List of ships (The Culture)
historyThis is a list of spaceships found in the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. Except where indicated, all ships in this list are members of the main fictional society known as 'The Culture'. In this fictional universe, all Culture ships, and also some others, are also artificial intelligences with quite distinct personalities. Many of them are significant characters in the novels.»Excession review (from a bookseller reviews page of the Waterstone’s bookstore chain, Orpington store. Accessed 2008-03-29.)[http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,96044,00.html 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
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 themselves 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.
{| class="wikitable" ! Class !! Acronym !! Description |- |General Systems Vehicles ||GSV||Mobile habitats and / or factory ships, largest Culture ship type. May be home to billions of people. |- |Medium Systems Vehicles ||MSV||Smaller versions of the above |- |Limited Systems Vehicles ||LSV||Smaller versions of the above |- |General Contact Vehicles ||GCV||Larger versions of the below GCU |- |General Contact Units ||GCU||Ambassadors, scouts and light transports; also main warship in peacetime |- |General Offensive Units ||GOU||Dedicated main warships |- |Rapid Offensive Units ||ROU||Dedicated fast warships |- |Limited Offensive Units ||LOU||Dedicated warships, smaller than GOUs |- |Demilitarized ROUs ||(d)ROU||Civilianised ROUs used as courier ships, all or most weaponry removed |- |Very Fast Pickets ||VFP||A euphemism for (d)ROU, used in the same role. |}
Novels
Consider Phlebas
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Civilisation
! Name
! Ship type
! Comments
|-
| Culture || Nervous Energy || GCU (Mountain-class) ||
|-
| Culture || Prosthetic Conscience || GCU ||
|-
| Culture || Bora Horza Gobuchul || GSV (Ocean-class, later Range-class) || The name chosen by the Mind at the center of events after rescue, upon emplacement within a GSV.
|-
| Culture || Determinist || GSV (System-class) || Largest GSV class mentioned in the books so far.
|-
| Culture || Eschatologist (temporary name) || GSV (Ocean-class) || Sent by the Culture to destroy Vavatch orbital.
|-
| Culture || Irregular Apocalypse || GSV ||
|-
| Culture || No More Mr Nice Guy || GSV ||
|-
| Culture || Profit Margin || LSV ||
|-
| Culture || Revisionist || ROU (Killer-class) ||
|-
| Culture || Trade Surplus || ROU (Killer-class) ||
|-
| Culture Ulterior || The Ends Of Invention || GSV ||
|-
| Non-aligned (Ex-Hronish) || Clear Air Turbulence || Armoured assault || Pirate ship, one of the main settings of the book.
|-
| Idiran || The Hand of God 137 || Light Cruiser || Advance force invading the planet Sorpen to rescue Horza.
|}
{| class="wikitable" ! Ship Type !! Name !! Class !! Comments |- |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||Murderer||Jernau Morat Gurgeh's ship to the planet Azad. An allegedly demilitarized GOU. |- |GSV||Cargo Cult ||n/a||Play on the cargo cult concept. |- |GSV||Little Rascal ||Plate||'Throughput'-ship (ship assembly and crewing). |- |GSV||So Much For Subtlety||n/a|| |- |GSV||Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence ||n/a|| |- |GSV||Youthful Indiscretion ||n/a|| |- |LOU||Gunboat Diplomat||n/a||(Special Circumstances), play on the gunboat diplomacy concept. |- |dROU||Zealot||n/a|| |- |n/a||Kiss My Ass||Superlifter|| |- |n/a||Prime Mover||Superlifter|| |- |(Azadian)||Invincible||Battlecruiser||Flagship of the Azad Empire. |}
{| class="wikitable" ! Ship Type !! Name !! Class !! Comments |- |GCU||Just Testing||n/a || |- |dROU||Xenophobe||Torturer|| |- |GCU||Very Little Gravitas Indeed||n/a|| Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag. |- |GSV||What Are The Civilian Applications?||Continent||Limited Edition "Prompt" subclass. Can outrun a Very Fast Picket. |- |GSV||Congenital Optimist||n/a|| Rescued Zakalwe from Fohls. |- |GSV||Size Isn't Everything||n/a||The GCU Sweet and Full of Grace was constructed aboard this ship. |- |GCU||Sweet and Full of Grace ||n/a|| |}
{| class="wikitable"
! Civilisation !! Ship Type !! Name !! Class !! Comments
|-
|Culture||GCU||Different Tan||Mountain||
|-
|Culture||GCU||Fate Amenable To Change||Escarpment||
|-
|Culture||GCU||Grey Area (AKA Meatfucker)||n/a||(Eccentric) Ostracised for nonconsensual mindreading.
|-
|Culture||GCU ||It's Character Forming||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GCU ||Jaundiced Outlook||Ridge||Child ship of the Sleeper Service.
|-
|Culture||GCU ||Problem Child||Troubadour||Early (vs Excession-contemporary) GCU, historical mention. Nominally captained by Zreyn Tramow.
|-
|Culture||GCU ||Reasonable Excuse||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GCU ||Recent Convert||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GCU ||Tactical Grace||Escarpment||
|-
|Culture||GCU ||Unacceptable Behaviour ||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GCV ||Steely Glint||Plains||
|-
|Culture||n/a||Highpoint||n/a||(Ulterior)
|-
|Culture||ROU||Shoot Them Later||Gangster||(Eccentric, Ulterior)
|-
|Culture||LOU||Attitude Adjuster||Killer||
|-
|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||Heavy Messing||Gangster||
|-
|Culture||dROU||Frank Exchange Of Views||Psychopath||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The||Plate||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Death and Gravity||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Ethics Gradient||Range||
|-
|Culture||GSV ||Honest Mistake||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GSV||Limivourous||Ocean||
|-
|Culture||GSV||No Fixed Abode||Ex-Equator||(Sabbaticaler)
|-
|Culture||GSV ||Quietly Confident,
later Sleeper Service||Plate||(Eccentric, Ulterior) Known as storage ship for biological persons in stasis. The name Sleeper Service is a pun on sleeping car (transport) and sleeper agent (espionage).
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Uninvited Guest||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Use Psychology||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| What Is The Answer and Why?||n/a||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Wisdom Like Silence ||Continent||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Yawning Angel||Range||
|-
|Culture||GSV|| Zero Gravitas|| n/a|| Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag.
|-
|Culture||LSV|| Misophist||n/a||
|-
|Culture||LSV|| Serious Callers Only||Tundra||
|-
|Culture||MSV||Not Invented Here ||Desert||
|-
|Culture||Superlifter ||Charitable View || Cliff ||
|-
|Culture||n/a||I Blame My Mother ||n/a||
|-
|Culture||n/a||I Blame Your Mother ||n/a||
|-
|Zetetic Elench||Stargazer||Appeal To Reason ||n/a||
|-
|Zetetic Elench||Stargazer||Break Even ||n/a||
|-
|Zetetic Elench||Stargazer||Long View ||n/a||
|-
|Zetetic Elench||Stargazer||Peace Makes Plenty ||n/a||
|-
|Zetetic Elench||Stargazer||Sober Counsel||n/a ||
|-
|Zetetic Elench||Stargazer|| Within Reason||n/a||
|-
|Affront||n/a||Kiss the Blade||
|-
|Affront ||n/a||Frightspear ||n/a||
|-
|Affront ||Light Cruiser||Furious Purpose ||Meteorite Class||
|-
|Affront ||n/a||Riptalon ||n/a||
|-
|Affront||n/a||Wingclipper ||n/a||
|-
|Affront||n/a||SacSlicer II ||n/a||
|-
|Affront||n/a||Xenoclast ||Battleship||
|-
|Homomdan||Main Battle Unit||Full Refund (Ex-'MBU 604')||Empire Class||(Convertcraft)
|-
|Culture||n/a||Just Passing Through ||Cruise Ship, n/a||
|}
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 he has chosen ship names for these titles.
{| class="wikitable" ! Ship Type !! Name !! Class !! Comments |- |GSV|| Bad for Business||n/a|| |- |GCU|| Arbitrary||Escarpment (middle series)||Produced by a manufactory of the Yinang Orbitals of the Dahass-Khree, known for ships that are "a bit crazy."The State of the Art - Banks, Iain M., 1991 |- |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...Boo!||n/a|| |- |GCU|| Ultimate Ship The Second||n/a|| |- |GCU|| It'll Be Over By Christmas||n/a|| |- |GCU||A Ship With A View*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Ablation*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Arrested Development*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Credibility Problem*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Excuses And Accusations*||n/a|| |- |GCU||God Told Me To Do It*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Halation Effect*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Happy Idiot Talk*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Helpless In The Face Of Your Beauty*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Heresiarch*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Just Another Victim Of The Ambient Morality*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Minority Report*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Not Wanted On Voyage*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Perfidy*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Sacrificial Victim*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Stranger Here Myself*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Synchronize Your Dogmas*||n/a|| |- |GCU||The Precise Nature Of The Catastrophe*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Unwitting Accomplice*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Undesirable Alien*||n/a|| |- |GCU||Well I Was In The Neighbourhood*||n/a|| |- |GCU||You Would If You Really Loved Me*||n/a|| |- |GCU||You'll Thank Me Later*||n/a|| |} *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.
Look to Windward
Most of the Culture ship names in this novel are only mentioned in a humorous conversation about ship names in Chapter 11, Absence of Gravitas, and do not represent characters in the novel. The Chelgrian ships are not artificial intelligences like those of the Culture.
{| class="wikitable"
! Ship Type !! Name !! Class !! Comments
|-
|(Chelgrian)||Winter Storm ||n/a||
|-
|(Chelgrian)||Piety ||n/a (Temple ship)||
|-
|(Chelgrian)||Soulhaven||n/a (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||The small print (spoken softly) is a pun on "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
|-
|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||Later mind-state copied into other ships, becomes Masaq orbital.
|-
|GSV||Lasting Damage I||n/a||
|-
|GSV||Lasting Damage II||n/a||
|-
|GSV|| Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall||n/a|| Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag.
|}
*Names mentioned in a humorous conversation about various Culture ships in Chapter 11 of the novel.
{| class="wikitable" ! Civilisation !! Name !! Ship type !! Comments |- | Culture || Don't Try This At Home || MSV (Steppe-class) || |- | Culture || Eight Rounds Rapid || (ex) GOU (Delinquent-class) || Potentially an inside joke reference to Dr Who's Brigadier' directing his troops; "Five Rounds Rapid" was enough to despatch a threatening alien. |- | Culture || Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall || GCU || Part of the "... Gravitas ..." running gag. |- | Culture || It's My Party And I'll Sing If I Want To || GCU (Escarpment-class) || Pun on the song It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to, which continues "... You would cry too if it happened to you." |- | Culture || Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill || GCU || |- | Culture || Now We Try It My Way || (ex) General Transport Craft (Interstellar-class) || |- | Culture || Liveware Problem || Superlifter (Stream-class, modified Delta-class) || Likely a Special Circumstances operative. Pun on a common computer systems term hinting at the fact that the problem lies with the system's user.»Liveware (from the 'webopedia.com' website. Accessed 2008-06-18.) |- | Culture || Pure Big Mad Boat Man || GCU || 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 || Qualifier || GCU (Trench-class) || |- | Culture || Seed Drill || GSV (Ocean-class) || |- | Culture || Subtle Shift In Emphasis || GCV (Plains-class) || |- | Culture || Transient Atmospheric Phenomenon || GCU || |- | Culture || Xenoglossicist || LSV (Air-class) || |- | Culture || You Naughty Monsters ||GCU || |- | Culture || You'll Clean That Up Before You Leave || (d)ROU (Gangster-class) || |- | Nariscene || Hence the Fortress || Comet (Star-cruiser) || |- | Nariscene || Hundredth Idiot, The || White Dwarf || Chose its name from a Nariscene proverb. |- | Morthanveld|| Fasilyce, Upon Waking || Cat.5 SwellHull || |- | Morthanveld || Inspiral, Coalescence, Ringdown || Great Ship || Comparable to a GSV; the name refers to three stages in the merger of two black holes. |- | Morthanveld || On First Seeing Jhiriit || Cat.4 CleaveHull || |- | Morthanveld || Now, Turning to Reason, & Its Just Sweetness ||Cat.3 SlimHull || |}
The following ships have not appeared in any books, however they were named by Iain Banks in an interview with The Guardian. 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.
- Stood Far Back When The Gravitas Was Handed Out
- Gravitas, What Gravitas?
- Gravitas... Gravitas... No, Don't Help Me, I'll Get It In A Moment...
- Gravitas Free Zone
- Low Gravitas Warning Signal
- Absolutely No You-Know-What
- Zero Gravitas