n/a
n/a	Happy Idiot Talk	n/a
n/a	Helpless In The Face Of Your Beauty	n/a
n/a	Heresiarch	n/a
n/a	Just Another Victim Of The Ambient Morality	n/a
n/a	Minority Report	n/a
n/	Not Wanted On Voyage	n/a
n/a	Perfidy	n/a
n/a	Sacrificial Victim	n/a
n/a	Stranger Here Myself	n/a
n/a	Synchronize Your Dogmas	n/a
n/a	Thank you And Goodnight	n/a
n/a	The Precise Nature Of The Catastrophe	n/a
n/a	Unwitting Accomplice	n/a
n/a	Undesirable Alien	n/a
n/a	Well I Was In The Neighbourhood	n/a
n/a	You Would If You Really Loved	n/a
n/a	You'll Thank Me Later	n/a

[edit] Look to Windward

Type	Name	Class
n/a	Winter Storm	(Chelgrian)
n/a	Piety	(Chelgrian temple ship)
n/a	Soulhaven	(Chelgrian temple ship)
ROU	Nuisance Value	Torturer
n/a	Vulgarian	Superlifter
GSV	Sanctioned Parts List	n/a
VFP	Resistance Is Character-Forming	Gangster
OU	All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff	n/a
n/a	Someone Else's Problem	n/a
n/a	Lacking That Small Match Temperament	n/a
GCU	Poke It With A Stick	n/a
OU	I Said, I've Got A Big Stick	n/a
n/a	Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again	n/a
n/a	But Who's Counting?	n/a
n/a	Germane Riposte	n/a
n/a	We Haven't Met But You're A Great Fan Of Mine	n/a
n/a	All The Same, I Saw It First	n/a
n/a	Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement	n/a
n/a	Zero Credibility	n/a
n/a	Charming But Irrational	n/a
n/a	Demented But Determined	n/a
n/a	You May Not Be The Coolest Person Here	n/a
n/a	Lucid Nonsense	n/a
n/a	Awkward Customer	n/a
n/a	Thorough But ... Unreliable	n/a
n/a	Advanced Case Of Chronic Patheticism	n/a
n/a	Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory	n/a
n/a	Conventional Wisdom	n/a
n/a	In One Ear	n/a
n/a	Fine Till You Came Along	n/a
n/a	I Blame The Parents	n/a
n/a	Inappropriate Response	n/a
n/a	A Momentary Lapse Of Sanity	n/a
n/a	Lapsed Pacifist	n/a
n/a	Reformed Nice Guy	n/a
n/a	Pride Comes Before A Fall	n/a
n/a	Injury Time	n/a
n/a	Now Look What You've Made Me Do	n/a
n/a	Kiss This Then	n/a
GSV	Lasting Damage	n/a
GSV	Lasting Damage I	n/a
GSV	Lasting Damage II	n/a
GSV	Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall	n/a

[edit] Guardian Interview

The following ships have not appeared in any books, however they were named by Iain M Banks in an interview [1] with The Guardian. These ships obtained their names as a result of another (unnamed) involved civilization criticizing Culture ship naming policy, claiming that such powerful ships ought to have names with a little more gravitas.