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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<title>
Reading Order of The Culture
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<section id="Reading-Order-of-The-Culture">
<h1>
Reading Order of The Culture
</h1>
<p>
I’ve generated a dependency graph for the Culture series reading order. The idea is that if there’s an arrow from book A to book B, then to get the most possible enjoyment from either A or B, A should be read before B.
</p>
<p>
<img alt="A dependency graph diagram of what Culture books must eb read before what others." src="/culture.dot.png"> Above is the graph, and <a href="/culture.dot.txt">right here</a> is the vizgraph description file that lists my rationale for each dependency.
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<em>Consider Phlebas</em> before <em>Look to Windward</em>— both are about the Idiran War.
</li>
<li>
<em>Use of Weapons</em> before <em>The State of the Art</em>— these share a main character in Diziet Sma. SotA was actually released before UoW but is more satisfying if read after it, in my opinion (and the author’s, for what that’s worth).
</li>
<li>
<em>Use of Weapons</em> before <em>Inversions</em>— UoW gives the best idea of any book about what Special Circumstances is, which must be understood to fully appreciate Inversions in all its subtlety.
</li>
<li>
<em>Excession</em> before <em>The Hydrogen Sonata</em>— Hydrogen Sonata is dual to Excession in many ways that can’t be explained here without abject spoilage. This one is not a hard rule, but HS is better if you know Excession.
</li>
<li>
<em>Excession</em> before <em>Matter</em>— GSV Sleeper Service is mentioned in Matter as “The granddaddy, the exemplary hero figure, the very God…”, referencing events in Excession.
</li>
<li>
<em>Use of Weapons</em> before <em>Surface Detail</em>— you must know who Zakalwe is, the main character of UoW, to fully appreciate the ending of Surface Detail.
</li>
<li>
<em>Look to Windward</em> before <em>Surface Detail</em>— These book deal with some common themes and subjects. Some will disagree with me here, but LtW is more impactful <em>without</em> certain knowledge revealed in Surface Detail.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Assuming one agrees with the graph, the set of ideal reading orders (that is, the set such that for all orders it contains, no order exists which is strictly better) is the set of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_sortinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_sorting">topological sorts</a> of the graph.
</p>
<p>
This gives the number of possible ideal orders as 63840. That’s a lot of good ways to do it!
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