I bought based on the book titles, so initials didn’t really come into it…
I’ve been burned a few times by expecting all books by a particular author to be of the same quality. (Even by my favourite author, Julian May, who took me fly fishing in Canada, 21 years ago…)
Book themes aren’t an issue compared to the certainty of reality.
Make sure to read Use of Weapons and Look to Windward before Surface Detail 
Also Consider Phlebas before Look to Windward will provide more background.
It was like a kick in the gut at the time.
I’ll read the Culture series in order. 
Always the best plan!
The first couple books are the weakest in the series IMO (though a lot of people like the second one a lot - and neither are bad in any way!)
Use of Weapons is the third and one of the best.
Not counting State of the Art here as it is a set of unrelated shorts, except two stories (including one amazing one which you should read after Use of Weapons).
Excession (fourth book I think?) might be a little confusing on first read but later it will be one of your favorites to go back to.
You’ll be in deep at that point 
If you want confusing on first read, read Anathem, by Neal Stephenson.
It’s pretty damn good if you’re up with your latin root words and can infer.
I quit reading Stephenson when I realized he just can’t write endings.
In other words, after Snow Crash
(the story getting to the ending was amazing though, and Snow Crash had about the best beginning of any book ever!)
Yep, his Achilles heel for sure…
Still, Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon are fantastic reads!
And Anathem is so unique and mind-boggling… I like it especially as it takes on the idea that consciousness is quantum mechanical in nature, and the implications of that in respect to the Many-Worlds Interpretation of QM.
Greg Egan does a very different take on a similar idea in “Quarantine” (here more focused on the Copenhagen Interpretation of QM).
Guitar Zero
A cognitive psychologist starts playing guitar at 40, which leads him to delve into the neuroscience of learning a musical instrument as an adult.
This book continues to be good. So far, he has played bass — a purple Ibanez — with a bunch of eleven year olds in a School of Rock sort of thing, and has mentioned Billie Jean as a particularly tricky song to keep a steady rhythm to.
Stephenson isn’t alone here. Has Michael Crichton ever written a decent ending?
OK, so a surprisingly robust group of sci-fi fans here - leaning toward hard sci-fi and what I would call “respectable if not highbrow” authors - mostly new and British. How about the lowbrow trash? Just plain fun authors/books?
My vote goes to Peter F. Hamilton - Nights Dawn trilogy to start.
I do t read a lot, so I’m limited but Hitchhikers Guide and all the subsequent books have been read many times by me.
“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” -Adams
Amen!
His humor was just so him.
I still answer every question I don’t know the answer to with “42”.
I wouldn’t say Hamilton is trash - just very, very verbose.
“Trash” - I would be thinking David Drake or Fred Saberhagen there. Or non-Dune Herbert. Or for that matter, Heinlein 
Actually Scalzi writes fantastic books in that style. Harry Harrison did too. So did Joe Haldeman.
Outstanding. Hopefully you have read Intervention, Jack the bodiless, Diamond Mask and Magnificat as well.
Slightly more difficult to find is “A Pliocene Companion”. I had no idea they existed until Julian asked me if I had one. She sent me one of hers.
She was a fan of an Orvis 0 weight fly rod, drove a huge Dodge Durango and was very fond of Arby’s and Maine Coon cats.
I have indeed but the original series remains my favorite.
I’ll keep my eyes open for “a pliocene companion”, I wasn’t aware of it so thanks for the headsup.
It is October, so I hope many of you are reading A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny.
It is my Halloween advent calendar. A chapter a day all month. I’ve been doing this every October for years. At this point, make that decades.
This is very important, as it is part of the yearly ritual that keeps the elder things from encroaching.
If you like Adams, should check out the Key to Time series for Doctor Who. (season 16)
Douglas Adams was the script editor for the season and it was pretty bonkers.
