Spacecraft Names Used in Iain M. Banks’ “Culture” Series

Consider Phlebas

• Nervous Energy
• Prosthetic Conscience
• Bora Horza Gobuchul
• Determinist
• Eschatologist
• Irregular Apocalypse
• No More Mr Nice Guy
• Profit Margin
• Revisionist
• Trade Surplus
• The Ends Of Invention

The Player of Games

• Screw Loose
• Flexible Demeanour
• Just Read The Instructions
• Of Course I Still Love You
• Limiting Factor
• Cargo Cult
• Little Rascal
• So Much For Subtlety
• Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence
• Youthful Indiscretion
• Gunboat Diplomat
• Zealot
• Kiss My Ass
• Prime Mover

Use of Weapons

• Just Testing
• Xenophobe
• Very Little Gravitas Indeed
• What Are The Civilian Applications?
• Congenital Optimist
• Size Isn’t Everything
• Sweet and Full of Grace

The State of the Art

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

Excession

• Different Tan
• Fate Amenable To Change
• Grey Area (aka Meatfucker)
• It’s Character Forming
• Jaundiced Outlook
• Problem Child
• Reasonable Excuse
• Recent Convert
• Tactical Grace
• Unacceptable Behaviour
• Steely Glint
• Plains
• Highpoint
• Shoot Them Later
• Attitude Adjuster
• Killing Time
• Heavy Messing
• Frank Exchange Of Views
• Anticipation Of A New Lover’s Arrival, The
• Death and Gravity
• Ethics Gradient
• Honest Mistake
• Limivorous
• Ocean
• No Fixed Abode
• Quietly Confident (aka Sleeper Service)
• Uninvited Guest
• Use Psychology
• What Is The Answer and Why?
• Wisdom Like Silence
• Yawning Angel
• Zero Gravitas
• Misophist
• Serious Callers Only
• Not Invented Here
• Charitable View
• I Blame My Mother
• I Blame Your Mother
• Just Passing Through
• Full Refund

Look to Windward

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

Matter

• Don’t Try This At Home
• Eight Rounds Rapid
• Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall
• It’s My Party And I’ll Sing If I Want To
• Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill
• Now We Try It My Way
• Liveware Problem
• Pure Big Mad Boat Man
• Qualifier
• Seed Drill
• Subtle Shift In Emphasis
• Transient Atmospheric Phenomenon
• Xenoglossicist
• You Naughty Monsters
• You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave

Surface Detail

• Sense Amid Madness, Wit Amidst Folly
• Me, I’m Counting
• Bodhisattva
• Total Internal Reflection
• Armchair Traveller
• The Usual But Etymologically Unsatisfactory
• Hidden Income
• Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints
• Hylozoist
• No One Knows What The Dead Think
• Pelagian

The Hydrogen Sonata

• Mistake Not …
• Questionable Ethics
• New Toy
• Learned Response
• Caconym
• Pressure Drop
• Kakistocrat
• Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In
• Empiricist
• Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity
• Value Judgement
• Beats Working
• Headcrash
• Xenocrat
• Contents May Differ
• Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life’s Rich Tapestry
• Displacement Activity
• Anything Legal Considered
• Zoologist
• Warm, Considering
• A Fine Disregard for Awkward Facts
• Teething Problems
• Outstanding Contribution to the Historical Process
• Rapid Random Response Unit
• Smile Tolerantly
• Unreliable Witness
• You Call This Clean?