Another installment in the loose Culture series, and one of the better ones at that - not that any of them are bad.

Surface Detail is a story about the dead, on various fronts. As usual, there are multiple storylines which, at first, seem to have nothing in common. Slowly, though, they inch themselves towards each other, until in the end, everything's clear.

Well, as clear as everything can be, this being Culture and all.

As with other Culture novels, Surface Detail has its share of awesome technology, ethics and lack of such, alien races and cryptic encounters. There's plenty of action, but at certain points, also some lull, and some sections are even positively boring. Having said that, this is one of the recently read books that has really glued me to my seat.