List of spacecraft in the Culture series

This is a list of spacecraft found in the Culture novels and short stories by Iain M. Banks. Most ships in this list are members of The Culture, the hybrid society featured in many of these novels. In this setting, each Culture ship, and some others, is also an artificial intelligence with a distinctive personality. Many of these ships are significant characters in the novels.[1][2]

Naming

The machine intelligences called Minds (and, as a consequence, the Culture starships that they inhabit) usually bear names that do a little more than just identify them. The Minds choose their own names, and thus they usually express something about a particular Mind's attitude, character or aims in their personal life. Warship names are similar in retaining the whimsical nature, though the humour tends to be more cynical and threatening.

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, like variations on "gravitas" are also installments in running gags.

Some ships' names hint at their purpose, but in a way that is not clear until near the end of the book. For example, Sleeper Service is a sleeper agent whose cover is a suspended animation "sleeper service".

Common ship types

Common ship types in The Culture series include:

Class Acronym Description
General Systems Vehicle GSV Mobile habitats and factory ships, largest and most capable Culture ship type. Build and host other ships, including smaller Systems Vehicles. May be home to billions of people. Some militarised and used as giant warships during the Idiran War. They are described in the books as holograms of the whole Culture, each one containing all the knowledge and productive capacity needed to reconstruct the civilization in case of catastrophe.
Medium Systems Vehicle MSVSmaller versions of the above. Sometimes former GSVs downgraded as larger GSV classes were developed.
Limited Systems Vehicle LSVSmaller versions of the above. Sometimes former GSVs or MSVs downgraded as larger GSV classes were developed.
General Contact Vehicle GCVContact craft intermediate in size and function between Systems Vehicles and Contact Units. Capabilities include building other ships.
General Contact UnitGCUStandard Contact craft, used for exploration and for studying and interacting with other societies. Considerable combat capability, but less than dedicated warships.
Limited Contact UnitLCUSmaller, less capable versions of the above.
Rapid Offensive UnitROUDedicated fast warships.
General Offensive UnitGOUDedicated warships.
Limited Offensive UnitLOUDedicated warships, smaller and less capable than GOUs and ROUs
Demilitarised ROU(D)ROUROUs with main armament removed, used as courier ships.
Demilitarised GOU(D)GOUGOUs with main armament removed, used as courier ships.
Demilitarised LOU(D)LOULOUs with main armament removed, used as courier ships.
Very Fast PicketVFPSynonym for (D)ROU.
Fast PicketFPSynonym for (D)GOU or (D)LOU.
SuperlifterSLHigh-speed tugs, consisting largely of engine and used to accelerate or decelerate other ships. Some temporarily militarised as a stop-gap in the early stages of the Idiran War.

Novels

Consider Phlebas

Ships mentioned in Consider Phlebas include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture GCU Nervous Energy Mountain
Culture GCU Prosthetic Conscience
Culture GSV Bora Horza Gobuchul Ocean, later Range The name chosen by the Mind at the centre of the events of the book, after its rescue and emplacement in a GSV.
Culture GSV Determinist System The largest GSV class built by the Culture, composed of multiple separate hulls. Population 6 billion.
Culture GSV Eschatologist (temporary name) Ocean A comparatively small GSV class, designed for combat and military manufacturing.
Culture GSV Irregular Apocalypse
Culture GSV No More Mr Nice Guy
Culture LSV Profit Margin
Culture ROU Revisionist Killer
Culture ROU Trade Surplus Killer
Culture Ulterior GSV The Ends Of Invention Officially discharged from Culture service, with its Mind/s removed, and employed as a neutral vessel to evacuate Vavatch Orbital.
Idiran Light Cruiser The Hand of God 137
Non-aligned (Ex-Hronish) Armoured assault Clear Air Turbulence Pirate ship, one of the main settings of the book.

The Player of Games

Ships mentioned in The Player of Games include:[3]

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture Clipper Screw Loose
Culture GCU Flexible Demeanour
Culture GCU Just Read The Instructions Elon Musk named a SpaceX autonomous spaceport drone ship after this ship.
Culture GCU Of Course I Still Love You Elon Musk named a SpaceX autonomous spaceport drone ship after this ship.
Culture (D)GOU Limiting FactorMurdererJernau Morat Gurgeh's ship to Empire of Azad. Nominally demilitarised, but actually retains part of its main armament.
Culture GSV Cargo Cult
Culture GSV Little Rascal PlateFocused on 'throughput' (ship construction and crewing), rather than accommodation. Population 250 million. Plate class hull dimensions 53 x 22 x 4 km.
Culture GSV So Much For SubtletyRange
Culture GSV Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence
Culture GSV Youthful Indiscretion
Culture LOU Gunboat Diplomat An allusion to the concept of gunboat diplomacy.
Culture (D)ROU Zealot
Culture Superlifter Kiss My AssRiver
Culture Superlifter Prime Mover An allusion to the Aristotelian philosophical concept of the prime mover, in humorous reference to the function of a Superlifter.
Azadian Battlecruiser Invincible Flagship of the Empire of Azad.

The State of the Art

Most of the Culture ship names in this collection come from the titles of the chapters in the titular novella. The narrator explains that it has used the names of ships produced by a manufactory of the Yinang Orbitals of the Dahass-Khree, birthplace of the Arbitrary and known for ships that are "a bit crazy."[4]

Ships mentioned in The State of the Art include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture GCU Ablation*
Culture GCU Arbitrary Escarpment
(middle series)		 The only ship actually appearing in the book, and one of its main settings.
Culture GCU Arrested Development*
Culture GCU A Series Of Unlikely Explanations
Culture GCU A Ship With A View*
Culture GCU Big Sexy Beast
Culture GCU Boo!
Culture GCU Cantankerous
Culture GCU Credibility Problem*
Culture GCU Dramatic Exit*
Culture GCU Excuses And Accusations*
Culture GCU Funny, It Worked Last Time...
Culture GCU God Told Me To Do It*
Culture GCU Halation Effect*
Culture GCU Happy Idiot Talk *
Culture GCU Helpless In The Face Of Your Beauty*
Culture GCU Heresiarch*
Culture GCU I Thought He Was With You
Culture GCU It'll Be Over By Christmas
Culture GCU Just Another Victim Of The Ambient Morality*
Culture GCU Minority Report*
Culture GCU Never Talk To Strangers
Culture GCU Not Wanted On Voyage*
Culture GCU Only Slightly Bent
Culture GCU Perfidy*
Culture GCU Sacrificial Victim*
Culture GCU Space Monster
Culture GCU Stranger Here Myself*
Culture GCU Synchronize Your Dogmas*
Culture GCU Thank You And Goodnight*
Culture GCU The Precise Nature Of The Catastrophe*
Culture GCU Ultimate Ship The Second
Culture GCU Undesirable Alien*
Culture GCU Unwitting Accomplice*
Culture GCU Well I Was In The Neighbourhood*
Culture GCU You'll Thank Me Later*
Culture GCU You Would If You Really Loved Me*
Culture GSV Bad For Business

*Names mentioned in the chapter names of the title novella only. All of them belong to ships produced by the Infracaninophile manufactury in Yinang Orbital.

Use of Weapons

Ships mentioned in Use of Weapons include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture GCU Just Testing
Culture GCU Sweet and Full of Grace Child ship of the Size Isn't Everything. Unusual insofar as being the only Culture ship mentioned in the series to not have its name in start case.
Culture GCU Very Little Gravitas Indeed Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag.[5]
Culture GSV Congenital Optimist
Culture GSV Size Isn't Everything Length of over 80 kilometers. Parent ship of the Sweet and Full of Grace.
Culture GSV What Are The Civilian Applications?ContinentLimited edition Prompt subclass. Can outrun a Very Fast Picket.
Culture VFP/(D)ROU XenophobeTorturer

Excession

Ships mentioned in Excession include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture Cruise Ship Just Passing Through
Culture GCU Different TanMountain
Culture GCU Fate Amenable To ChangeEscarpment Child ship of the Ethics Gradient.
Culture GCU Grey Area (aka Meatfucker) Ostracised for non-consensual mindreading of biological individuals, earning it the condemnation of other ships, who then ignored its chosen name in favor of Meatfucker. Child ship of the Honest Mistake. Also mentioned in Look to Windward.
Culture GCU It's Character Forming
Culture GCU Jaundiced OutlookRidgeChild ship of the Sleeper Service.
Culture GCU Problem ChildTroubadourEarly (vs Excession-contemporary) GCU, historical mention. Nominally captained by Zreyn Tramow.
Culture GCU Reasonable Excuse
Culture GCU Recent Convert
Culture GCU Tactical GraceEscarpment
Culture GCU Unacceptable Behaviour Child ship of the Quietly Confident (Sleeper Service).
Culture GCV Steely GlintPlains Parent ship of the Attitude Adjuster.
Culture GSV Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The Plate
Culture GSV Death And Gravity Its name is a play on the adage that only death and taxes are inevitable; "taxes" are replaced with gravity, since the Culture doesn't have taxes (or money).
Culture GSV Ethics Gradient Range Parent ship of the Fate Amenable To Change.
Culture GSV Honest Mistake Parent ship of the Grey Area.
Culture GSV Limivorous Ocean
Culture Sabbaticaler GSV No Fixed AbodeEx-Equator No fixed abode is a legal term for someone without a fixed address, such as a homeless person. Its name is an observation on itself as a moving starship inherently has no fixed abode.
Culture Eccentric GSV Quietly Confident,
later Sleeper Service		PlateActs as a storage ship for biological persons in stasis. The name Sleeper Service is a pun on sleeping car (transport) and sleeper agent (espionage). It also secretly converts itself to be "mostly engine" so it can move unexpectedly quickly - a parallel to sleeper cars (racing). Standard Plate class top cruising speed is 104,000 x light-speed, increased by these modifications to 233,500. Originally controlled by three Minds, two of which were removed when the other became Eccentric. Parent ship of the Unacceptable Behaviour, Jaundiced Outlook, T3OU 4, T3OU 118 and T3OU 736.
Culture GSV Uninvited Guest
Culture GSV Use Psychology
Culture GSV What Is The Answer And Why?
Culture GSV Wisdom Like Silence Continent Controlled by three Minds.
Culture GSV Yawning Angel Range Top speed 146,000 x light-speed.
Culture GSV Zero Gravitas Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag.[5]
Culture LOU Attitude Adjuster Killer Nominally demilitarised, but in fact a fully armed warship. Child ship of the Steely Glint. Class possibly downgraded from ROU (designated as such in Consider Phlebas, set five centuries earlier).
Culture LSV Misophist
Culture LSV Serious Callers Only Tundra
Culture MSV Not Invented Here Desert The Desert class was originally a GSV class that was demoted to MSV as Culture ship sizes grew. The Not Invented Here is usually termed an MSV, but is also referred to as an actual GSV twice (Genar-Hofoen is told that the NIH was a GSV by Tishlin, and he subsequently refers to it as a GSV even after knowing that it is now an MSV), while towards the end of the book it is referred to as an LSV by the Sleeper Service and in authorial narration. Accounts of its history are also contradictory: at one point, characters indicate that the NIH is generally believed (even within Special Circumstances) to have been destroyed five centuries earlier; at another, the narration states that it has always remained an apparently normal part of the Culture, with a very well-documented past.
Culture ROU Heavy Messing Gangster An allusion to a term from Glaswegian, or from Ned-ese. Generally if one is said to be "heavy messing" they are considered by an aggrieved party to be interfering or aggravating a situation in which they have little to no stake in.
Culture ROU Killing Time Torturer A pun on a saying that 99% of war is just killing time, while the rest is the killing time.
Culture ROU Frank Exchange Of Views Psychopath Nominally demilitarised, but in fact a fully armed warship.
Culture Superlifter Charitable View Cliff Top sprint speed 221,000 x light-speed (faster than contemporary ROUs).
Culture I Blame My Mother
Culture I Blame Your Mother
Culture OU T3OU 4 Type Three Non-standard design, based on Inquisitor-class prototype. Child ship of the Sleeper Service. Controlled by a semi-slaved AI rather than an independent Mind.
Culture OU T3OU 118 Type Three See above.
Culture OU T3OU 736 Type Three See above.
Culture Convertcraft Main Battle Unit Full Refund (formerly MBU 604) Empire Former Homomdan MBU, now Culture Convertcraft
Culture Ulterior (AhForgetIt Tendency), Eccentric Shoot Them Later
Culture Ulterior (Zetetic Elench) Explorer Ship Appeal To Reason Part of the Stargazer Clan
Culture Ulterior (Zetetic Elench) Explorer Ship Break Even Part of the Stargazer Clan
Culture Ulterior (Zetetic Elench) Explorer Ship Long View Part of the Stargazer Clan
Culture Ulterior (Zetetic Elench) Explorer Ship Peace Makes Plenty Part of the Stargazer Clan
Culture Ulterior (Zetetic Elench) Explorer Ship Sober Counsel Part of the Stargazer Clan
Culture Ulterior (Zetetic Elench) Explorer Ship Within Reason Part of the Stargazer Clan
Culture Ulterior Highpoint Possibly not a ship (described only as an "Ulterior Entity").
Affront Frightspear
Affront Light Cruiser Furious Purpose Meteorite
Affront Kiss The Blade
Affront Riptalon
Affront SacSlicer II
Affront Wingclipper
Affront Battleship Xenoclast

Look to Windward

Most of the Culture ship names in Look to Windward are only mentioned in a humorous conversation about ship names in Chapter 11, Absence of Gravitas, and do not represent characters in the novel.

Ships mentioned in Look to Windward include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture GSV Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall Equator Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag.[5] A GCU of the same name is mentioned in Matter.
Culture GSV Lasting Damage A GSV built for combat on the eve of the Idiran-Culture War. After it was destroyed in battle, a recorded copy of its mind-state was embodied in a new Mind and incorporated into another GSV of the same class. Its original Mind was later found to have survived the ship's destruction, and was also incorporated into a new combat GSV.
Culture GSV Lasting Damage I The second ship incorporating the original Lasting Damage Mind, which had been assumed destroyed but eventually returned. This second ship was later itself destroyed, but its Mind again survived, and merged with the recorded mind-state of the Lasting Damage II, which was also destroyed, including its Mind, in the same battle. It became the Hub Mind of Masaq' Orbital.
Culture GSV Lasting Damage II The ship incorporating the backup copy Mind of the Lasting Damage.
Culture GSV Sanctioned Parts List
Culture ROU Nuisance Value Torturer
Culture VFP/(D)ROU Resistance Is Character-Forming Gangster
Culture Superlifter Vulgarian
Culture OU All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff†
Culture Someone Else's Problem†
Culture Lacking That Small Match Temperament†
Culture GCU Poke It With A Stick†
Culture GCU Grey Area (aka Meatfucker) Featured in Excession; mentioned here only as an illustration of the Culture's disapproval of machines reading the minds of biological individuals, an activity which led other Minds to disregard its chosen name in favour of the name Meatfucker.
Culture OU I Said, I've Got A Big Stick† The small print (spoken softly) is an allusion to the saying "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
Culture Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again†
Culture But Who's Counting?† LOU Me, I'm Counting provides the answer.
Culture Germane Riposte†
Culture We Haven't Met But You're A Great Fan Of Mine†
Culture All The Same, I Saw It First†
Culture Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement†
Culture Zero Credibility†
Culture Charming But Irrational†
Culture Demented But Determined†
Culture You May Not Be The Coolest Person Here†
Culture Lucid Nonsense†
Culture Awkward Customer†
Culture Thorough But... Unreliable†
Culture Advanced Case Of Chronic Patheticism†
Culture Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory†
Culture Conventional Wisdom†
Culture In One Ear† Part of the expression "in one ear and out the other".
Culture Fine Till You Came Along†
Culture I Blame The Parents†
Culture Inappropriate Response†
Culture A Momentary Lapse Of Sanity†
Culture Lapsed Pacifist†
Culture Reformed Nice Guy†
Culture Pride Comes Before A Fall†
Culture Injury Time† A play on the sporting term "injury time" (i.e. time added on at the end of a match to make up for stoppages required to deal with injuries to players) and a notional appropriate time to inflict an injury (see also Killing Time).
Culture Now Look What You've Made Me Do†
Culture Kiss This Then†
Chelgrian Privateer Winter Storm
Chelgrian Temple ship Piety
Chelgrian Temple ship Soulhaven

†Names mentioned in a humorous conversation about various Culture ships in Chapter 11 of the novel.[6]

Matter

Ships mentioned in Matter include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture GCU Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag.[5] A GSV of the same name is mentioned in Look to Windward.
Culture GCU It's My Party And I'll Sing If I Want To Escarpment Allusion to the song It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.
Culture GCU Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill
Culture GCU Pure Big Mad Boat Man An inside joke based upon the language of Ned (Scottish) culture. It would be read/heard as "a pure big, mad boat, man" roughly meaning "a very large and deadly serious boat my good man".
Culture GCU Qualifier Trench
Culture GCU Transient Atmospheric Phenomenon Transient Atmospheric Phenomenon has been suggested as an alternative name for a UFO
Culture GCU You Naughty Monsters
Culture GCV Subtle Shift In Emphasis Plains
Culture FP/(D)GOU Eight Rounds Rapid Delinquent
Culture GSV Seed Drill Ocean
Culture Now We Try It My Way Erratic An ancient ship, originally an Interstellar-class ship of the now-obsolete General Transport Craft type.
Culture LSV Xenoglossicist Air
Culture MSV Don't Try This At Home Steppe
Culture VFP/(D)ROU You'll Clean That Up Before You Leave Gangster
Culture Ulterior Superlifter (ex-GCU), militarised Liveware Problem Stream (modified Delta-class GCU) Militarised during the Idiran War and nominally absconded after the conflict, probably for the purpose of acting as a deniable Special Circumstances operative. The phrase is a joke among computer engineers, suggesting that the problem lies with the user.[7]
Morthanveld Cat.3 SlimHull “Now, Turning to Reason, & its Just Sweetness” The book's appendix refers to this ship as “Now, Turning to Reason, & Its Just Sweetness”.
Morthanveld Cat.4 CleaveHull “On First Seeing Jhiriit” This ship is not mentioned in the story itself, only in the book's appendix.
Morthanveld Cat.5 SwellHull “Fasilyce, Upon Waking”
Morthanveld Great Ship Inspiral, Coalescence, Ringdown Comparable to a GSV; the name refers to stages in the merger of two black holes.
Nariscene Star Cruiser Hence the Fortress Comet
Nariscene Hundredth Idiot, The White Dwarf Name derived from a Nariscene proverb.

Surface Detail

Ships mentioned in Surface Detail include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture GCU Armchair Traveller Mountain
Culture GCU Bodhisattva, OAQS Escarpment Part of Contact's Quietudinal Service (Quietus). Quietus ships added letters OAQS - On Active Quietudinal Service - to their names while they were so employed.
Culture GOU/PS Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints Abominator Class publicly categorised as Picket Ship, to give the impression that they are equivalent in function to FPs and VFPs; in fact these are state-of-the-art warships, the most powerful to appear in the series.
Culture FP/(D)GOU No One Knows What The Dead Think Formerly known as the GOU Obliterating Angel.
Culture GSV Pelagian Equator
Culture GSV Sense Amid Madness, Wit Amidst Folly Plate
Culture GSV Total Internal Reflection One of the "Forgotten"/"Oubliettionaries": Systems Vehicles remaining indefinitely in secretive isolation, tasked with recreating the Culture in the event of its destruction.
Culture Hidden Income Type not mentioned in novel, but possibly General Transport Craft (see Matter).
Culture FP/(D)LOU Hylozoist Killer Class possibly downgraded from ROU (designated as such in Consider Phlebas, set fifteen centuries earlier). Name alludes to Hylozoism.
Culture FP/(D)ROU The Usual But Etymologically Unsatisfactory Psychopath Class possibly downgraded from VFP (designated as such in Excession, set ten centuries earlier, and in The Hydrogen Sonata, set five centuries earlier).
Culture Eccentric FP/(D)LOU Me, I'm Counting Hooligan Another ship in the Culture is called But Who's Counting?.
GFCF Contact Craft Messenger Of Truth Succour
GFCF Minor Destructor Vessel Fractious Person
GFCF Minor Destructor Vessel Rubric Of Ruin
GFCF Abundance Of Onslaught Deepest Regrets Deepest Regrets-class ships are capital ships and the pride of the GFCF fleet.
GFCF Vision Of Hope Surpassed Deepest Regrets See above.
GFCF GOU Joiler Veppers (provisional name) Murderer (modified) Based on the Culture's obsolete Murderer-class GOU, with upgraded speed and modified weaponry, built by the GFCF as a bribe for the Sichultian plutocrat Joiler Veppers.
Jhlupian Heavy Cruiser Ucalegon Ucalegon means "a neighbor whose house is on fire". Ucalegon is also the name of a non-sentient Culture barge on Masaq' Orbital in Look to Windward.
Nauptre Reliquaria Bismuth Category 8401.00 Partial Photic Boundary
Bulbitian Bulbitian Habitat Unfallen Bulbitian, Semsarine Wisp Original Bulbitian name was Jariviour 400.54, Mochurlian.

The Hydrogen Sonata

Ships mentioned in The Hydrogen Sonata include:

Civilisation Ship Type Name Class Comments
Culture GCU Displacement ActivityRiver Class name previously used for a Superlifter class in The Player of Games.
Culture GCU Warm, ConsideringDelta
Culture GOU HeadcrashDelinquent
Culture GOU Questionable Ethics
Culture GOU XenocratDelinquent
Culture GSV A Fine Disregard For Awkward Facts
Culture GSV Contents May DifferAtmosphere
Culture GSV EmpiricistSystem A big ship, even by the standards of System-class vessels, which are the largest built by the Culture (being composed of multiple separate hulls, ships of this class are easily expanded, leading to great variations in size). Controlled by seven Minds. Population over 13 billion.
Culture GSV Just The Washing Instruction Chip In Life's Rich Tapestry
Culture GSV Kakistocrat Home GSV of Mistake Not… "Kakistocrat" is Ancient Greek, meaning "worst ruler", a humorous inversion of "aristocrat".
Culture GSV Teething Problems
Culture GSV Unreliable Witness Parent ship of the Smile Tolerantly.
Culture LCU Anything Legal ConsideredRidge Class possibly downgraded from GCU (designated as such in Excession, set five centuries earlier).
Culture LCU Beats WorkingScree The smallest class of Contact Unit: 80m long, with a human crew of five.
Culture LOU Caconym Troublemaker Although categorised as LOUs, the Troublemaker class are referred to as "nominatively camouflaged", outclassing earlier GOUs. "Caconym" is Ancient Greek, meaning "bad name", probably in reference to the English idiom meaning "bad reputation".
Culture LOU New Toy
Culture LSV You Call This Clean?Blue
Culture MSV Passing By And Thought I'd Drop InDesert
Culture MSV Pressure DropShelf
Culture ROU Learned Response
Culture FP/(D)ROU Refreshingly Unconcerned With The Vulgar Exigencies Of VeracityThug Some confusion as to type: described as a demilitarised ROU, but also as an FP, a designation otherwise applied to demilitarised GOUs and LOUs, whereas demilitarised ROUs are VFPs. Also referred to as an ROU class in Excession, but in that book the Thug-class-based Type Five OUs are lower in the fleet hierarchy than the Type Four, based on the Killer class, which is described in the same book as an LOU, implying that the Thug class should also be LOUs.
Culture FP/(D)ROU Value JudgementThug See above.
Culture Superlifter ZoologistBoulder
Culture VFP/(D)ROU Outstanding Contribution To The Historical ProcessPsychopath
Culture VFP/(D)LOU Rapid Random Response Unit Troublemaker
Culture Eccentric OU/e Mistake Not… A one-off design of indeterminate classification, whose capabilities remain secret but which is a highly capable warship. It identifies itself as Ue, for Unit (eccentric/erratic); less coyly designated in the book's appendix as OU/e. Its full name, which is a private joke amongst other Culture Minds and almost never used, is the Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Mere Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath.
Culture-Zihdren-Remnanter hybrid (ex-)GCU Smile TolerantlyFormerly an ancient GCU, has hybridised its Mind with the technology of another civilisation, the Zihdren-Remnanter, and describes itself as having "enhanced loyalties" (i.e. divided loyalties). Child ship of the Unreliable Witness.
Gzilt IR-HAS cruiser 5*Gelish-Oplule Indefinite Range, High Acceleration/Speed
Gzilt IR-HVW battlecruiser 7*Uagren Indefinite Range, High Velocity/Weapon-load
Gzilt IR-FWS battleship 8*ChurkunIndefinite Range, Full Weapon Spectrum
Iwenick Space-Capable Inter-Element Transportation Component Iberre Private yacht, named after the owner's father-mother.
Iwenick Strategic Outreach Element CH2OH.(CHOH)4.CHO The chemical whose formulation is given in this name is galactose (here used as a pun on galaxy/galactic).
Liseiden Collective Purposes Vessel Abalule-Sheliz
Liseiden Collective Purposes Vessel Gellemtyan-Asool-Anafawaya(First Class) Flagship
Liseiden Collective Purposes Vessel Laskuil-Hliz
Liseiden Collective Purposes Vessel Quiatrea-Anang
Liseiden Fulanya-Guang
Ronte Melancholia Enshrines All Triumph Interstitial/Exploratory
Zihdren-Remnanter Adjunct EntityOceanic Dissonance
Zihdren-Remnanter Ceremonial Representative Carrying Ship Exaltation-Parsimony III

Further ships

The following ships have not appeared in any books, however they were named by Iain M Banks in an interview with The Guardian.[5] These ships obtained their names as a result of another (unnamed) Involved civilisation criticizing Culture ship naming policy, claiming that such powerful ships ought to have names with a little more gravitas.

Legacy

The autonomous spaceport drone ships Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You, operated by SpaceX, were named after ships mentioned in The Player of Games, as a posthumous tribute to Banks by Elon Musk.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Excession review (from a bookseller reviews page of the Waterstone’s bookstore chain, Orpington store. Accessed 2008-03-29.)
  2. ↑ "Iain Banks writes books about sex and drugs. Iain M Banks is a sci-fi nerd. Are they by any chance related?" - The Guardian, Tuesday 20 May 1997
  3. ↑ Iain M Banks. The Player of Games.
  4. ↑ The State of the Art - Banks, Iain M., 1991
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Iain M Banks Q&A". Guardian. 11 September 2000. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  6. ↑ Banks, Iain M. (2001). "11: Absence of Gravitas". Look to Windward. Great Britain: Orbit. pp. 241–243. ISBN 978-1-84149-059-5.
  7. ↑ Liveware (from the 'webopedia.com' website. Accessed 2008-06-18.)
  8. ↑ Speck, Emilee (June 25, 2015). "SpaceX resupply launch, barge landing attempt set for Sunday". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
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